Brussels, 09/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Latvian Presidency is determined to complete the final negotiations on the connected continent package with the European Parliament.
It has, therefore, tabled an informal discussion among ministers and with Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger on the two outstanding points - roaming and net neutrality - over breakfast at the next Telecoms Council in Luxembourg on Friday 12 June. The latest trialogue discussions broke down last week (see EUROPE 11328) and the Latvian Presidency is hoping, finally, to find Council and Parliament consensus on a deadline for ending roaming charges.
Ministers are also expected to adopt a general approach on a programme on interoperability solutions for European public administrations, businesses and citizens and take stock of progress on a proposal to make websites more accessible. They will also have the opportunity to express their views on the digital single market strategy adopted by the European Commission on 6 May, following a presentation by Commission Vice President with responsibility for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip. The Council will be called upon, too, to adopt conclusions on the transfer of the stewardship of the functions of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the multi-stakeholder community. These conclusions follow up on those on internet governance adopted by the Council on 27 November 2014.
Connected continent: Coreper (the committee of the permanent representatives of the member states to the EU) will prepare a mandate for the forthcoming trialogue negotiations with the European Parliament at the end of June. The informal ministerial discussions that will take place on Friday will seek to provide an additional shot in the arm and give the Latvian Presidency an opportunity to finalise a balanced agreement between the parties, said a source close to the Presidency, the key issue being setting a date for ending roaming charges. The Latvian Presidency says it hopes the Commission will play its role of facilitator and that Parliament will no longer be content simply to argue its position but will want to be involved in discussions to negotiate a proposal that is acceptable to all.
Digital strategy: to focus discussions on the Commission proposal, the Latvian Presidency has asked ministers to give their views on two points: - whether the strategy covers all the essential points to create a genuine digital single market; - improvements that could be brought to facilitate implementation. A similar debate was held among audiovisual ministers on 19 May and competitiveness ministers on 28 May. The three Council sessions will put their remarks to European Council President Donald Tusk before the European summit of 25-26 June, at which conclusions on the digital strategy are due to be adopted.
Interoperability: the Council will adopt a general approach on the ISA programme, a Commission programme to help member states modernise their administrations and provide interoperable digital services at national and European levels. The second version of the programme (ISA 2) is due to be implemented from 2016 to 2020.
Web accessibility: ministers will take note of progress made on the proposal for a directive to facilitate access to websites. According to the draft directive, accessibility criteria, harmonised across Europe, should be binding for certain types of public sector body websites. The incoming Luxembourg Presidency, it is expected, will conclude this matter and reach agreement with the Parliament. (Isabelle Lamberty)