Brussels, 12/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - With the Barcelona Summit in view, the European Commission adopted the report on Wednesday for the "E-EUROPE 2002" plan, approved at the Summit of Feira in June 2002. In the report, the Commission stresses that the number of those connected to the Internet has increased but a number of problems remain: E-commerce is slowing down; there are serious disparities between countries in the North and South of the EU; training is insufficient etc. Although the balance sheet is inconclusive and does not make any general appeal, it does call on the E-Europe initiative to be continued beyond 2002.
The first observation is that the number of households having access to the Internet increased from 18% in March 2000 to 28% in October 2000 and to 36% in June 2001. Internet use is much more widespread than the figures for those officially connected to the Internet would suggest. Last November more than 50% of those older than 15 were using the Internet at home or at school, work or elsewhere. There is, however, a strong disparity between Member States: figures for the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are higher than 50% - in the Netherlands the figure even exceeds 60%. On the other hand, the figure is only 10% for Belgium, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and Greece, a figure that is far lower than the Community average of (37%). Second observation: with a rate of 90% Internet access, companies (employing more than 10 people) have a far greater level of access than households. More than 60% of companies have their own web-site, with the exception of Portugal where barely two thirds of companies are connected and where only a third of these have their own web-site.
The Commission has emphasised that access prices to the Internet via a normal telephone line have consistently fallen, whereas broad band Internet access is much more expensive and its availability varies considerably from one country to another. Germany has more that 2 million ADSL subscribers, Belgium nearly 500,000 and the United Kingdom 250,000. Broad band access is not available in Greece. The Commission has indicated that possible solutions for rapid access to the web, such as satellite, digital TV, broad band radio or connecting up households via fibre optic cables remains very limited.
Security measures are slow and despite the adoption of a Directive on electronic signatures, this kind of authentication also remains limited.
The Commission has welcomed progress in the linking up of schools to the Internet by the end of 2001. Last May, more than 80% of EU schools were linked up but pupils were still a long way from being able to access it, given that it is often used for administrative ends. The report also points out that more and more people are using Internet at work, with a large number of them never having received any adequate training in Internet use. Differences continue according to social class, one's sex, whether one is unemployed etc.
According to the report, e-commerce is experiencing slow growth with 31% of EU Internet users having made on-line purchases in October 2000, 36% in November 2001 but only 4% of users classifying themselves as frequent on-line purchasers, which is a serious problem indeed for e-commerce. The Commission appears to suggest that this lack of interest in e-commerce us due to the fact that a large numbers of internet users are put off by making on-line purchases because of the high postage and delivery charges. The report believes that greater competition in the postal services will help to cut costs and that consumers will be more inclined to go back to making on-line purchases if they were sure of obtaining compensation in cases of litigation.
The reports points out that this lack of consumer confidence is especially damaging to SMEs because larger companies can take advantage of using their brand names and the image that goes with it. It also stressed that companies that sell on-line are fewer than those that make on-line purchases, probably because of higher on-line costs. In order to buy on the Internet one needs to be connected and have a credit card, whereas for selling, a web-site is needed, together with adequate security measures and the logistical organisation to back it up.
This balance sheet has encouraged the Commission to reach a number of conclusions: to increase internet take-up, greater attention should be paid towards other forms of Internet access (particularly portable means of communication and digital television; it will be necessary to identify the obstacles to the development of e-commerce, which could provide the starting point for better follow-up of the economic impact of the legal framework; the attempt by E-Europe to increase the availability of different access platforms has not greatly progressed; it will be necessary to try and reduce the disparities between Member States; Member States must help in the development of schools towards broad band connections; the Resolution of the Council aiming to create a task force in charge of cyberscurity should be rapidly implemented, it is necessary to increase training and improve Internet access for people from deprived backgrounds. The commission concludes that E-Europe action should be continued beyond 2002 with more emphasis being put on more efficient Internet use.