WRITTEN QUESTION E-0717/98

by Amedeo Amadeo (NI) and Salvatore Tatarella (NI) to the Commission

(18 March 1998)

Subject: Electronic commerce

In connection with the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - "A European Initiative in Electronic Commerce" (COM(97) 157 final), can the Commission:

1. increase its commitment to adopting electronic commerce in its own departments;

2. promote an action plan for the modernization of all public associations and organizations in the Member States;

3. commit itself to creating a regulatory framework for simplifying the procedures for the dissemination of information in firms in all the EU countries, regulating the right to rapid and guaranteed access to public sector information, establishing the scope of that right and the limits and exceptions to it, and defining marketing rules, including price formation and the protection of copyright in individual States;

4. propose a programme to create networks of electronic links between equivalent public institutions in the Member States?

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission

(2 June 1998)

The Commission has already made efforts to apply electronic commerce in the operations of its services. Electronic submission of research proposals is now the normal practice in the Advanced communication technologies and services (ACTS) programme and will be so in the new information society programme. However, the Commission experience in purchasing office furniture has demonstrated that so far there are only a few providers willing to do business with the Commission electronically, mainly for reasons of confidentiality, or for lack of compatibility between the providers' and the Commission's information systems. The Commission is continuing its efforts to conclude a solution.

The Commission is taking action to promote modernisation and trans-European co-ordination in support organisations for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), including, in particular, associations for electronic commerce, as part of the TEN-Telecom, Telematics and IDA work-programmes, which aim at creating trans-European telecommunications networks. The Commission has also strongly supported interoperability in electronic commerce through the memorandum of understanding on open access to electronic commerce for European SMEs, and the establishment of the Electronic commerce Europe forum (ECE), in order to catalyse and accelerate the growth of electronic commerce communities in Europe.

The Commission's communication "A European initiative on electronic commerce", stressed the need to ensure a clear and coherent regulatory framework that encourages the development of electronic commerce in Europe by providing legal certainty. The appropriate regulatory framework should avoid regulation for regulation's sake while providing effective protection of public interest objectives. The Commission is examining a number of specific legal questions, which constitute barriers for the free movement of electronic commerce services, and will publish, in the first half of this year, a green paper on public sector information, to launch a public debate on these issues.

Setting up trans-European telematics networks between corresponding public administrations in support of Community policies and activities is the core subject of the Interchange of data between administrations (IDA) programme. For example, specific projects under IDA make it much easier for national authorities to obtain information from any other Member State, thus maximising the efficiency and benefits of Community policies. In the near future, IDA will embrace a more market and service-oriented approach, and will place more emphasis on issues such as economic and monetary union, the enlargement of the Community, services to the citizens, and inter-institutional communication.