Luxembourg, 18/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Now the famous telecoms package has been adopted, the Telecommunications Council ended at the beginning of Tuesday afternoon without any big events but with the adoption of a decision revising the current guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks (TEN). The EU's telecoms ministers also reached political agreement on updating the second phase of the Interchange of Data Between Administrations workplan (IDA) and decided on a general approach to the extension of the action plan against illegal and harmful internet content. The Council discussed the management of the internet and the eEUROPE 2005 Action Plan and considered various issues to be presented to the Seville European Summit (see Europe of 15 June, p.13).
Trans-European networks. The decision revising the guidelines (in force since 1997) for TEN-Ts, incorporates all the amendments voted by the European Parliament on first reading, which generally reflected the general guidelines set by the March 2002 Telecommunications Council (see Europe of 25/26 March, p.8). The amendments take account of a special Court of Auditors report on the implementation of the original decision, an independent assessment, technological progress and experience in managing the programme. They cover the European dimension of the projects, taking the strategic priorities of the eEurope Action Plan into account, along with the cut in the number of areas covered by the projects, the deployment of public services and network connection and interoperability.
IDA programme. Ministers reached political agreement over the updating of the Interchange of Data Between Administrations workplan, accepting all the amendments voted by the European Parliament on first reading (see Europe of 15 June, p.16). They will formally adopt the texts once they have been finetuned legally and linguistically. The agreement foresees: the introduction of reference funding of EUR 39.8 million for the 2002-2004 period for the "guidelines" section and EUR 34.2 million for the "interoperability" section; extending the programme to non-EU Member States; taking initiatives like the eEurope Action Plan into account; and changing the comitology.
Illegal and harmful internet content. Awaiting the European Parliament's opinion, the Council set a general guidelines on the draft decision for eSafe (extending the 1999-2002 action plan for two years) for dealing with illegal and harmful Internet content. The proposal aims to co-ordinate national and European initiatives and co-ordination with other Community activity and open the current action plan to candidate countries. It will also adopt the action plan to new internet technology and platforms and Internet services. The Council agreed to a EUR 13.3 million budget to fund activity in the two additional years.
eEUROPE 2005. As expected, the Council held a policy debate on the EUROPE 2005 Action Plan that will be presented to the Seville Summit. In its conclusions, the Spanish Presidency welcomed the Commission's aims and approach noting that given the complexity and the wide scope of the Action Plan, before it comes into force on 1 January 2003, the relevant Council formations should assess the proposed specific actions in terms of feasibility, cost implications and the best way of actually implementing them.
IPv6 internet protocol. The ministers adopted conclusions endorsing the European Commission Communication, recommending a smooth transition to the next generation internet by means of the protocol.
Internet management. Based on information supplied by the Commission, the Council debated the negotiations currently underway in the international arena over the international management of the Internet and ICANN reform. After the meeting, both Ana Birules, the Spanish science and technology minister who was chairing the Council, and Erkki Liikanen, Information Society Commissioner, said that there seemed to be agreement that the consultation committee (of governments and ICANN) is the best way to organise government management of the internet. (The committee in question is a private body.)
As we reported on Saturday 15 June, p.13, the Commission has informed the Council about the commercial use of public sector documents; third generation mobile phones; open platforms and electronic signatures; accompanying measures need to implement changes to telecommunications regulations and progress on the draft directive on e-mail competition.