DECISION No 276/1999/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 January 1999 adopting a multiannual Community action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 129a(2),
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (3),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (4),
(1) Whereas the Internet offers positive benefits in particular in education, by empowering consumers, lowering the barriers to the creation and distribution of content and offering wide access to even richer sources of digital information, as recognised by the Council and the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council on 17 February 1997 in their resolution on illegal and harmful content on the Internet (5);
(2) Whereas, however, the amount of harmful and illegal content carried over the Internet, while limited, could adversely affect the establishment of the necessary favourable environment for initiatives and undertakings to flourish;
(3) Whereas it is essential, in order to ensure that consumers make full use of the Internet, that a safer environment for its use is created by combating illegal use of the technical possibilities of the Internet in particular for offences against children and trafficking in human beings or for the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas;
(4) Whereas consumers should be afforded a high level of protection; whereas the Community should contribute thereto by specific action which supports and supplements the policy pursued by the Member States regarding information for consumers on the safer use of the Internet;
(5) Whereas promotion of industry self-regulation and content-monitoring schemes, development of filtering tools and rating systems provided by the industry and increased awareness of industry services as well as fostering international cooperation between all parties concerned will play a crucial role in consolidating that safer environment and contribute to removing obstacles to the development and competitiveness of the industry concerned;
(6) Whereas on 24 April 1996 the Council requested the Commission to produce a summary of problems posed by the rapid development of the Internet and to assess, in particular, the desirability of Community or international regulation;
(7) Whereas on 23 October 1996 the Commission transmitted a communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on illegal and harmful content on the Internet and a Green Paper on the protection of minors and human dignity in audiovisual and information services;
(8) Whereas the Council and the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, in their abovementioned resolution of 17 February 1997 welcomed the report of the Commission working party on illegal and harmful content on the Internet and requested Member States and the Commission to undertake a number of actions;
(9) Whereas, in its resolution of 24 April 1997 on the Commission communication on illegal and harmful content on the Internet (6), the European Parliament called on the Member States to strengthen administrative cooperation on the basis of joint guidelines and on the Commission to propose, after consulting the European Parliament, a common framework for self-regulation at European Union level;
(10) Whereas in the ministerial declaration adopted during the International Ministerial Conference entitled 'Global information networks: Realising the potential`, held in Bonn on 6 to 8 July 1997 at the initiative of the German Government, Ministers stressed the role which the private sector can play in protecting the interests of consumers and in promoting and respecting ethical standards, through properly functioning systems of self-regulation in compliance with and supported by the legal system; whereas they encouraged industry to implement open, platform-independent content rating systems, and to propose rating services which meet the needs of different users and take account of Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity; whereas ministers further recognised that it is crucial to build trust and confidence in global information networks by ensuring that basic human rights are respected and by safeguarding the interests of society in general, including producers and consumers;
(11) Whereas on 24 September 1998 the Council adopted a recommendation on the development of the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and information services industry by promoting national frameworks aimed at achieving a comparable and effective level of protection of minors and human dignity (7), hereinafter designated recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity; whereas this action plan will be implemented in close coordination with the Council recommendation;
(12) Whereas cooperation from the industry in setting up voluntary systems of self-regulation can efficiently help to limit the flow of illegal content on the Internet;
(13) Whereas European coordination of representative and self-regulating bodies is essential for the Europe-wide effectiveness of such systems; whereas, to this effect, industry self-regulatory systems including representative bodies for Internet service providers, consumers and users, and effective codes of conduct should be encouraged within the regulatory framework in force; if necessary hot-line reporting mechanisms which allow users to report content which they consider illegal should be made available to the public;
(14) Whereas any hot-line reporting mechanisms should support and promote measures taken by the Member States; whereas duplication of work should be avoided; whereas possible hot-line reporting mechanisms could be established in cooperation with the law-enforcement authorities of the Member States; whereas the responsibility for prosecuting and punishing those responsible for illegal content should remain with the national law-enforcement authorities;
(15) Whereas it is necessary to promote on a European level the provision to consumers of filtering tools and the setting up of rating systems, for example the platform for Internet content selection (PICS) standard launched by the international World Wide Web consortium with Community support;
(16) Whereas awareness activities which are performed in the Member States and which should have an additional European value should be encouraged so that users understand not only the opportunities but also the drawbacks of the Internet, in order to increase use of services provided by industry; whereas parents, educators and consumers, in particular, should be sufficiently informed so as to be able to take full advantage of parental control software and rating systems; whereas there should be a multiannual action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet ('action plan`);
(17) Whereas it is essential to engage in cooperation activities with international organisations and third countries for the purpose of implementing this action plan and extending its reach beyond the European Union, given the global character of the problems encountered on the Internet, requiring global solutions;
(18) Whereas any content policy actions should be complementary to ongoing national and Community initiatives, as outlined notably in the Commission's action plan 'Europe's way to the information society: an action plan`, and should be performed in synergy with other Community activities in the field such as the INFO 2000 programme (8), with Community research programmes (programmes concerned with advanced technology, advanced communications services and telematics) and with Community education, training, cultural and SME actions and initiatives, and with the Structural Funds;
(19) Whereas the activities under this action plan should take account of the work accomplished in the field of justice and home affairs;
(20) Whereas the progress of this action plan should be continuously and systematically monitored with a view to adapting it, where appropriate, to developments in the audiovisual and multimedia content market; whereas in due course there should be an independent assessment of the progress of the action plan so as to provide the background information needed in order to determine the objectives for subsequent content policy actions; whereas at the end of this action plan there should be a final assessment of results obtained compared with the objectives set out in this Decision;
(21) Whereas, in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity as expressed in Article 3b of the Treaty, the objectives of the proposed actions cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States owing to the transnational character of the issues at stake and can, therefore, by reason of the pan-European effects of the proposed action be better achieved by the Community;
(22) Whereas this action plan should be of four years duration in order to allow sufficient time for actions to be implemented to achieve the objectives set;
(23) Whereas this Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the action plan, a financial framework constituting the principal point of reference, within the meaning of point 1 of the Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and Commission of 6 March 1995 (9), for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
1. The multiannual Community action plan on promoting safer user of the Internet ('the action plan`), as described in Annex I, is hereby adopted.
2. The action plan shall cover a period of four years from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2002.
3. The financial framework for the implementation of the action plan for the period from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2002 is hereby set at EUR 25 million.
The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial perspective.
An indicative breakdown of expenditure is given in Annex II.
Article 2
The action plan has the objective of promoting safer use of the Internet and of encouraging, at European level, an environment favourable to the development of the Internet industry.
Article 3
In order to attain the objective referred to in Article 2, the following actions supporting and promoting measures to be taken in the Member States shall be undertaken under the guidance of the Commission, in accordance with the action lines set out in Annex I and the means for implementing the action plan set out in Annex III:
- promotion of industry self-regulation and content-monitoring schemes (for example, dealing with content such as child pornography or content which incites hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion, nationality or ethnic origin),
- encouraging industry to provide filtering tools and rating systems, which allow parents or teachers to select content appropriate for children in their care while allowing adults to decide what legal content they wish to access, and which take account of linguistic and cultural diversity,
- increasing awareness of services provided by industry among users, in particular parents, teachers and children, so that they can better understand and take advantage of the opportunities of the Internet,
- support actions such as assessment of legal implications,
- activities fostering international cooperation in the areas enumerated above,
- other actions furthering the objective set out in Article 2.
Article 4
1. The Commission shall be responsible for the implementation of the action plan.
2. The procedure laid down in Article 5 shall apply to:
- the work programme including any expenditure on activities described in Annex III, point 9,
- the breakdown of the budgetary expenditure,
- the criteria and content of calls for proposals,
- the assessment of the projects proposed under calls for proposals for Community funding and the estimated amount of the Community contribution for each project where this is equal to or more than EUR 300 000,
- the measures for programme evaluation,
- any departure from the rules set out in Annex III,
- participation in any project by legal entities from third countries and international organisations referred to in Article 7(3),
- other actions which could be undertaken under the terms of the last indent of Article 3.
3. Where, pursuant to the fourth indent of paragraph 2, the amount of the Community contribution is less than EUR 300 000, the Commission shall inform the committee referred to in Article 5 of the projects and of the outcome of their assessment.
4. The Commission shall regularly inform the committee referred to in Article 5 of progress with the implementation of the programme as a whole.
Article 5
The Commission shall be assisted by a committee composed of representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the Commission.
The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by the majority laid down in Article 148(2) of the Treaty in the case of decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the representatives of the Member States within the Committee shall be weighted in the manner set out in that Article. The chairman shall not vote.
The Commission shall adopt the measures envisaged if they are in accordance with the opinion of the committee.
If the measures envisaged are not in accordance with the opinion of the committee, or if no opinion is delivered, the Commission shall without delay submit to the Council a proposal relating to the measures to be taken. The Council shall act by a qualified majority.
If, on the expiry of a period of three months from the date of referral to the Council, the Council has not acted, the proposed measures shall be adopted by the Commission.
Article 6
1. In order to ensure that Community aid is used efficiently, the Commission shall ensure that actions under this Decision are subject to effective prior appraisal, monitoring and subsequent evaluation.
2. During implementation of projects and after their completion the Commission shall evaluate the manner in which they have been carried out and the impact of their implementation in order to assess whether the original objectives have been achieved.
3. The selected beneficiaries shall submit an annual report to the Commission.
4. At the end of two years and at the end of the action plan, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, once the committee referred to in Article 5 has examined it, an evaluation report on the results obtained in implementing the action lines set out in Annex I. Reference shall also be made to general findings applicable to all categories of illegal content. The Commission may present, on the basis of those results, proposals for adjusting the orientation of the action plan.
Article 7
1. Participation in this action plan may be opened to legal entities established in EFTA States which are members of the European Economic Area (EEA) in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on the EEA.
2. Participation may be opened to legal entities established in associated central and eastern European countries in accordance with the conditions, including financial arrangements, agreed to in the additional protocols to the Association Agreements, including participation in Community programmes.
Participation may be opened to legal entities established in Cyprus on the basis of additional appropriations in accordance with the same rules as those applied to the EFTA States that are members of the EEA, in accordance with procedures to be agreed on with that country.
3. Participation may be opened, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 5, without financial support by the Community under this action plan, to legal entities established in other third countries and to international organisations, where such participation contributes effectively to the implementation of the action plan and taking into account the principle of mutual benefit.
Article 8
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 25 January 1999.