Brussels, 30/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Commission adopted a communication to the Council and Parliament in the context of the Nice Summit, on progress made towards the accomplishment of aims set by the eEurope programme in the run up to the year 2002. In a press release, it considers that "since its launch in December 1999, the European Commission's eEurope initiative has had a broad impact both in the Member States at a European level and beyond". The same day, it published an inquiry on the use of the Internet, the main results of which were reported in yesterday's EUROPE (p.17). This shows growth of 55% in the use of the Internet over the past six months. The rate of utilisation of the network by European households went from 18% in March to 28% in October.
The Commission said it was pleased with the way things have developed since eEurope was adopted in Feira in June this year. The political impact is considerable and new projects have been launched, such as the connection of more schools to the global network or the setting in place of research networks. It recalls that the employment and social dimension has been strengthened with the recent Commission proposal for the Employment Guidelines 2001, which strengthens the emphasis on ICT-related activities and highlights the need for lifelong learning for the Information Society. It also notes the acceleration of legislative changes: - unbundling of the local loop, and the cutting of red tape on export controls for encryption products. Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for the Information Society, considers such progress is encouraging but recognises that there are still major challenges to face. Among other things, he cites security systems, in the context of the fight against cyber-crime, for which better cooperation at Community level is required. He also advocates strengthening the international dimension of eEurope, mainly through greater collaboration with the candidate countries, all of which show great interest in this area. The report is available at: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/eeurope/documentation/update.