The expansion of offshore wind energy as well as the increase in electricity trade between the North Sea countries leads to a growing need for additional transmission capacity. Due to the predominantly remote locations of offshore wind farms, the majority of future connections will be high-voltage direct current (HVDC) connections. In order to make the construction of offshore infrastructure more efficient, the North Sea states are currently discussing the development of a common offshore grid. Although this development still stands at the very beginning, we argue in this paper that some crucial elements should be standardized from the outset; the most important one being a common voltage level. Without such standardization, the development of a European offshore grid may be suboptimal, not cost-efficient and might even be prevented from coming into existence. We examine the technical and legal issues associated with introducing a common voltage level for the use of HVDC VSC technology, and discuss the optimal standard as well as the way in which this common standard can best be achieved. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.