A4-0045/97

Resolution on the Commission's Green Paper on Living and Working in the Information Society: People First (COM(96)0389 - C4-0522/96)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission's Green Paper on Living and Working in the Information Society: People First (COM(96)0389 - C4-0522/96),

- having regard to the Commission's White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment (COM(93)0700 - C3-0509/93),

- having regard to the recommendations to the European Council: 'Europe and the global information society' (COM(94)0347 - C4-0093/94),

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: 'Europe's way to the information society: an action plan' (COM(94)0347 - C4-0093/94),

- having regard to its resolution of 30 November 1994 on the recommendations to the European Council: 'Europe and the global information society' and the communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: 'Europe's way to the information society: an action plan' ((OJ C 363, 19.12.1994, p. 33.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 September 1996 on 'Europe and the global information society - Recommendations to the European Council' and the communication from the Commission: 'Europe's way to the information society: an action plan' ((OJ C 320, 28.10.1996, p. 164.)),

- having regard to its relevant resolution of 21 June 1996 ((OJ C 198, 8.7.1996, p. 248.)) and the Council Decision of 21 November 1996 on the adoption of a multiannual programme to promote the linguistic diversity of the Community in the information society ((OJ L 306, 28.11.1996, p. 40.)),

- having regard to the conclusions of the G7 ministerial conference in Brussels on 25 and 26 February 1995 on the information society,

- having regard to the report of the high-level group of experts of February 1996: 'Building the European information society for us all',

- having regard to the report of the Forum on the Information Society,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinions of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy, the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media and the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights (A4-0045/97),

A. whereas the concept of the 'information society' is a source of confusion and whereas it must be defined on the basis of a view of the values which should underlie that society and a clear distinction between information and knowledge,

B. in the belief that there must be a political will at local, regional, national and European level to create a socially just information society, based not only on the needs of its citizens but also on responsibilities in an international context,

C. whereas the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) should be tailored to human needs so that they can make a genuine contribution to improving the quality of life of everyone and to participation by citizens at all levels,

D. taking the view that there should be a cheap basic supply of, and easy access to, non-commercial electronic information services in the same way as basic news, entertainment and cultural products are supplied by public broadcasting corporations and cheap access to books and documents is provided by public libraries,

E. taking the view that the Green Paper: 'Living and working in the information society: People first' fails to put people first and lays a one-sided emphasis on work, jobs and the competitiveness of the economy,

F. taking the views that the Commission has not taken sufficient account of the advice of the Forum on the Information Society and the high-level group of experts,

G. taking the view that the Green Paper ignores, for no good reason, the importance of reduction and adaptation of working time for the purpose of creating jobs in the information society , even though the Green Paper itself states that job growth has averaged 0.3% for many years while the working population has grown by 0.6%,

H. considering that the information society therefore requires flanking measures aimed at the (re)integration of the long-term unemployed, particularly by means of education and the expansion of the tertiary sector,

I. believing that the reform of European social legislation should provide possibilities for new models of social security which will take into account the new working patterns in the information society which strike a balance between flexibility and security, which will not be at the expense of the position of working people,

J. whereas the information society may promote an uncontrolled increase in working at home, which could exacerbate the problems of inequality and insecurity for women and could result in them doing several jobs at once,

K. whereas the information society, globalization, unemployment and pollution of the environment make it necessary to take a fresh look at the taxation of production and consumption,

L. taking the view that the pressure of the EMU convergence criteria and the necessary efforts to achieve stability make it all the more difficult to provide a solid foundation for the information society with a social basis,

M. taking the view that the concept of 'lifelong learning' and a 'learning society' must not be confined to 'learning for work' and that consideration should be given to all the prospects which ICTs afford people in terms of personal and social development and participation in cultural, social and political life,

N. taking the view that unless there are clear agreements on the provision of universal services, liberalization of the telecommunications market will pose a threat to regional and social cohesion,

O. taking the view that the public sector must play a leading role in making backward peripheral, ultraperipheral and under-developed regions more attractive to private investors, including SMEs, both in terms of training the local population and improving the infrastructure,

P. convinced that a coherent and democratic information society can only be created if people are persuaded of the value of the available ICTs, have the skills to use them and enjoy equal access to them,

Q. whereas libraries continue to have an important role in securing the citizen's right of democratic access to information, by guaranteeing equality, ensuring the availability of information and guiding users in handling ICT equipment and accessing information,

R. taking the view that too little attention is paid in the Green Paper to immigrants and ethnic minorities who are already on the margins of society, suffering from large-scale unemployment, and who run the risk of being still further marginalized in the information society,

1. Calls on the Commission to make its action programme on the social impact of the information society as complete and balanced as possible, while making full use of the input from the Forum on the information society, the high-level group of experts, the European Parliament and the results of the social and political dialogue on the Green Paper;

2. Welcomes the Commission's efforts through its Green Paper to respond to the European initiatives on employment, as spelled out by the Essen European Council, and supports the efforts to make better use in this connection of the Structural Funds, but notes in this connection the need to introduce a system of indicators as a basis for negotiations with the Member States and project leaders;

3. Calls on the Commission to opt for a more integrated approach to the whole field of the Information Society as opposed to its former strategy of issuing a wide variety of communications, and expresses its disappointment that Commissioner Wulf-Mathies' recent report on 'Cohesion and the Information Society' (COM(97)0713) also failed to meet this expectation;

4. Calls on the Commission, the social partners and the Member States to take legal steps which will guarantee that existing legislation and fundamental rights are also applicable in the information society, and which cope with the new developments through supplementary provisions;

5. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to draw up a European framework for a reduction and adaptation of working time, so that there is an improved prospect of a fair distribution of work within the information society and more scope for training facilities;

6. Calls on the Commission to give priority, in modernizing the contractual framework of working life, to the needs of working people, and calls also on the two sides of industry, when engaged in consultations on 'atypical work', to take account of the requirements of the information society and to play a pioneering role in developing such a framework;

7. Calls once again on the Commission to submit a proposal, before the end of the year, on teleworking which will cover all aspects of social security, health and safety, privacy and fiscal aspects, and calls on the Commission to initiate talks, within the WTO, on preventing social dumping in order to lay the basis for being able to promote teleworking confidently in the European Union;

8. Calls on the Commission to continue, and intensify, its efforts to achieve a common, innovative fiscal policy, so that the current burden on labour can be reduced and to some extent shifted to other areas, and to carry out a study of alternative forms of taxation in the global information society;

9. Asks the Commission to develop the economic potential and to secure a fair competitive environment in the field of cable infrastructure, satellites and radio access by strongly supporting a 'European¨ standardization;

10. Emphasizes that access to the networks is of prime importance in the information society and that non-discrimination, interoperability, protection of privacy and non-impediment by language differences should be considered as basic principles;

11. Calls on the Commission, in conjunction with the competent authorities in the Member States, to investigate whether it is possible, within European educational projects, to introduce the concept of a 'diploma with a maintenance contract' which would enable persons completing a course of study to update their know-how and skills at regular intervals, and to encourage the Member States to introduce this idea;

12. Considers that the introduction of new technologies into the classroom should be undertaken in a planned manner according to educational goals and objectives, rather than being technology-led, paying due attention to the essential role of the teacher, social aspects, curriculum and teaching methods. A study needs to be undertaken as to the impact of introducing new technologies into education, for different age groups;

13. Appeals to the two sides of industry and the Member States to commit themselves to more binding objectives on education; calls in this connection on the two sides of industry to accept responsibility for the training of workers within the information society, and calls on the Member States to introduce schemes for small businesses wishing to give their workers further training and for self-employed persons who want to update their know-how and skills; recalls that universities may be able to play a useful role in the sphere of training of workers for the Information Society;

14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop an Information Society education and training policy which will ensure that young people in education can obtain concrete work experience as quickly as possible within a flexible work training system, and which takes account of all the new skills needed to participate fully in the Information Society, not only in the context of work but also and in particular in daily life;

15. Points to the fact that the ever growing mass of data makes education and training necessary which not only enables citizens to manipulate the new technologies but also to select and analyse wisely the data provided; calls on the Commission to supplement and finalize its proposals on lifelong learning and retraining in the light of the new analytical skills required;

16. Appeals to the Commission to take account, in its proposals for liberalizing telecommunications, of a dynamic concept of the universal provision of service, so that peripheral and ultraperipheral regions are not put at an economic and social disadvantage and operators on the telecommunications market are subject to specific conditions for supplying their services to specific institutions and/or sections of the population;

17. Expects therefore that the Member States will ensure that there are guarantees that as a result of this liberalization process not only the urban centres but also rural areas are connected via this technology and that there will be a financial adjustment between the regions equipped with this technology and those still waiting to be connected;

18. Appeals to the Commission and the Member States to launch a computer literacy campaign in which mainly young people familiar with computers pass on their skills and knowledge to the rest of the population, in particular sections of the population which are not easy to target through education or training, such as young unemployed persons, immigrants, housewives and also the elderly for whom computer networks can offer new prospects and options in their lives, and proposes that persons who make their skills available in this field should be rewarded for example with a 'voucher' entitling them to update their know-how and skills;

19. Calls on the Commission to create, through harmonization and other Treaty instruments, modern and essential legislation on media and communication which, in view of the increasing convergence of the media and accelerating horizontal and vertical integration, will safeguard the following: pluralism in information, competition and cultural diversity, comprehensive universal services, transparent tariffs, security of data networks, informational self-determination, youth protection, copyright, and uniform or coordinated supervisory standards and authorities for all media;

20. Calls on the Commission, in its action plan, to take account in particular of the situation of girls and women, both as regards special emphasis on education and training, and in connection with employment and new forms of working, to prevent the Information Society from leading to new inequalities of opportunity;

21. Warns of the need to lay down rules to prevent working at home facilitated by the new technologies from creating news forms of inequality and insecurity for women and resulting in them doing several jobs at once;

22. Calls on the Commission, in obtaining opinions on the Information Society, not to rely solely on the usual channels of official opinion leaders, but to use the experience of individuals and NGOs working at local and neighbourhood level;

23. Is of the opinion that the protection of data should be an integral part of the information society and that data protection is only to be secured if it is not limited to national borders; asks the Commission to come forward with precise proposals on that in the White Paper, including a proposal for a data-protection authority at European level, and to develop further the European Union Data Protection Directive;

24. Asks the Commission to come forward with proposals on the strengthening of consumer protection in the field of electronic devices and services, and asks for a study into how far a 'one-stop¨ consumer protection agency at European level dealing with complaints could give help to consumers, especially in the case of crossborder tele-shopping;

25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to concentrate, in their activities to promote the information society, on applications which assist citizens in open access to the law, as well as to public information and services, and which strengthen democratic participation;

26. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the social partners, the Forum on the information society, the high-level group experts and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.