Communication from the Commission to the Council and European Parliament - The eEurope 2002 update prepared by the European Commission for the European Council in Nice, 7thand 8thDecember 2000
Date: 2000-11-29
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU initiative, information network, information technology, new technology, project evaluation

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 29.11.2000
COM(2000) 783 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
TO THE COUNCIL AND EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The

Update

Prepared by the European Commission for the
European Council in Nice,
7th and 8th December 2000

1. Introduction

In December 1999 the European Commission launched the eEurope initiative with the
following key objectives:
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Bringing all Europeans, into the digital age and online.

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Creating a digitally literate Europe, supported by an entrepreneurial culture.

Ensuring the process is socially inclusive and builds consumer trust.

In June 2000 the eEurope 2002 Action Plan was adopted by the Feira European Council. It
detailed the policy actions which are required to meet these objectives by 2002. The European
Council also requested a report on progress for the Nice European Council. This report
presents an update of eEurope in response to this request. The report covers those areas for
which the European Commission and other European-level actors (e.g. the Council, the
European Parliament, the EIB) are responsible. It provides a brief overview of progress made
and highlights the remaining challenges. Full details of progress on each action line are
available in the Staff Paper 'Progress on eEurope actions' available on the eEurope website1.
The French Presidency is elaborating a parallel document on progress in Member States
which will also be available on the eEurope website.

2. Overview of main developments

2.1. Policy impact

Since its launch, eEurope has had a broad policy impact, strengthening existing initiatives and
fostering the development of new ones. It has become a policy concept, not only at European
level, but in Member States at national and regional level. 'eInitiatives' of one kind or another
are now generalised within the Union, with the launch by individual Member States and
regions of new initiatives and support programmes. Other European countries and applicant
countries have also been following the EU's lead, for example the eNorway programme.

Developments are not limited to the public sector - many private initiatives have drawn
inspiration from eEurope. The readiness of private companies to devote resources to support
eEurope in areas like education, eGovernment and smart cards are very encouraging
examples. In addition, the European standardisation organisations are currently finalising a
substantial response to eEurope2. In conclusion, the effects of eEurope have begun to be
felt well beyond the public sector in the European Union.

2.2 Faster legislation

One of the most perceptible impacts of eEurope has been on the legislative process.
Governments and administrations, including the Commission, have recognised that the 'new
economy' and particularly the Internet, pose challenges to the legislative framework. The
Internet is a cross-border medium where new ways of doing business are developing. It is
very quickly changing the market context and the de facto 'rules of the game', posing
problems for issues like data protection,
taxation and consumer
protection which require immediate solutions. The current process of drawing up legislation

information security,

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http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/eeurope/
Rolling Action plan of the European Standards organisations in support of the eEurope initiative.

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needs to be accelerated. eEurope and, in particular, its endorsement by the European Councils
in Lisbon and Feira, has helped to raise awareness and the Council and the European
Parliament have made major efforts to accelerate the process.

This acceleration is perceptible in several areas of EU legislative activity where eEurope has
acted as a bridge between this detailed process of drawing up and agreeing legislation and the
broader policy context:

• The new telecom package is moving forward thanks to close cooperation between the
Council and the European Parliament. The most visible outcome in this context has been
the recent agreement reached on the EU Regulation on Local Loop Unbundling, but it is
hoped that the rest of the package can be subject to a similarly rapid and co-operative
approach.

• The e-commerce Directive was adopted even before the Feira European Council. It
provides a legal framework for the provision of e-commerce services in Europe. Further
steps forwards are the e-money Directive which has also been adopted recently and the
significant progress made on the Copyright Directive, where there are good prospects for
rapid adoption.

• The revised Dual Use Regulation came into effect on 27th September 2000. This will
substantially reduce red tape in export licensing for much needed information security
technologies and will contribute to the creation of an Internal Market
for such
technologies.

2.3 Specific Initiatives

eEurope activities have already begun to show positive results on a sectoral level. A major
element in this progress has been the use of the expertise and funding available under the
Structural Funds, the Information Society Technology (IST) research programme and the
Trans European Networks (TEN-Telecom) programme to support wider political initiatives.
Key areas where policy and programme-level activities have worked in parallel are:
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Smart Cards, where solutions are held back from developing their full potential due to a
lack of common standards and applications. Industry has taken up the challenges set at the
Smart Card Summit in Lisbon in April 2000. A follow-up meeting held in Athens on
18th and 19th September 2000, established twelve industry led working groups to address
the various targets in this sector and a task force to co-ordinate the work.

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eContent on which the Commission has proposed a new
150 million programme which
aims to stimulate the development and use of European digital content on the Internet and
promote linguistic diversity on European web-sites. It aims to tackle the barriers which
prevent European content producers from fully exploiting their potential on the global
Internet. The programme should be adopted by the Telecommunications Council in
December 2000.

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Education, an area where the eLearning initiative and the related strengthening of actions
in the IST Programme will help to adapt the education system to the new economy.
National resources will be backed by all the adequate Community instruments and by the
development of partnerships between public authorities and industry. The Commission
will present a detailed proposal for action to implement eLearning to the Education
Council on the 15th November 2000.

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Research networks. With the launch of the Géant Project the first steps have been taken
in a comprehensive plan to reinforce Europe as a global connectivity partner. The project
will assure the upgrading of the interconnections between Europe's research networks to
up to 10 Gigabites by the end of 2001, providing the tools for European researchers to
work interactively together in a wide variety of research areas.

Regional Funds, where the information society has been integrated as a priority by all
Member States in the new programming period 2000 – 2006 thus reflecting the guidelines
of the Commission. Furthermore, eEurope Regio will be one of the three themes of the
new generation of the Innovative Actions (worth
400 million in total from 2000-2006)
under the ERDF.

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Launch of .eu - The ICANN3 organisation agreed in principle to delegate the .eu code to
the European Union. The Commission will make a formal proposal before the end of 2000
to create a .eu top level domain. The .eu registry will be set up as soon as agreement is
reached with the European Parliament and the Council.

3. Benchmarking

The Lisbon European Council requested the Commission to implement eEurope using 'an open
method of co-ordination and benchmarking'. Since Lisbon, the Commission has been working
together with Member States and other interested bodies to establish the exact nature and
coverage of the benchmarking activity. This eEurope benchmarking will be fully co-ordinated
with the Structural Indicators being developed in the context of the follow-up to the Lisbon
Council and will provide input to this process. The objectives of eEurope benchmarking will be:

- to enable Member States to compare their performance.
- to identify best practice
- to provide insight into the factors of importance for widespread diffusion of digital technologies
- to enable remedial action to be taken.

The eEurope benchmarking exercise will consist of a combination of two main elements:
quantitative benchmarks, derived from analysis of indicators in relevant areas and qualitative
benchmarks which indicate best practice in operational terms. The additional surveys and data
collection required to support this process will be funded from the Promise Programme4, which
has been re-oriented to focus on support for eEurope activity.

Data collection and benchmarking focused on the Information Society are on-going in the
Member States and in Eurostat. In order to ensure that full account is taken of existing initiatives,
the French Presidency and the Commission organised a meeting on 27th October 2000 in Brussels
with national experts. The outcome was a tentative list of eEurope indicators which will be
further developed in the coming months.

Building on this progress the European Commission will collate existing data and launch the
necessary work to secure new data. This data will be presented on an eEurope benchmarking
website, which will give a comprehensive overview of Europe's position in the new economy.
Over time, data will be updated in order to complete the coverage, monitor progress and highlight
strengths and weaknesses.

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which has global responsibility for domain
name management.
See http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/promotion/i_promise.html for details.

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4. Issues to be addressed

Since its launch the eEurope 2002 Action Plan has stimulated a great deal of activity in
relation to the different targets proposed. Nevertheless there remain some further issues that
needs to be urgently addressed:

A key challenge will be the linking of benchmarks and best practice to policy
implementation. The 'open-method of coordination' agreed in Lisbon needs to be defined. A
major element of such co-ordination will be the exchange of experiences on how exactly eEurope
targets are being implemented. What approaches and levels of action are proving to be effective?
eEurope benchmarking should ultimately provide Member States and other actors with a series of
policy solutions which have been effective in tackling the barriers it set out to address.

One issue where progress needs to be strengthened, in particular in relation to effective co-
ordination, is the area of information systems security. In order to achieve the objectives of
eEurope more extensive co-ordination between Member States,is necessary. In relation to
the Commission is adopting a communication on cybercrime and cybersecurity5 in
cybercrime,
parallel with this eEurope update. Further work will be required to ensure a coherent and
effective European approach to this important issue.

The potential of digital technologies to generate significant productivity gains in such
areas as transport, education and health, is not fully exploited for several reasons:
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fragmented markets,
difficulties for private investors to access publicly owned infrastructure
the broader social benefits of investment are often greater than the market incentives.

Member States and the European Commission need to reinforce their efforts to achieve
eEurope goals in these sectors, in particular through linking the research programme more
effectively to needs and strategic use of public funding to leverage private sector support.

A favourable environment for e-commerce in the Union needs to be established. SMEs
must be able to consider the EU as their domestic market for e-commerce. Consequently
Member States need to ensure the rapid transposition of the e-commerce and e-signature
Directives in order to ensure that an Internal Market is established with a level playing field
for all businesses.

Finally, there is a strong political interest to utilise the potential of the new economy to
the benefit of the enlargement countries and, in a wider context, to support economic
growth in developing countries. The accession countries agreed at a conference in Warsaw
in May 2000 to develop plans to mirror the eEurope Action Plan. Further work is needed to
make eEurope+ (i.e. the extension of eEurope to the accession countries), a reality. The
G8 Summit in Okinawa agreed a number of measures to address the widening “digital divide”
between developed and developing countries. In particular they established a G8 Digital
Opportunities Task Force (dot force) to provide 'recommendations on global action to bridge
the international information and knowledge divide' for discussion at the next G8 summit in
Genoa in 2001. Further efforts are required to build on this commitment and ensure concrete
progress.

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Creating a safer information society by improving the security of information infrastructures and
combating computer-related crime.

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5. Next Steps

To conclude, within the next two years eEurope 2002 requires the achievement of some
ambitious objectives. The details in the staff paper published in parallel indicate that there is
a need for continued efforts in many areas to ensure that eEurope will be achieved by 2002.

Member States have made substantial efforts to achieve the objectives set in the action plan -
as shown by the parallel report from the French Presidency. These efforts need to be more
effectively linked both through ensuring transparency and through the co-ordination and
benchmarking exercise. A key element for this process will the eEurope website which will
be built up during the coming months and which will feature extensive linkages with national
related initiatives to ensure full awareness of ongoing work within the European Union.

Progress in these activities needs continued commitment at the highest level. The forthcoming
Stockholm Spring Council will provide the opportunity to take stock of the progress since
Lisbon and, if required, provide for the deepening of the eEurope strategy. In addition, the
efforts of the forthcoming Presidencies - Belgium, Spain and Denmark - will be vital in
ensuring that the eEurope Action Plan is realised.

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