5 The European Information Society beyond
2005
| (26168)
15177/04
COM(04) 757
| Commission Communication: "Challenges for the European Information Society beyond 2005"
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 19 November 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 30 November 2004
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| Department | Trade and Industry
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 12 January 2005
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| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (25683) 9675/04 : HC 42-xxv (2003-04), para 1 (30 June 2004)
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| Discussed in Council | Telecommunications Council of 9 December 2004
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared, but relevant to any debate on the information society or the Lisbon agenda
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Background
5.1 At the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000, Heads of
State and Government of the European Union launched a strategy
to prepare the EU for the challenges of the new century. The
objectives are higher growth, more and better jobs and greater
social inclusion, with Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) playing a key role in achieving them. As part of the response,
the European Commission launched the eEurope initiative.
The current eEurope Action Plan runs until the end of
2005. The most recent update was debated in European Standing
Committee C on 13 January 2005.
The Commission Communication
5.2 As the Minister for Energy and eCommerce (Mr Mike O'Brien)
puts it, in his very full and helpful Explanatory Memorandum of
12 January 2005, "the present Communication aims to launch
a broad policy debate on an EU Information Society strategy beyond
2005. The result of this debate will be the Commission proposal
for the 2006-2010 e-Europe Action Plan, which will hopefully be
presented to the Luxembourg Telecoms Council in June and adopted
by the UK Presidency at our Telecoms Council in December 2005".
5.3 The main features of the Communication can be
summarised as follows.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF ICT TO THE LISBON GOALS
5.4 The ICT equipment and services sector is an important
sector in its own right: from 4% of EU GDP in the early 90s to
around 8% now; 6% of EU employment in 2004; 18% of EU research
and development spending; average annual productivity growth of
9%; and 40% of overall EU productivity growth. ICT increasingly
forms an integral part of all industrial and service markets.
Empirical evidence suggests Europe's productivity gap with the
USA is to a large extent explained by its weaker investment in
ICT: "the average European performance in realising the
potential of ICT needs to be substantially improved. In a context
where Europe is falling short of the Lisbon goals it is essential
that opportunities of ICT are fully exploited".
THE CONTINUED NEED FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY POLICIES
5.5 The ICT market is increasingly competitive, with
ICT expenditures in China, India and Brazil showing rapid growth.
A strong presence in research and development is essential, with
governments and the EU encouraging and supporting the research
effort of European companies through the creation of a favourable
scientific, financial and entrepreneurial environment. Regulation
will remain crucial to the creation of an environment conducive
to more investment, more innovation, newer services and lower
prices. A concerted effort is needed to identify and implement
solutions that will deal with legitimate concerns while allowing
the full exploitation of the benefits of ICT. With governments
influencing the take-up of ICT through their own procurement policies
and by increasing their offer of on-line services (eGovernment,
eHealth, eLearning, etc.), a comprehensive approach
is needed to exploit the potential of ICT to promote greater efficiency
and effectiveness in the public sector, while tailoring on-line
services to the needs of business and citizens. Quickly changing
standards and tools and their interoperability require constant
specialised attention. Small businesses in particular must have
access to competent, affordable and targeted support services.
ISSUES FOR AN INFORMATION SOCIETY POLICY BEYOND 2005
5.6 The Commission has identified the issues that
it considers relevant for the development of a coherent and forward-looking
European Information Society policy beyond 2005.[16]
CONTENT AND SERVICES
5.7 There are huge market opportunities in the development
of attractive content and services that will benefit both the
users and the economy. However, progress is slow. The EU should
therefore play a proactive role in supporting content providers
and fostering the emergence of innovative services. The development
of new services and content is being slowed down by a variety
of obstacles: regulatory, market place (difficulty in establishing
systems or problems of interoperability), unequal expansion of
high-speed networks fragmenting the consumer-base, situations
of market dominance. The growth of new services and content will
depend on finding adequate solutions to issues that concern both
the public and the private sectors.
EINCLUSION AND CITIZENSHIP
5.8 The policies known as eInclusion aim at ensuring
equal access to and the availability of ICT services for all,
at an affordable cost, with technologies that are easy to use
and provide content and services that prevent new "digital
divides" from opening up.
5.9 These policies are an absolute necessity and
require a substantial research effort that is unlikely to be provided
by the private sector alone. The public sector can provide an
important impetus for addressing these problems. The EU is encouraging
and supporting the research effort in this field through the Framework
Programme.
PUBLIC SERVICES
5.10 The use of ICT in this area aims at improving
the quality of the services provided and at increasing democracy
and transparency. But the accompanying reorganisations are often
difficult to implement; there are also problems related to the
lack of interoperability of many of the services, the diversity
of administrative law and practice between countries and the reliability
and security of networks. Improvements are particularly important
for SMEs, since these are being disproportionally hit by administrative
burdens.
SKILLS AND WORK
5.11 The analysis calls for strengthening the ICT
component during all learning and training processes. The employment
challenges that are reflected in the discussion on the productivity
gap between the US and Europe, and the simultaneous need to respond
to global competitive pressure, require the application of ICT
in the workplace in ways that raise efficiency, improve the quality
of work and provide better jobs, plus a thriving research and
development base.
ICT AS A KEY INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
5.12 The ICT industry is a major economic sector
in its own right. The growth of Asia and Latin America is pulling
production, research and standardisation activities towards these
regions. There is a pressing need to make Europe a more attractive
place to invest and to create high-quality jobs. The Commission
will analyse the sector's competitiveness and propose appropriate
policy measures.
INTEROPERABILITY
5.13 As ICT based applications become more available,
there is an increasing need to make them compatible. Interoperability
has many facets: for network operators, being able to interconnect
with other networks; for content or service providers, being able
to run a service over any suitable platform; for consumers, being
able to purchase a device and use it to access services and download
content from different sources. Governments must follow this
area attentively and may find it necessary to support stakeholders
in their search for common solutions.
TRUST AND DEPENDABILITY
5.14 With the internet beginning to penetrate their
daily life, security, privacy protection, property protection
and general governance (on illegal commercial practices, unsolicited
communications, illegal and harmful content, the protection of
minors) are indispensable for building citizens' confidence in
the Information Society. A further dimension is the dependability
of systems and networks, given the high dependence of the infrastructure
of modern life on ICT.
EXPLOITATION OF ICT BY BUSINESS
5.15 The efficient use of ICT by companies is recognised
as being one of the major factors for improving European competitiveness.
However, with European performance being affected by the large
proportion of SMEs which are still lagging behind larger enterprises
in terms of ICT infrastructure, deployment and level of sophistication
of ICT use, Europe is clearly not investing in productivity-enhancing
ICT as much as the USA.
CONCLUSION OF THE COMMUNICATION
5.16 There is a need to make explicit the huge positive
effects of the Information Society in order to overcome fears
of new technologies and concerns about the increase in the "digital
divide". On the economic side the central issue is not only
to ensure that ICT are more widely adopted, but also how to make
investment in ICT more secure and effective and how to build on
experience in order to spread the benefits more widely. After
a process of reflection and consultation with all key players
over the coming year, the Commission will bring forward a new
policy agenda.
The Government's view
5.17 The Minister summarises the Government's view
as follows:
"This Communication from the Commission is politically
important for the United Kingdom both in the terms of its timing
and content. On the former its importance is that it will form
the basis of the Commission thinking for their propagation of
the eEurope Action Plan 2006-2010 which the UK hope to be in a
position to give endorsement to (possibly in the form of a Council
Resolution) during our Presidency of the EU in the latter half
of 2005. As outlined under 'Context of the Communication' above
we believe the Action Plan will be called for at the European
Spring Council in March 2005 with the adoption of the Plan at
our own Telecommunications Council in December 2005.
"On the latter, in relation to its 'content',
the Communication is important in that it clearly links the use
and deployment of ICT with effect on the wider competitiveness
of the economy and the overall economic growth. This is crucial
as it re-asserts the importance of ICT in the overall Lisbon Agenda
and thus a major component on the drive for enhanced EU competitiveness
with North America and the Asian economies; an important theme
of our Presidency.
"At a level of detail the Communication also
touches on all of the main ICT themes which we also have been
working on in Government and which we also have identified as
being important.
"Examples within the Communication which endorse
the Department of Trade and Industry's own policy imperative include:
Content and Services —
The impressive growth in the provision of Broadband access in
the UK (with a projected penetration of 99% by the end of 2005)
has allowed a greater diversity of content to be delivered on-line.
In addition to entertainment services users are increasingly using
the Internet as both a business and education medium.
Trust and Dependability
— The take-up of on-line services will be partly determined
by the trust that consumers and citizens have in the security
and safety of the Internet. In this vein the DTI continues to
work with business and consumer groups to enhance the awareness
of the need for good information security practice and also with
the supply community to enhance the security of ICT products.
Activities include an active User's Group in relation to the international,
but UK-inspired, Management Security Standard (ISO 17799) and
the production of a biennial Information Security Breaches Survey
(the latest published in 2004).
"We are looking to see greater emphasis placed
on the need for better and intelligent regulation (especially
with regard to emerging technologies) and also some policy analysis
with respect to the development of Next Generation Networks. We
are conscious that the Action Plan needs to be a significant component
of the overall Lisbon Agenda in terms of making a real difference
to productivity and economic growth in the European Union."
Conclusion
5.18 As the Commission notes (and as we saw with
the latest Enterprise Policy Scoreboard),[17]
ICT is central to the EU's inability to close the enduring productivity
gap between the European and US economies. ICT is also a major
force for growth and employment and for the development of a knowledge-based
economy, i.e. for the key components of the Lisbon Agenda. So
we agree with the Minister when he says that, above all, a new
eEurope Action Plan will need to make a real difference. In particular,
we agree that "there is a pressing need in general to make
Europe a more attractive place to invest and to create high-quality
jobs".
5.19 The trick is to focus hard on where action
at European level adds value, and to continue to keep the market
and the industry at the heart of the process. There are areas,
such as increasing take-up by increasing trust and dependability,
where government action is indeed important, so long as it is
in consultation with, and in support of, the industry. But there
are others where it is more doubtful: for example, when the Commission
talks of the EU playing "a pro-active role in supporting
content providers and fostering the emergence of innovative services".
If there are "huge market opportunities in the development
of attractive content and services", then experience suggests
that the market will respond without needing fostering by EU money.
Nor do we see why the substantial research effort that has gone
on is, henceforth, "unlikely to be provided by the private
sector alone". It is with these thoughts in mind that we
look forward to scrutinising whatever proposals emerge from the
process the Communication has launched.
5.20 In the meantime, we clear the document.
16 Also relevant are "eEurope Mid-term
Review" (25399) 6418/04; see HC 42-xvi (2003-04), para 6
(31 March 2004) and "eEurope 2005 Action Plan"
(25683) 9675/04; see HC 42-xxv (2003-04), para 1 (30 June 2004). Back
17
(26135) 14639/04; see HC 38-v (2004-05) para 9 (26 January 2005). Back
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