WRITTEN QUESTION E-1507/98

by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE) to the Commission

(13 May 1998)

Subject: The information society and social and economic cohesion

In its report A4-0399/97 of 9 December 1997, Parliament's Committee on Regional Policy called on the Commission to take due account of the specific needs of the less-developed regions, the cohesion requirements of the existing Member States and the challenges arising from enlargement when formulating its policy on the information society.

Could the Commission say to what extent it has taken this request into account in its final proposals for reform of the Structural Funds during the new 2000-2006 planning period, proposals which were approved by the College of Commissioners on 18 March 1998?

Joint answer

to Written Questions E-1499/98, E-1503/98, E-1506/98 and E-1507/98 given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission

(13 July 1998)

In the Commission's proposal for new regulations for the structural funds(1), technological innovation (in particular the dissemination of information and communication technologies) is listed among the objectives of the funds' intervention. More specifically, Article 2, paragraph 2 of the proposal for a Council regulation of the European regional development fund (ERDF) clearly states that the development of the information society is considered as a priority area. Such priority is supported by investments in telecommunications, assistance towards services for enterprises and technological development with a view to introducing new technologies and innovation in firms.

The guidelines that the Commission is due to produce after the entry into force of the new regulation (current article 9, paragraph 4 of the Commission's proposal for a Council regulation laying down general provisions on the structural funds) will elaborate and provide additional details on how to integrate the information society into the funds' intervention.

The guidelines will be based - among other things - on the continuing evaluations of the different initiatives financed by the structural funds and of the mid-term review of structural interventions. For example, the current evaluation of the structural funds' impact on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will provide elements concerning the typology of information society - related expenditure. This will help to focus the orientations and future action of the Commission in supporting SMEs to fully integrate information and communication technologies.

Similarly, the evaluation of the IRISI programmes - the information society regional strategies developed by the six regions precursors of the current RISI pilot projects on the basis of Article 10 of the current ERDF Regulation - is giving important insights concerning the regional perception of the information society and the institutional and procedural problems arising from investments of an intangible nature such as those associated with the information society.

Furthermore, as a follow-up to the communication "Living and working in the information society - people first", the Commission is examining issues related to changes in the organisation of work - following among other things the diffusion of information and communication technologies - in order to extract examples of best practices.

(1) COM(98) 131 final.