Brussels, 14/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a Communication to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to "go digital", in the framework of the eEurope action plan included in the agenda of the Stockholm European Council. The approach is based on a sharing of best practices throughout Europe. The Commission encourages SMEs, one of the eEurope targets, to share their experiences in electronic commerce, with the help of reference centres and information and advice networks established in Europe. It feels that the Internet is a veritable open motorway towards the world market. At present, on average, 42% of SMEs are connected to the Internet and only 20% use the Internet for commercial transactions. The report detects a series of potential barriers from SME transition to the new economy, such as the present instability of certain dot.com companies, the under harmonised regulation, the lack of qualified personnel, the complexity of technological standards and the costs incurred by participation in electronic commerce.
The European Commission proposes three priority lines of action, aimed at: 1) creating an electronic commerce friendly environment and the spirit of entrepreneurship; 2) encouraging electronic commerce by disseminating a maximum of results into research and technological development (RTD) and enabling all sectors to take advantage of it; 3) contributing to the development of knowledge linked to information and communication technologies by remedying the lack of skills in SMEs. The report is available at: http: //europa.eu.int/ISPO/ecommeerce/godigital