WRITTEN QUESTION E-1723/99

by Marie-Noëlle Lienemann (PSE) to the Commission

(29 September 1999)

Subject: Measures to combat American dominance of the internet

How can the European Union respond to second-generation developments on the internet?

How can the European Union ensure that full-scale research laboratory coordination programmes are introduced? To what extent can it guarantee that the necessary additional resources will be allocated to strengthening Europe's position in relation to American dominance of the internet?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(29 November 1999)

If Europe is to fully participate in the future development of the Internet, it is vital that our scientists and researchers are actively involved in the process of its construction. With this in mind, the Community sponsors leading edge research in this field to ensure that Europe is at the forefront of emerging developments. Under the 1st call of the Information society-related technologies (IST) programme of the 5th framework programme (FPV) approximately 300 million in funding has already been awarded to 138 collaborative research projects developing next generation networking technologies and applications to exploit their potentialities.

This area is one that is likely to be a priority throughout the life of the current framework programme (1999-2002). Already the IST expert advisory group, which provides advice to the Commission in developing the programme, has identified a number of key areas where European industry has the potential to lead the world e.g. mobile, wireless and optical technologies for the Internet. These priorities will be reflected in next year's work programme.

However the issue is not just a technological one. There are also major regulatory and legal issues surrounding the continuous development of the Internet in which the Community is actively engaged. In particular, the Community has been reassessing its regulatory policy in this area to provide legal certainty and therefore facilitate the development of a new range of services, in particular in the context of e-commerce.

The overall aim of such activities is to ensure an open and competitive European market in this area. The Commission adopted on 10 November 1999 a communication Towards a new framework for electronic communications infrastructure and associated service 1999 communications review. This communication lays down the position of the Commission with regard to the new regulatory framework for all electronic communications infrastructure and associated services, and launches a public consultation. After the public consultation, the Commission will proceed to legislative proposals in the second quarter of the

year 2000. The main thrust of the communication is to bring down the prices of telecommunications services by increasing competition and cutting administrative burdens on telecom operators. This should result in lower access prices and thus speed up the take-up of Internet in Europe. Furthermore, the Commission will soon adopt a recommendation on the interconnection prices of leased lines part circuits, the main aim of which is to bring down the prices of Internet services. A further recommendation on access to local networks, and in particularly on local loop unbundling, will be issued next year and which should have a further impact on availability of competitive high-speed Internet services.

As the Internet has become more ubiquitous and commercialised, the governance of this new tool has also become professionalised and indeed more vital to Europe's interests. The Community, together with Member States has therefore been taking an active role in the establishment of the Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN), the international private body in charge of policy on domain names, information provider (IP) address allocations and Internet protocols.

The Community already ensures high quality interconnections between European research laboratories through the trans-European net (TEN)-155 network (the follow-on to TEN-34), which supports the interconnection of national research and education networks at capacities of 155 Megabit per second (Mbits/s). The Community will continue to invest, through the 5th framework programme in Research and technological development (RTD), in continuous upgrading of our research network infrastructure.

The IST programme has set aside a budget of 161 million for research networking activity. This activity will support both the establishment of a world-class network for Europe and experimental exploitation of this network. Under this activity, research laboratories will experiment with new forms of collaborative working, exploiting the full potentialities which high speed access to the Internet will provide.

From the point of view of the Commission, extensive resources are already being mobilised in the context of the research programme to ensure that European researchers have access to world-class Internet infrastructure and to support collaborative research and development) to develop new technologies in this area. It should be noted, however, that in many of the key areas for the development of the Internet such as national research infrastructures, and networking schools, the major investments required are the responsibility of Member States and private industry. The Commission is making every effort to ensure that all Member States recognise the importance of investment in this area.