Brussels, 19/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Thirteen European companies active in the information and telecommunications sectors last week presented a joint initiative aimed at facilitating European investment to boost the development of software and IT products and services. The initiative was supported by the European Commission. The founding companies are: Atos Origin, BT, Engineering, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Nokia, ObjectWeb, SAP, Siemens, Software AG, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Thales, a circle that they hope will then expand to include other companies. This new European technology platform called “NESSI” (Networked European Software and Services Initiative) will benefit citizens directly thanks to perfected new structures that are easier to use and which will also provide greater protection for personal data. The technological environment is in a process of rapid evolution and it is increasingly more and more urgent to find new solutions that give greater universal access to a series of multifunctional services, which should also be more reliable and less costly, the partners say. The project provides for the launching of a EURO 2.5 billion research programme with the support of the Commission under the 7th framework programme, of which EUR 1.25 billion will be funded by industry. The programme will study the concept of new products and new services of use to consumers, business and government administrations. “These services will give access to the knowledge society, thereby contributing to the creation of a Single European Information Space. They will also drive growth for European industry as a whole”, Mr Lepeytre (Thalès) stressed. The project will also promote employment possibilities, added Reinhold Achatz (Siemens), saying: “We estimate that, directly or indirectly, this technology platform will result in the creation or protection of several hundred thousand jobs per year in Europe”. “Software is the engine room of the information economy, and without a competitive European software and services industry we will find our other industrial sectors severely hampered. The proposed common platform, if it creates a stable and secure basis for such services, will be an opportunity for innovative e-services providers to reinforce their position on the global services market and to give them a head start in this new phase of development”, Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for information society and audiovisual policy, was pleased to note.