Brussels, 24/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission presented on Wednesday its contribution to the eEurope action plan, with a view to the Feira European Council on 19 and 20 June 2000. Its strategy consists of setting three key objectives to be attained by Member States: i) making internet cheaper, faster and more secure, ii) investing in people and skills, iii) stimulating the use of internet. The Commission would like to see all these elements in place by 2002. In a press release, it notes that the thrust of "this plan is to accelerate legislation, roll out infrastructure and services across Europe and open coordination between Member States - including benchmarking activities by the Commission". Commission President Romano Prodi declared that this document is meant to "address the key barriers to further uptake of the internet in Europe and to ensure that the framework conditions are established for a decisive move towards the new knowledge-based economy".
Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for the Information Society, stated at a press conference that "the key aim of the strategy is to connect everyone to internet, everywhere and at all times, by 2002". In his view, cheaper and faster internet requires unbundling of the local loop and competition at this level, as well as investment in a faster internet for research and students. The eEurope initiative is expected to favour the development of the World Wide Grid, a faster, broad-band system of communication that will facilitate new methods of collaboration. The Commission foresees a Community investment of EUR 300 million in this sector for the years 2001-2002. A faster internet for all will result from the introduction of a framework to encourage massive private investments and to develop new internet technology. The Structural Funds could be used to ensure that remote regions are provided with high quality access. Further, a more secure internet necessitates truly secure networks, software accessible to all and the introduction of multipurpose smart cards so that a single card can be used anywhere in Europe. Concerning the investment in skills, Commissioner Liikanen emphasised the connection of all schools to internet by the end of next year. He noted that "recent statistics show that if schools are connected to internet, families with children acquire the necessary computer hardware". Under the initiative, "all school children will use internet as part of their daily learning; teachers will be trained and the right tools made available to fully exploit the system's potential". Erkki Liikanen also noted that the plan seeks to "close gaps in terms of skills, avoid exclusion from internet and promote access for the disabled".
The Commissioner mentioned three specific uses of internet as the basis for its development: 1) acceleration of the switch to e-commerce by boosting consumer confidence; 2) access to government services in internet time, enabling citizens to interact with their administration in internet time and not in opening hours and without queuing up; 3) the development of health on-line, aimed at bringing together diagnoses and solutions. And Mr Liikanen also mentioned intelligent transport and global networks.
Answering questions, Mr Liikanen brought up another two points:
a) taxation of e-commerce. He favours "tax neutrality", implying that commercial transactions over the net would be taxed identically to other transactions;
b) auctions for the licensing of third-generation mobile phones. For Mr Liikanen, to avoid further delay in development, licences should not be excessively costly. Exaggerated costs seem positive for public coffers in the short term, but are bad for the economy in general.