Brussels, 08/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - Speaking last Friday at the CEPS conference (Centre for European Policy Studies) on the theme "Building on Lisbon" (see EUROPE of 6 May, p.5, on the subject of the speech by the President of the European Council Antonio Guterres), the European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen asserted that the special European Council in Lisbon found the right focus and was able to "create a sense of urgency" over the reforms required. Today I am very optimistic as to the legislation that we will manage to adopt in the time required by the conclusions of the Summit, said Liikanen and, in particular he welcomed: - the wide support of the Telecommunications Council to the new telecommunications regulatory framework proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE of 3 May, p.10); - the adoption of the Directive on electronic commerce, following the adoption by the Parliament of the "dual use" in encryption products, announced Mr. Liikanen. During my recent trip to the United States, he added, my American counterparts where "very interested" by the objectives of the EU concerning "inclusiveness" of the information society; - In the United States the liberalisation of this sector started around five years ago and now policy problems present themselves, he underlined, noting for example that the white citizens are nearly all "connected", blacks in certain cases and the Hispanics very rarely. Following the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit, the Commission will present at the Feira Summit a global action plan called eEurope, reminded Erkki Liikanen.
The President of the European Investment Bank, Philippe Maystadt, indicated what the EIB could do to contribute to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy, underlining that the tasks that the Bank should assume do not necessarily represent an increase in the total loans, but rather they require interventions in the strengthening of the capacity for innovation in Europe. Certain missions that the Heads of State and Government have entrusted to us do correspond to the Bank's "first statutory mission", i.e. regional development and the promotion of social and economic cohesion, noted Mr. Maystadt, for who, in particular, the EIB will enlarge its loan activities in terms of education, so as to contribute to the acceleration of the modernisation of schools, universities and other institution, so as to ensure "electronic literacy" of the most people. The Summit also invited the Bank to diversify its venture capital operations, he noted, recalling that, since it "entered this field", the EIB has undertaken operations of this type for more than a billion Euros and that the European Council asked it to mobilise a second billion. I think that the governors of the Bank, - i.e. the finance ministers - will approve this during their next meeting, added Mr. Maystadt (former Belgian Finance Minster).