Brussels, 15/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission presented a communication in which it outlines how to translate into action the principles approved by UN Member States in Geneva in December 2003. This Communication outlines priorities and proposes actions for the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) agreed in Geneva and is to culminate in a WSIS summit meeting in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005. The Commission believes that the future WSIS work should focus on creating the right policy environment for information society technology applications to flourish, accelerating the take-up of proven applications, e.g. for e-government, e-health, and e-learning, and promoting research in this area. It stresses that it is necessary to finish the work from Geneva on internet governance and financing measures to bridge the digital divide. “The European Commission is committed to continuing the road-map set out by the World Summit on Information Society last year", declared aid Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Olli Rehn, who has just taken over from his compatriot Erkki Liikanenen, adding "We need to focus on bridging the digital divide and work to ensure access to the information society for all so that we have concrete deliverables at the next Summit in Tunis next year”.
The communication of 14 July follows two previous communications: the first outlining the EU approach and the second assessing the results of the Geneva Summit (see EUROPE 24 May 2003), the second also outlines concrete proposals for the second phase for implementing the WSIS Plan of Action (EUROPE 21 February p 11) and following up two unresolved issues from the Geneva Summit: internet governance and financing measures to bridge the digital divide. The Commission also points out that the EU has always advocated focusing on a limited number of priorities for tangible results to be achieved. In this Communication, the Commission therefore proposes that work to implement the Action Plan be organised around three main axes: Create an enabling environment based on eStrategies at all appropriate levels and on pro-competitive legal and regulatory frameworks that encourage investment and innovation; Concentrate on showing applications that work in the areas of eGovernment, eLearning, eHealth and eBusiness; Pay special attention to the research dimension of the Information Society.
The Commission also notes that specific actions for Least Developed Countries need to be developed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The Commission recently approved an “ACP ICT Programme” as a first step towards implementing the “Joint Position on Information Society for Development” signed between the EU and the ACP countries at the Geneva Summit.
The Commission highlights the fact that the Geneva action plan also calls for measures to be taken on horizontal questions. It considers that progress at an international level is necessary on issues such as network and information security, non-solicited messages ("Spam"), the opportunities offered by the different software models and intellectual property rights. Given that these issues have already been examined in other international forums (e.g. intellectual property rights in the context of WIPO - World Intellectual Property Rights), the Commission points out that it would be beneficial to look at what kind of forum could be used for the debate as the WSIS is not necessarily the most appropriate forum for each of them".