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European Telework Online What are Europe's priorities for the Information Society? The free of charge provision of these resources is made possible by our sponsors: What are Europe's priorities for the Information Society? European Commission President Romano Prodi proposed three high level aims and ten main "priority areas" for the Information Society in a statement on 8th December, 1999, which will be considered by the European Council (representing the 15 member states) at a Lisbon meeting in March 2000 and taken forward at a ministerial conference on the Information Society in Lisbon a month later. The Commission invited comments, to be sent by 1st February 2000. Summary of the European Commission statement - below Response by European Telework Online Pole21 - a forum for policy input, organised by eurbit (see message in the Telework Forum archive) Your comments welcome in the Telework Forum The full statement (available online in .pdf format at the Commission's web site - see below) spells out specific targets for each of these priority areas, generally proposing achievement dates in 2001-2002. The Commission has called its new initiative to meet these targets: "eEurope - An Information Society for All" The three high level aims of the initiative are: Bringing every citizen, home and school, every business and administration centre, online and into the digital age. Creating a digitally literate Europe, supported by an entrepreneurial culture ready to finance and develop new ideas. Ensuring that the whole process is socially inclusive, builds consumer trust and strengthens social cohesion. and these are the ten priority areas: European youth in the digital age: bring internet and multimedia tools to schools and adapt education to the digital age. Cheaper internet access: increase competition to reduce prices and boost consumer choice. Accelerating e-commerce: speed up implementation of the legal framework and expand use of e-procurement. Fast internet for researchers and students: ensure high-speed access to internet, thereby facilitating co-operative learning and working. Smart cards for electronic access: facilitate the establishment of Europe-wide infrastructure to maximise uptake. Risk capital for high-tech SMEs: develop innovative approaches to maximise the availability of risk capital for high-tech SMEs. "eParticipation" for the disabled: ensure that the development of the information society takes full account of the needs of disabled people. Healthcare online: maximise the use of networking and smart technologies for health monitoring, information access and healthcare. Intelligent transport: safer, more efficient transport through the use of digital technologies. Government online: ensure that citizens have easy access to government information, services and decision-making procedures online. Commentary European Telework Online staff suggest some points for consideration/discussion: All excellent precepts, if somewhat belated. In general, this is very much in line with the strategy proposed by (then) US Senator Al Gore and adopted by the US Presidency c.1995. Main differences are some Eurospeak (eg "social cohesion") and a subtle change of emphasis. The US has very strongly stated and re-iterated that this stuff is about national competitiveness, global leadership and the future prosperity and strength of the US economy; Europe still prefers a softer (some would say weaker, some would say more balanced!) line. The US current strategy for their equivalent of "fast internet" - the "National Information Infrastructure" - targets a wider range of users, including Industry, health centres etc, as well as "researchers and students". The US is also well ahead of most European countries (and the European Commission itself) in online access to Government; this is thanks to (among other factors) early adoption of aggressive, legally enforceable freedom of information policies. It is interesting that neither the three high level aims nor the ten priority areas mention employment, job creation, or new methods of work. The European Council meeting in Lisbon (23-24 March 2000) carries the label "Towards a Europe of Innovation and Knowledge", with a focus on "Employment, Economic Reform and Social Cohesion". Does the Commission still believe that rapid adoption of the new technologies and methods will result in net job creation? If so, why is this not one of the ten priority areas and not even mentioned? Another missing element at the level of the ten priority areas is social and economic exclusion. As well as people with disabilities, there is a lot of concern about a "digital divide". While many prosper in the Information Society a large minority may well be left behind. For Europe this is a concern at both the micro level (disadvantaged neighbourhoods and regions exist in even the most informationally advanced societies of Scandinavia) and the macro level. Greece currently deploys pro rata only a fraction of the information technology deployed by Denmark and this gap is widening not shrinking, since Denmark spends more pro rata each year to increase the gap. (See European Telework Online EU Statistics and the EITO Report) One wonders whether the urgency of this might be communicated and the commitment of countries increased by also mentioning the large and widening gap between the EU and the USA, as routinely reported by EITO every year since 1956? In the crucial field of education, there is a structural problem. Education budgets across Europe are dominated by "people costs" but in most countries are already stretched. There are two main issues: (a)to deploy anything like the intensity of Information and Communications Technologies that is needed to "adapt education to the digital age" needs a very substantial increase in budgets if we are to also sustain and enhance the numbers and quality of teachers; and (b) this has to accompanied by massive investment in teacher retraining and reorientation. Education remains a matter for national rather than EU policies, but there is little sign of any European government stepping up to this challenge in the immediate future. Sources A press release and the full Commission Statement are available to download in .pdf format from http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg13. Discussion Discussion about the eEurope initiative and European and global priorities is welcome in the Telework Forum. Comments to the Commission were invited - the deadline was 1 February 2000 to eeurope@cec.eu.int.