3 Digital content programme
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6431/04
COM(04) 96
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| Draft Decision establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable
Commission Staff Working Paper Ex ante Evaluation: Multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable (eContentplus) (2005-2008)
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| Legal base | Article 157(3) EC; co-decision; QMV
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| Document originated | 13 February 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 24 February 2004
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| Department | Trade and Industry
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 8 March 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; progress report requested
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Background
3.1 The existing eContent programme runs for a four-year
period up to January 2005. Its objective is to stimulate the production,
use and distribution of European digital content on global networks,
by encouraging the growth of a competitive EU digital content
industry. The mid-term evaluation was generally positive. One
of the main recommendations to the Commission was that the commercial
dimension of the projects should be emphasised.[3]
The Commission proposal
3.2 The proposal is for a Decision to establish a four-year programme,
to be called eContentplus, which would build on,
but not replicate, the eContent programme. Its overall
aim is to make digital content in the EU more accessible, usable
and exploitable, facilitating the creation and diffusion of information
and knowledge, in areas of public interest.
3.3 The programme focuses on the end-users, whether
citizens, students, researchers, businesses or re-users of documents
wishing to enhance and exploit digital content resources for economic
return. It aims to broaden choice, and its overall emphasis is
on quality content that serves to disperse information
and diffuse knowledge, not just more content. The use of
metadata[4] to improve
the quality of the content — "content enhancement"
— is considered an essential element to guarantee interactivity,
re-usability and interoperability[5]
of content. It will facilitate the creation of content tailored
to specific contexts such as education and culture. It can contribute
to tackling issues such as searchability, composability, re-usability,
authentication, multilinguality, data protection and digital rights
across distributed collections of content.
3.4 The Commission says that the proposal has both
social and economic aims. The social aims relate to areas where
market forces are not sufficient to ensure that citizens and user
organisations can benefit from content offerings made accessible
by the latest technologies. The purpose is to facilitate broader
availability of re-usable and interoperable quality content. It
covers areas of public interest such as public sector information,
learning content, scientific and scholarly content, and content
from cultural institutions.
3.5 The economic aim is to help establish conditions
for greater economic return from content-based services. Effective
use of the latest technologies in their products and service offerings
can give companies a decisive competitive edge in the global economy.
Special emphasis will be placed on spatial data[6]
addressing interoperability issues. This is a particularly acute
problem because the collection of spatial data is technology-dependent.
It is derived from, for instance, remote sensing and mapping
and is particularly vulnerable to technical fragmentation. According
to the Commission this has held back the growth of some 6000 organisations,
public and private, in the EU.
3.6 The programme has three operational goals:
- Facilitating access to European
digital content;
- Improving quality by facilitating best practice
related to digital content; and
- Reinforcing co-operation and awareness between
digital content stakeholders.
3.7 The programme will finance projects designed
to improve tools, processes and services related to the production,
access, use and distribution of digital content. It will support
the emergence of pan-European frameworks and will target public
sector information, spatial data, learning and cultural content.
The proposed reference amount is €163 million, compared
to €100 million for eContent, covering a period of
four years (2005-2008).
The Government's view
3.8 The Minister for Energy, e-Commerce and Postal
Services at the Department of Trade and Industry (Mr Stephen Timms)
says that the Government agrees that the areas addressed by the
proposal are major and important ones. Public sector information,
particularly geographical, educational and cultural information,
are important resources for industry and important parts of the
eEurope agenda. However, the Minister says:
"The case made by the Commission in their Explanatory
Memorandum for a new programme in this area is not compelling.
There is little, if any, persuasive argument (or evidence) that
action is needed by the public sector at any level, including
the European. Although it is acknowledged that the production
of content products as such should be left to the market, no reasons
are given as to why the market will not address the requirements
of major categories of users identified as the target/beneficiary
of the proposed programme, and develop the metadata and interoperability
required.
"The impression is left that, because the eContent
programme was approved and has been positively evaluated, there
is a strong presumption that there should therefore be a follow-on
programme. The Government is not convinced by this logic. However,
at present, there appears to be little sympathy from other [Member
States] for a cessation of EU-level funding in this policy area
once the current eContent programme finishes. Therefore,
the Government will seek to limit the programme to an appropriate
scope and scale in Working Group negotiations."
3.9 On the financial implications of the proposal,
the Minister comments in some detail:
"Under the Commission's proposal, the programme
would run from 2005 to 2008 with a total budget of €163 million.
The programme would be wholly funded from the EC budget, to which
the UK makes an annual contribution (in 2004, the UK contribution
will be 17.7% before abatement).
"While the Government is content with the proposed
annual expenditure on the programme in 2005 and 2006 (at €27.5
million and €28.1 million respectively, this represents a
modest decrease compared with the Commission's most recently published
programming), it has concerns about the post-2006 commitments.
Principally, this is because agreeing commitments now would prejudice
the ongoing negotiations on the next Financial Perspective. Additionally,
post-2006, the annual budget for the programme will show a substantial
increase (to €45.3 million in 2007 and €62.1 million
in 2008) compared to the present. Little argument has been put
forward for the increased reference amount of funding. The suggestion
is that the previous programme, with a budget of €100 million
over four years, lacked focus. However, no strong case [is] made
that a more focussed programme, which the proposal professes to
be, needs a budget of €163 million, considerably in excess
of the increase in GDP of the EU following accession. It is true
that the costs of linguistically and culturally customising content
will increase over the base rate of inflation and GDP growth,
but the increase seems excessive.
"To counter both these concerns, [the] Government
believes that the programme should ideally be limited to a two-year
duration. If the UK does not find enough support among other Member
States for shortening the programme it will instead push for wording
that will allow post-2006 commitments to be set only when the
outcome of the Financial Perspective negotiations is known."
3.10 The Minister says that it is not yet clear what
the timetable will be for the proposal. The rapporteur of the
European Parliament's Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research
and Energy (Mr Van Velzen) has told the Presidency that he is
anxious for the proposal to be dealt with as rapidly as possible
and that he is aiming for his report to be adopted by the Committee
on 6 April and by the European Parliament Plenary on 23 April.
We note that in his report, which was published on 5 March,
several amendments are proposed which recognise the need for the
expenditure proposed from 2007 to be consistent with the Financial
Perspective for that period.
3.11 The Minister comments that, given the UK Government's
reservations on the justification and funding of the programme,
it is unlikely that it will agree to rush the proposal through.
It is likely that there will be a gap between the eContent
programme and any successor.
Conclusion
3.12 It is all too easy for EC programmes to become
institutionalised, and we welcome the Government's decision to
challenge the need for a new programme in this area. There is
a tendency for the Council to be too ready to call for and to
endorse action by the public sector to improve competitiveness
in the EU, but a convincing case must be made for the activities
proposed to be supported by public money. The fact that the earlier
programme was positively evaluated certainly does not on its own
amount to a convincing case for further EU funding.
3.13 We also agree that the Government should
ask why the Commission is seeking a substantial increase in the
annual budget for the programme in 2007 and 2008. We, too, wish
to be satisfied that this increase is justified.
3.14 We ask the Minister to report on the progress
of negotiations on this proposal. Meanwhile, we shall hold the
document under scrutiny.
3 (24957) 13644/03; see HC 63-xxxvi (2002-03), para
13 (5 November 2003). Back
4
Metadata (data about data) is information added to a document
which describes it. It can cover many categories, such as background,
context, content type, format, language, user rights and copyright. Back
5
The ability to combine information and functionality from different
systems across different organisations, applications or platforms.
This is fundamental to attaining the full potential of distributed
systems such as the World Wide Web. But to achieve it, content
must be enriched with metadata that is well-defined. Back
6
Information that combines geographical location with other data.
It is embedded in up to 80% of all data held in public sector
institutions and can be exploited to support areas such as transport,
community development, environmental management and emergence
responses. Back
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