Brussels, 27/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Telecommunications Council on Thursday 27 November examined the draft directive on access to public sector websites. The Italian Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Antonello Giacomelli, was pleased that, “we were able to notice unanimous progress being made; the Council decided to provide a new boost to this dossier. It is important that the work is finished and we reach a conclusion soon… The Latvian Presidency will be able to finalise the dialogue with the European Parliament”. The Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, Günther Oettinger, added, “this proposal will help make public service websites comply with common standards. I hope that an agreement with the EP will be obtained as soon as possible”.
The draft directive includes harmonised access criteria at an EU level, which will become binding for certain kinds of public sector websites. The aim is to facilitate public use of content on the site, particularly for people with disabilities and senior citizens. The workgroups at the Council introduced several amendments to the initial Commission proposal, particularly by extending the scope to all public sector websites but not to sites created by private undertakings. (IL)