At the European Telework Online website

"Telework 1998":
Annual Report from the European Commission

2.3 Priorities in developing Europe’s response

How well will Europe perceive and respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by the network economy? Four things are critical:

1. access by all European enterprises and individuals to high performance Information Society infrastructures at world-competitive costs, as well as to other facilities necessary for freeing work from place and time constraints
2. access is meaningless without possession of the appropriate skills
3. Europe's organisations and enterprises - especially small companies and innovative individuals - must understand the new opportunities and be able to exploit them
4. underpinning all of these, we must develop the experience and know-how that will build confidence in the opportunities instead of fear of the unknown.

These issues are important to the European agenda. They are already being addressed today in many programmes and projects, as described in this document. As section 4 demonstrates, initiatives on social and societal issues have been launched by the Commission in order to involve the social partners and the citizens of Europe in the debate and actions. Awareness activities to involve as many Europeans as possible are underway. Section 5 describes the preparation for the Fifth Framework Programme, where the focus of one specific key action will be on new ways of working and electronic commerce.

These initiatives are contributing to Europe’s progress, not only at the international level, but crucially at local, regional and national levels as well, as section 3 clearly demonstrates. Much is being achieved, but much remains to be done using new approaches as well as existing mechanisms.

In particular, the global dimension is being addressed though the development of a strong network of European Telework Online websites, working both in English and in other national languages, and linked with telework websites world wide. This means that enterprises and individuals in Europe who seek information about telework are made immediately and vividly aware of the global nature of the networked economy and have direct opportunities to connect with work opportunities outside as well as within Europe. However, this resource is – by definition – available only to those who have already made the decision to ’get connected’ to the networks.

A key priority for Europe is now to encourage and assist everyone in the workforce to get connected so that they can learn and understand for themselves and develop the confidence and skills needed for future success.

Return to European Telework Online home page

This html version of the European Commission report is provided and maintained by Marco Colonna, Telework Specialist in the European Telework Online website team.
Please address comments, suggestions and corrections for the status report to editors-tw98@eto.org.uk

This page address: http://www.eto.org.uk/twork/tw98/htmpages/tw98-2.3.htm
Page last updated: 12 October 1998