Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would in fact like to thank all the rapporteurs for their excellent levels of cooperation. We are now giving the Council a clear message, and, hopefully, an impetus no longer to dally in this area. I would like to speak more about the report drawn up by my colleague, Mr Van Velzen. It is a very important start and represents a crucial change in the development of the information society. It is perhaps a good idea to have confidence in the words he spoke, which were truly appropriate. The information society sector is a major employer and a factor which unites us all in Europe as a whole in a completely new way. Its development will bring with it significant economic, political and cultural opportunities. Confidence in the sector, however, has plummeted and we know the reason why, as we have spoken about it so many times. It is the result of auctions and general uncertainty. Although digitalisation and networking offer a wide variety of opportunities for development, they have also led to a worldwide gulf between the people of prosperous countries and developing countries. Furthermore, the gender divide, for example with regard to students, is huge and is particularly pronounced in the rural areas of the Union and in the developing countries. In addition the introduction of information technology has led to the restructuring of job descriptions: many jobs have gone and some middle-aged people have had to give up work. Furthermore, those groups which are in a weaker position are at risk of becoming doubly discriminated against. They are being left outside the information society. I do not see any easy alternatives here: it is our biggest challenge. The network has also become a political implement. It increases opportunities for civil action and hopefully also opportunities for influence. I am pleased with the Commission’s eEurope 2005 Action Plan, as with it we will increase investment, aim to create jobs, and give everyone the opportunity to participate in the information society. I also urge the Commission to speed up the introduction of third generation mobile communications and eliminate the technical and administrative barriers there are in the sector. The Member States themselves should adhere to a flexible approach to the purchase of frequencies and the costs incurred in creating the necessary infrastructure, and do so speedily in a new way. The Member States should offer their citizens sufficient Internet time, which is to say participation in the information society. The Commission should research the possibilities of developing voice-controlled services. These will shortly be available and will make it easier for all of us to use the Internet. I would also ask the Commission to investigate the possibilities of adult education in the sector and whether a general diploma might also be required to move on to the next stages of the technology. Likewise, Member States should support SMEs and help them get online, as they represent major potential for increased employment. Perhaps there would be a need too for funds to be established in the Member States to help socially excluded groups to become integrated into the networked society. In my opinion it is good that the Commission has now established a cybersecurity task force. It is now three years since the Lisbon strategy was created and it has met with political and economic uncertainty. We are seeing developments, but they are not fast enough or adequately coordinated. In the last six years we have seen around a million new jobs created a year, although last year the figure was only around half a million. What sort of economic know-how can be achieved when training, education and research are neglected as much as they are today and many Member States do not observe agreed rules or implement agreed projects? Commissioner, what could you do so that certain Member States do not slow down development in this sector? It might turn out that a number of Member States will establish their own sort of ‘Information Society Europe’ among themselves unless we involve all Member States in this development. Finally I would say that the transference of social information and knowledge to the network in digitised form, which Mr Van Velzen’s report highlighted, will create a completely new stage in the development of the information society. It will create work and opportunities, but problems too. The protection of privacy is not the least of these, but when society’s functions are online we will be in a situation where we can say that the information society has come about insofar as we are all in it together.

Political group: PSE