Luxembourg, 27/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Luxembourg on 27 June under the presidency of Jean-Louis Schiltz, ministers adopted conclusions on two points on the agenda:
The world summit on information society (in Tunis on 16-18 November) is expected to reach a consensus on two essential questions that did not get an acceptable answer at the Geneva meeting at the end of 2003: internet governance and financial mechanisms that allow for a reduction in the digital divide between developed and developing countries. 1) During the final press conference Schiltz explained that “in internet governance, it is essential that governments guarantee internet stability and security”. He said that adopting the conclusions meant that the Council had elaborated guidelines on internet governance indicating that the EU “is speaking with a single voice” on the issue. The Council supports the principle that current internet governance should be built and they should not start reinventing. They should base the initiative on ICAM (the body managing standards in this area at a world level), the actors involved and governments that have a role in internet management, notably security aspects which need to be better defined. Mr Schiltz added that, “this means making governance international by involving all partners and governments in charge of security, the private sector, civil society and international organisations. We have to build on what already exists by taking more into account the principles of security, sustainability and the robustness of our systems. This is the role governments have to play”. After an exchange of views which set France (followed by Spain), which wanted stricter controls, against the United Kingdom (supported by the Baltic countries and Italy), favourable for a more subtle model, the Twenty Five underlined the need for a new subtle and lighter cooperation model, based on the current private-public partnership and bottom-up approach, which provided a platform for political dialogue in the interest of all governments and allow for action and rapid responses without obstacles and administrative problems, explain the Council conclusions. Mr Schiltz explained that, “we don't want the creation of a administrative dinosaur, incapable of moving or taking swift action”. The EU therefore want the setting up of a subtle body accountable to the UN General Assembly to respond to political questions on internet governance; its position will be finalised in discussions at the preparatory committee in Geneva on 19-30 September. 2) On financial mechanism of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development, the Council pointed out its attachment to the Tunis Summit “really taking into account that ICT is a significant component in development and that it is fully used in this context”, insisted Mr Schiltz, adding that there were financial resources available and that they needed to be used.
“i2010 - presented on 1 June 2005 by Commissioner Viviane Reding, which will take over from the eEurope action plan for five years and which seeks to establish the information society and new technologies in a global framework for market evolutions, which is seeing increasing platform convergence. Ministers gave” a warm welcome to the action plan. Commissioner Reding explained to the press (EUROPE 8959°that the first Commission programme was to try and demonstrate the way forward for reaching the Lisbon objectives, the real driving force for growth and jobs, which had to be based on the ICT sector which represented more than 8% of EU GDP. The Council therefore believes that the e2010 initiative is a suitable basis for formulating at a national level, policies in the ICT sector that will contribute to the realisation of the Lisbon objectives.
Ms Reding pointed out to ministers the responsibility that Member States had for implementing the single European emergency number (112) “which should be available to the public everywhere in Europe to save lives”. Reding stressed that unfortunately, this was not the case and that the introduction of the number 112 was an “obligation. I am going to make this obligation become a reality in Member States”, she added, announcing that in September she would be examining progress before “taking drastic measures, if necessary for the services to be set up”.