Strasbourg, 13/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report of Bill Newton Dunn (ELDR, United Kingdom) on Tuesday, the European Parliament has agreed to the Commission's proposal to extend the Community action plan on safer Internet use and the fight against illicit messages, by two years (until 31 December 2004). MEPs, nevertheless, adopted some amendments to the Commission's text. They particularly underline that, "above all, the aim to improve protection of children and minors", the action plan should also cover "new on-line technology, including mobile telephones and broad band, on-line games, station to station transfers, text and enhanced messages, as well as all forms of real-time communication such as chat rooms and instant messages". Parliament also wants to include candidate countries in the projects whenever possible, "aiming for a safer use of Internet and… wants to share experience, know-how, cooperation possibilities with similar activities carried out in third countries, especially countries where illegal content is present as a product". The EP also agrees with the Commission for EU funding for specific projects that could develop European standards for calibrating software and scrambling services. An amendment also envisages additional aid to be granted for encouraging the creation of quality site labels.