Brussels, 22/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Telecommunications Council adopted the Community multi-annual programme eContent, which aims to encourage the development and use of European digital content on world networks, as well as promoting linguistic diversity in the information society. The programme will have a budget of 100 million euro, spread over four years from 2001 to 2004. This amount is lower than the Commission's initial proposal, which was 150 million over five years. The cut responds to the demands of four countries (Germany, Austria, Britain and the Netherlands).
Stressing the importance of the stakes, notably for culture and education, the text adopted recalls that four million people in Europe work in the sector of digital content. This is in line with the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit that places emphasis on "the need to bridge the digital divide in the information society and strengthen social cohesion".