Brussels, 08/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Transport and Telecommunications" Council adopted as planned (see EUROPE of 6 March, p.12) a raft of conclusions on the development of the information society in an enlarged Europe at a meeting on Monday chaired by Dermot Ahern. After evaluating the implementation of the eEUROPE 2005 programme and the e-communications situation in Europe, the ministers looked at additional recommendations from the European Commission to fight spam. They also backed the Commission analysis on the follow-up of the World Summit on the Information Society (SMSI). Mr Ahern pointed out the upturn that seems to be felt by the IT sector and with Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, welcomed the taking off of broadband throughout Europe. Mr Ahern said that all the delegations were convinced of the major contribution of IT to sustainable growth. He added that the Irish Presidency of the EU is ready to explore all possibilities for cooperation with the US to fight spam and invited its European partners to take up this cause.
Council conclusions on the mid-term review of eEUROPE 2005 highlight the areas that will need special attention from the Commission when it updates the action plan, expected in June. In essence this involves moving towards a demand-oriented approach focusing on the supply of quality services, bolstering the pan-European character of the initiative and the need to foster conditions favourable to the creation of quality content. The conclusion also concentrated on interoperability, multi-platform access in the different areas of the action plan and the evaluation of the impact of electronic services and broadband on increases in productivity. As regards electronic communications in Europe, the Council highlighted the importance of effectively transposing the new regulatory framework and developing of broadband, coupled with the supply of new, high-quality services on high speed networks.
To fight spam, ministers agreed with the Commission on the need to shore up Community legislation by adopting additional measures (self-regulation, awareness and technical measures). The conclusions underline the importance of international cooperation and technical solutions to fight spam. The Commission is invited to explore funding possibilities under the framework of Community programmes. Finally, the Council stressed the importance of good coordination between Member States and the Commission, with a view to preparing the second phase of SMSI (Tunis, November 2005), inviting them to collaborate closely on the question of Internet governance and the funding of "digital solidarity".