Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on:

- 'the communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a methodology for the implementation of Information Society applications`, and - 'the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision on a series of guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks` (96/C 129/07)

On 18 July 1995, the Bureau decided to draw up an Opinion on the above-mentioned communication and proposal.

On 14 September 1995, the Council decided, in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 129d of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to consult the Committee of the Regions on the above proposal.

Sub-Commission 3 and Commission 3 instructed Mr Koivisto to draw up the Opinion. Sub-Commission 3 drew up the second part of the Opinion and Commission 3 adopted the whole text on 14 December 1995.

At its 11th Plenary Session (meeting of 18 January 1996), the Committee of the Regions adopted the following Opinion.

BACKGROUND AND STATUTORY BASIS

Part I of the Commission's report attempts to clarify how the methodology for projects seeking to develop new services and applications for the Information Society could be coordinated, in particular in the context of the research and development framework programme and the trans-European telecommunications networks. It was drawn up in response to a request by the joint Council of Industry and Telecommunications Ministers.

Part II of the report deals with the development of the trans-European networks described in Article 129b of the Treaty establishing the European Community and especially with the principle laid down in Article 129c, according to which the Community will consolidate the objectives, priorities and broad lines of measures planned for the realization of these networks, whilst at the same time identifying related projects of common interest. The present document deals with determining these guidelines for the telecommunications networks.

INTRODUCTION

According to Part I of the report, the aim is to optimize the use of Community financial instruments by increasing awareness of potential private and public partnerships, improving access to Community support and ensuring synergy between different financial instruments.

The second principle is that the Community, in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity, can play a catalytic role by helping the private sector to generate a critical mass and allowing markets to take off more rapidly.

In this respect the Union has three main tasks:

- an information and awareness role, e.g. maintaining an inventory of projects and providing information on legislation;

- a brokerage role in bringing different parties together;

- a guidance role as regards sources of financial support.

Community measures are not considered necessary in a case where a project is sufficiently attractive from a commercial point of view. Projects which serve the common interest do not, however, always fulfil this requirement, at least initially. In such cases, the Community can employ various financial instruments for their realization in a coordinated way and taking advantage of their complementarity.

The following principles are applied to financing:

- the choice of projects is based on demand and is carried out in accordance with public calls for proposals procedure, where one of the selection criteria may be the amount of support applied for;

- each financing instrument has its own rules and special requirements;

- calls for proposals can be linked over time in cases where access to several instruments is possible.

The Commission intends to set up a special coordination framework for these principles, one part of which will contain the guidelines for the trans-European telecommunications networks described in Part II of the report.

In the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision on guidelines for the setting up of trans-European telecommunications networks, it is suggested that the priority as regards optimizing use of Community funds is to stimulate the development of applications. This, in turn, should generate a need for new infrastructure investments.

The second area to which it is proposed priority should be given is the generic services of the networks (e.g. e-mail, database transfer systems, video services), the purpose of which is to support the interoperability of the applications.

The third area to which priority is assigned is the basic networks, in respect of which special attention is paid to the needs of SMEs.

The general objectives of Community support in setting up interoperable telecommunications networks are:

- to facilitate the transition to an Information Society, in particular to promote the fulfilment of social needs and to improve the quality of life;

- to improve the competitiveness of European industry and strengthen the internal market;

- to reinforce social and economic cohesion;

- to accelerate the growth of areas of activity leading to job creation.

To attain these objectives, efforts will be focused on defining frameworks, in the form of a work programme, on the basis of which it will be possible to identify projects in the call for proposals which will serve the common interest.

The Commission would report on the implementation of the resolution at two-year intervals, to the Committee of the Regions, among others.

CONTENTS OF THE OPINION

In its Opinion the Committee of the Regions,

1. referring to views it has expressed earlier, emphasizes the vital importance of local actions associated with the Information Society, especially with regard to the creation of new jobs and efforts to reduce the inequality which tends to affect citizens as a result of new instruments.

Accordingly, the Committee of the Regions and regional and local authorities should see to it that Europe's citizens are aware of the Union's role in establishing the Information Society.

For this reason the Community should, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle and especially when planning and implementing Information Society applications, support local innovations and avoid general definitions of the contents of the applications.

As regards Part I of the communication from the Commission, the Committee of the Regions:

2. in agreement with the views put forward by the Commission, notes that at the present stage it is impossible, and probably also unnecessary, to change the differences of principle which exist in the rules of the Community's financial instruments that are significant for the Information Society;

3. hopes, however, that the Commission will continue to develop the application procedure, so that the differences which exist in the rules of the various financial sources will not impede the use of these instruments.

In addition to simplifying the application procedure it would be desirable to support the Information Society by developing an ongoing procedure which would be uniform for the various financial instruments and which would, for the most part, make it possible to postpone the decision on which instrument was to be used until such time as the decision to support a particular project was otherwise made;

4. expresses its concern over the fact that the boundaries created by the financial instruments may in some cases separate regions from each other rather than promote the desired cohesion between them.

For reasons related to the financial instruments, the partners in certain projects tend to be of the same type, which makes it impossible to utilize to the full the benefits that are generally to be gained from close interaction between neighbouring central regions and less-developed regions;

5. referring to the views on the role of the Community set out in the report, considers that it would be useful, particularly from the point of view of regional cohesion, if the expertise which exists in the Union could be used more extensively for Information Society projects, especially those whose subject matter or data content are trans-European;

6. endorses the objective of extending the activities of the ISPO (Information Society Project Office) to member countries and also to regions; its good record as a supplier of information and as an interface between various parties makes it very suitable for the Union role envisaged by the Commission.

To optimize the deployment of existing resources the organizations which are already responsible for regional development should be employed for the expansion of the ISPO's activities.

The Committee also draws attention to the fact that in some regions very successful Information Society projects are being implemented locally without any funding from the Union, and so far the experiences gained from these have hardly been mentioned in the Community's lists of projects.

In respect of Part II of the communication from the Commission, the Committee of the Regions:

7. notes that increased competition between tele-operators is inevitably slowing the increase in the level of services in the less-developed regions, whilst the growth of new business areas is strengthening mainly in areas where the number of users is at a commercially viable level.

On the other hand, lower tariffs and diversification of services will open up new avenues of independent activities even for the less-developed regions. Support for these activities should be provided with the minimum distortion to competition.

Deregulation and competition among suppliers will lead to an increase in tele- and data-communications services. (It should be noted that telecommunications costs are far lower in the United States than in Europe.) Lower telecommunications charges will boost European competitiveness on the world market, stimulate economic development and promote employment. Lower cost will also benefit less-developed regions and sparsely populated regions. Information technology will make firms and the public sector less independent in terms of time and space. More restricted access to modern telecommunications services could have detrimental consequences for local or regional authorities if, but only if, the region or local authority concerned reacts passively. Public bodies using information technology as a means of increasing their efficiency and modernizing their structures will also provide an important market for suppliers, thereby also benefiting the regional or local economy as more advanced information services become available;

8. considers the presentation of the position of applications in the trans-European telecommunications networks to be extremely important, as the significance of content is growing continually.

The Committee also endorses the Commission view that producing applications which serve the needs of users will speed up the development of generic services and basic infrastructure in a way that will also be commercially profitable for tele-operators.

Industry and commerce are interested in the emergence of applications with Community-wide and even global coverage. Hence the emphasis in applications serving the common interest should be placed on solutions promoting local culture and the needs of citizens and SMEs.

The Committee would refer to the good experience gained so far from local regional networks combining citizens, SMEs and public administration. As neighbourhood networks and the content of local services in particular are often important for users, the Committee hopes that the speeding up of such solutions - the Inter-Regional Information Society initiative (IRIS) is a good example - would be given precedence over the development of other types of application.

The importance of service centres for the development and provision of regional multimedia services should also be taken into account. The success of regional projects will, in turn, create a demand for other more extensive applications and for the development of an infrastructure as described by the Commission.

In order to avoid misunderstandings, the Committee hopes that the heading of the applications domain 'City Information Highways` will be changed to one which better depicts the objectives listed under the heading, and also takes into account the viewpoints of sparsely populated regions.

The use by local and regional authorities of new applications will be one of the most important catalysts for the development of the information and content industry. Applications such as electronic commerce, tele-medicine, distance learning, geographical information systems and traffic telematics, etc., will become good examples of instruments for stimulating the market as well as making it possible to alter working methods, save money and make public services more customer- and service-oriented;

9. referring to what was stated above, proposes that when identifying applications serving the common interest, preference should be given to initiatives which cover different regions and use different financial sources;

10. notes that developing schools and libraries so that they even out social influences in accordance with the requirements of the Information Society is becoming one of the most important areas of applications serving the common interest;

11. draws attention to the use of the Internet and to the rapid growth of the services it embraces, the existence of which the Commission could exploit to a greater degree than at present for the development of the trans-European telecommunications networks.

Amongst the identified domains for applications, the existence of the Internet should be taken into account when developing a trans-European network serving universities and research institutions, because they have practically reached the target state;

12. hopes that in the calls for proposals for applications serving the common interest one of the requirements will be that planned services are described in such a manner that prospective users will be able to understand the contents unambiguously.

A general framework for the description of the contents of services should be developed;

13. as far as generic services are concerned, draws attention to the fact that, especially in the case of regional interests, there is a need to develop trans-European index services and practices in which the receiver of the message can be generally identified by the contents of the matter and not by his name.

14. As regards basic networks, the Committee draws special attention to the further development of the Euro-ISDN towards broadband applications, extending supply and guaranteeing stable standards.

From the point of view of the European regions, ISDN is at the moment the only method making it possible, mainly by utilizing present investments, to rapidly achieve a general and uniform infrastructure which provides maximum regional coverage and yet at the same time has the capacity to serve Information Society applications in a satisfactory manner.

The extensive coverage and low tariffs of ISDN services benefit individual citizens and SMEs in particular;

15. stresses the importance of the development of wireless broadband networks, especially in regions of the Community where investment in fixed cable networks is not suitable, e.g. for geographical reasons.

Interoperability between various broadband networks (cable network, travel communications, satellites) is of course essential. As the mobility of citizens increases, and for example in order to improve the scope for teleworking in remote areas, it will be necessary to develop terminals than can economically and easily access all the broadband networks described;

16. feels that, owing to the continually accelerating pace of development, the two-year reporting intervals proposed by the Commission are too long.

The Committee hopes that the reports will also take into account regional development and interregional differences. In particular, when describing the general situation as regards the Information Society and trans-European networks in the Community, it would seem fairer to use as a starting point the situation prevailing in the less-developed regions rather than that in the developed regions.

Done at Brussels, 18 January 1996.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Regions

Jacques BLANC