Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Council Decision adopting a Multiannual Community programme to stimulate the development and use of European digital content on the global networks and to promote the linguistic diversity in the Information Society"
Date: 2000-11-29
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU programme, Internet, database, information system, multilingualism, public sector

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APPENDIX

to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee

SCCP sales per year in EU, specified by application in metric tonnes:

1994

PVC Plasticisers

Metal Working Lubricants

Flame Retardants Textile & Rubber

Waterproofing textile

Paints, Sealants & Adhesives

Leather Fat Liquors

Sales through Distributors into above applications plus minor uses

9 380

1 310

183

1 845

390

100

1998

13

2 018

617

21

713

45

648

Total

13 208

4 075

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Council Decision adopting
a Multiannual Community programme to stimulate the development and use of European digital
content on the global networks and to promote the linguistic diversity in the Information
Society’

(2001/C 116/06)

On 7 September 2000 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article
262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 9 November 2000. The
rapporteur was Mr Morgan.

At its 377th plenary session on 29 and 30 November 2000 (meeting of 29 November) the Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion with 100 votes in favour and 2 abstentions.

1.

Introduction

a)

a cheaper, faster, secure Internet;

1.1.
The ESC welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a
Multiannual Community programme to stimulate the develop-
ment and use of European digital content on the global
networks and to promote the linguistic diversity in the
Information Society.

This programme is a component part of the eEurope
1.2.
2002 Action Plan:
‘An Information society for All’. The
eEurope initiative was initiated by the Lisbon Council and is
itself the subject of a separate ESC Opinion (1). There are three
priority areas within the eEurope initiative:

(1) eEurope 2002 — An Information society for all — Draft Action

Plan(COM(2000) 330 final); Opinion in elaboration.

b)

investing in people and skills;

c)

stimulate the use of the Internet.

Within this last priority, the component programmes include:

— Government on-line: electronic access to public services;

— European digital content on global networks.

Hence this opinion deals with two of the component action
programmes of the eEurope objective. However, in the view
of the ESC, these actions are also very important in their own
right.

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The strategic objectives of the programme are defined

1.3.
as follows:

creating favourable conditions for the commercialisation,
distribution and use of European digital content on the
global networks, thus stimulating economic activity and
enhancing employment prospects;

stimulating the use of Europe’s content potential, and in
particular public sector information;

promoting multilingualism in digital content on the
global networks and increasing the export opportunities
of European content firms and in particular SMEs through
linguistic customisation;

a)

b)

c)

d)

with a European interest and scope.
In addition to the
experimental projects, the establishment of Europe-wide data
collections will be stimulated. Interest and commitment of
private parties will be decisive for selecting the type of data
and areas to be covered.

2.2.2.
cover:

The objectives defined in the work programme could

— the number and quality of the actual products and
services based on public sector information that become
available;

— the economic activity and the number of jobs that are
involved in the new products and services based on
public sector information;

contributing to the professional, social and cultural
development of the citizens of the EU and facilitating
the economic and social integration of citizens in the
candidate countries in the Information Society.

— the quality and quantity of the links that are forged
between public sector organisations and private content
firms;

1.4.
The programme is to last for five years — 2001-
2005 inclusive with a total investment of EUR 150m. For
15 countries over five years this means two million euros per
annum, i.e. one million euros per annum for each of the two
main action lines on average.

In view of the budget, and in the context of the larger
1.5.
eEurope programme, the strategic objectives outlined at 1.3
above could be over-ambitious. Nevertheless the ESC believes
that the programme will make an important contribution to
the broader eEurope initiative and so calls on the Council to
ensure that adequate funding is made available.

2.

Synopsis of the programme — main action lines

The funds are to be allocated to three principal action

2.1.
lines. Each programme is to have objectives attached.

2.2. Stimulating the exploitation of public sector information —

EUR 75m.

— improvement of transnational co-operation in the field
of public sector information (take-up of best practices
throughout Europe);

— improvement of the access to public sector information

for citizens throughout Europe;

— improvement of the public sector information infrastruc-

ture in the accession countries.

2.3. Enhancing
EUR 60m.

linguistic

and

cultural

customisation —

2.3.1.
Supporting linguistic customisation of digital prod-
ucts and services will add to the export potential of European
content firms. At the same time it facilitates the participation
of all European citizens in the Information Society. Adequate
support for multilingual and cross-cultural information access
and exchange is a key enabler for the development of a
European mass market for information products and services.
The programme will sustain actions aiming at the establish-
ment of closer collaboration between the European content
and language industries, thus overcoming the linguistic frag-
mentation of European markets and enhancing the global
competitiveness of both sectors. Special attention will be given
to SMEs and start-ups, and to less widely spoken EU languages
and the languages of potential new Member States.

2.2.1.
The replies to the Green Paper on Public Sector
Information have stressed the importance of experiments with
concrete public/private sector partnerships. In the first place
experimental projects will be stimulated, bringing together
public and private parties to exploit public sector information

2.3.2.
relate to:

The objectives defined in the work programme could

— success and expanded markets for European content
firms (and in particular SMEs) through linguistic and
cultural customisation;

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— increase of content in the languages of the different

Member States on the global networks;

— development of the language infrastructure (perception
of language industries and digital content industries), and
in particular the infrastructure related to languages from
the candidate countries;

3.3.
The threat to this goal, which the Commission ident-
ifies and with which the ESC agrees, is the lead established by
American firms in digital applications. Internet traffic currently
originates disproportionately from the United States, where
the large majority of web-sites are currently based. Most web
pages are in English and most of them are located in the
United States. Of the hundred most visited web sites, 94 are
located physically in the United States.

— economic activity and number of jobs created through

the linguistic customisation activities.

2.4. Supporting market enablers — EUR 10m.

2.4.1.
It is proposed to take action to provide a bridge
between companies in the digital content area and potential
investors. In addition, it is intended to focus on the effective-
ness and efficiency of multi-media rights trading and rights
clearance procedures.

2.4.2.

The quantified objectives could cover:

— the number of starting and fast-growing content firms
that are helped in their contacts with venture capitalists;

— the number and quality of the links that are established
between the financial institutions and the content firms;

— the economic activity and the number of new jobs created

through these links;

— the contribution of the pilot projects in the field of
multimedia rights clearing to the development of a
European multimedia rights clearing system. The econ-
omic activity and the number of jobs involved.

The target population will consist principally of
2.4.3.
suppliers of content and language-related activities in the value
chain. Within the programme, particular attention will be paid
to SMEs and to companies and institutions in the candidate
countries.

3.4.
The window of opportunity for European content
industries is seen by the Commission to still be open. Hence
the urgent need to push this programme through now, with
which the ESC concurs.

4. Digital content

The Commission has offered the following definition

4.1.
of ‘content industries’, which is obviously all-embracing:

text, sound,

‘The content industry is composed of those enterprises
involved in the creation, development, packaging and
distribution of content: data,
images or
multimedia combination thereof, represented in analogue
or digital format on a variety of carriers such as paper,
microfilm, magnetic or optical storage. The content indus-
try comprises the different segments of print publishing
(newspapers, books, magazines, corporate publishing) and
electronic publishing (on-line databases, audio and video
text services, fax and CD-based services, Digital Versatile
Disc (DVD), Internet World Wide Web, edutainment) as
well as the audiovisual industries (television, video, radio,
audio and cinema).’

3. What is at stake

For the purpose of this Opinion the ESC has highlight-

4.2.
ed some of the many categories of Internet content:

In the view of the ESC, EU linguistic and cultural

3.1.
diversity is an asset.

3.2.
The goal of this programme is to help create an
environment favourable to business initiatives where European
creativity, culture diversity and technological strengths can be
commercially exploited. The relationship of this programme
to related EU programmes is shown at the Appendix.

— ISP services, including basic facilities such as e-mail and
advanced facilities based on search engines, leading to
full commercial portals;

— E-Commerce involving business-to-business and busi-
ness-to-consumer links, including business exchanges;

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— E-Government

involving

government-to-government
(G:G)
(inter-departmental), government-to-business (e-
procurement) (G:B) and government-to-citizen (licences,
taxes, social security, etc.) (G:C). In addition, online voting
and consultation opens up the potential of e-democracy;

— Government information sources — legislation, regu-
lation, public records, national libraries, museums, geo-
graphical information, population and census data, com-
pany registers etc. A key dimension here will be the
accessibility of archives;

— Non-governmental information sources — companies,
NGOs, sports clubs, universities, media, news organis-
ations, stock exchanges, professional associations and
societies, professional knowledge, e.g. medical know-
ledge, etc.;

— Entertainment — development of broadband platforms
for audio-visual entertainment delivery: television, films,
music, games, etc.;

— Education delivered over networks, especially broadband
networks, has considerable potential for both children
and adults. One particular opportunity is to reinforce
numeracy and literacy and disseminate widely the new
skills and knowledge needed in the information society.

— Content targeted at children must be seen as a special
class of Internet content. Specific protection programmes
are needed for children in the Internet environment.
Children have the characteristic of being potentially the
most competent users of the Internet. They are potential
users of all the adult services described, but represent a
distinct sector in such fields as education, entertainment
and shopping. Their information needs are also likely to
be greater than those of most adults.

Transforming public sector information into digital format,
addressable by the general public, is a very large undertaking.
It will certainly contribute significantly to the goal of making
national language digital content available on the Internet. It is
one of the two main strands of the e-Content programme.
Even so, it is just one component of the complete digital
content picture given in 4.2 above.

4.5.
Funding the packaging and conversion of government
data for Internet access should be the responsibility of
government and paid by government unless a commercial
arrangement is possible. A commercial arrangement could
involve a third party bearing the costs of conversion for the
profits of exploitation. In any case, a distinction would have to
information in favour of the
be made between essential
exercise of democratic rights — which should be provided free
of charge or, where appropriate, at a greatly reduced price —
and information for commercial purposes, the price of which,
as it must be readily available, should be based on the costs of
printing, updating, retrieval and transmission of data, for
which invoices could be issued; or it should be a reasonable
market price. The Committee awaits the Commission’s pro-
posal on this subject. The Programme Proposal for govern-
ments to share experience could be valuable.

The ESC would encourage the Commission to under-
4.6.
take projects aimed at maintaining the currency and constant
improvement of government data available on line.

5.

Enhancing the customisation of linguistic and cul-
tural content

4.3.
This indicative list allows us to consider how far the
present programme goes towards its goal to stimulate the
development and use of European digital content on global
networks.

5.1.

The Commission’s Programme has two main elements:

— fostering new partnerships and the adoption of multi-
language strategies by promoting new forms of partner-
ships between the digital content and language industries;

4.4.
From this analysis, it is clear that the action line to
stimulate the exploitation of Public Sector Information is
useful.
in a recent Opinion the ESC has already
endorsed the exploitation of Public Sector Information (1).

Indeed,

— strengthening the linguistic infrastructure which implies
establishing an open framework comprising standardised
and interoperable multilingual resources encompassing
e.g. electronic lexicons, corpora, translation memories
and terminology collections.

(1) ESC opinion ‘Public sector information: a key resource for Europe
— Green Paper on public sector information in the information
society’ (COM(1998) 585 final); OJ C 169, 16.6.1999.

The following is an assessment of

the scope for
5.2.
linguistic customisation of some aspects of digital content on
the Internet.

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5.2.1. I S P s e r v i c e s

a) At the national language level, it would be surprising if
national language ISPs did not already exist to promote
national language dialogue. Portals similarly need to offer
customised services in national languages. There is now
language ISPs and Portals are
evidence that national
already overtaking English language web-sites in EU-
countries.

c) Governments which wish to operate or transact on the
global stage may choose to do so in many languages. In
this context it will be interesting to see how the language
strategy of the EU develops for communications between
Member States and between the Institutions and Member
States.

d)

E-democracy requires widespread Internet penetration. It
will be a potentially positive side effect of the range of
programmes advocated here.

b)

c)

The potential for new interest groups of every type will
help accelerate the acceptance of the Internet amongst
private individuals.

5.2.4. G o v e r n m e n t I n f o r m a t i o n S o u r c e s

International dialogue will naturally take place in
languages both parties understand. Such dialogue will
take place between users, irrespective of the language of
the service provider (ISP).

a)

This is one of the action lines of the Commission’s
Programme. It is an essential element in the development
of national languages on the Internet, but it is certainly
not the only element.

5.2.2. E - C o m m e r c e

a) National companies which set out to establish an e-
commerce presence, whether domestic or foreign, will do
so in the language of business partners or consumers.
This will be equally true of business exchanges.

b)

For international business, global business-to-business
exchange will take place in the language of the global
industry. For business-to-consumer
the
activity will be in the language of the customer in each
country.

transactions,

c)

Both a) and c) above provide opportunities for the
linguistic customisation action line.

5.2.3. E - G o v e r n m e n t

b) Generally speaking, any non-national seeking to search
national government data sources should be prepared to
do so in the national language. Translation would not
seem to be a priority, although key word searches in
global languages would be helpful.

c)

Language customisation will have its greatest impact on
Europe-wide data bases.

5.2.5. N o n - g o v e r n m e n t I n f o r m a t i o n S o u r c e s

a) Organisations with data of general interest will advance
their own organisational objectives by making their
information available on line. This is true, for example,
of sport clubs, companies, NGOs, professional organ-
izations, etc.

b) Where these organisations have international audiences,
they will presumably provide translation into these
audiences. The action line could support these activities.

a)

the Internet. G:G will

Just within the context of existing government activities,
the opportunity for G:G, G:B and G:C Internet transactions
is the biggest single opportunity for national language
development of
improve the
communications within government; G:B will reduce
procurement costs while encouraging all players in the
supply chain to use the Internet, and use it in the national
language of the government. G:C will reduce the cost of
government service, improve its quality and give nationals
of the country increased incentive to be Internet-con-
nected.

b) At the international level, companies planning to transact
with national governments may be obliged to do so in
the national language.

5.2.6. E n t e r t a i n m e n t

a)

b)

c)

There is a natural audience for entertainment in national
languages. Hence the success of national TV.

There is an opportunity for multi-national exploitation of
national TV and film output in major EU languages.
Second language preferences amongst EU citizens may
be changed significantly by the accession of the applicant
states.

There are significant export audiences for entertainment.
Language is an important factor in entertainment success
abroad.

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5.2.7. E d u c a t i o n

The Internet can be readily exploited inter alia for language
teaching to students of all ages.

5.2.8. C o n t e n t t a r g e t e d a t c h i l d r e n

a)

b)

The importance of national
language web-sites of an
exemplary type cannot be over-emphasised. There is
a major opportunity for translation of successful EU
children’s web-sites for markets in all Member States. The
linguistic and cultural dimensions are relevant.

It is particularly important for children that national
information sources are available on line — dictionaries,
libraries, encyclopaedias etc. By definition, these would
be in the national language.

c) We should not underestimate children’s interest in the
international dimension of
their
language skills. They will be irresistibly drawn to com-
municate in many languages, and they should be encour-
aged to do so.

the Internet, nor

5.6.
An important aspect of linguistic customisation is the
preparedness of business and other organisations aiming to
use the Internet to reach customers or clients. Clearly, to build
a web-site conceived for multilingual access will be cheaper to
build than one which has to have multilingualism retro-fitted.
The ESC welcomes pilot projects in this context.

As far as linguistic customisation is concerned, there

5.7.
area number of objectives:

a)

availability of ‘digital content’ in national languages;

b)

c)

availability of national language ‘digital content’ on global
networks;

both a) and b) above, with a special focus on applicant
States.

In addition, the exploitation of the output of the 5th Frame-
work Programme for RTD (1) will be an important part of the
action line. Again, looking at the scope of this action line, we
have to be concerned about the paucity of the resources
applied.

5.3.

From the above analysis, the main issues are:

6. Achieving the strategic objectives of the programme

— the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity in

Member States,

— the removal of linguistic barriers to commerce and human
intercourse, so promoting an EU-wide appreciation and
enjoyment of Europe’s diverse cultural and linguistic
heritage and

— the promotion of European digital content on global

networks.

In the world of digital content,

Addressing these issues depends first on the presence
5.4.
of rich national linguistic ‘islands’ where all dimensions of
national life are accessible in the languages of each Member
State.
this means a full
complement of national language digital content with appro-
priate coverage of regional languages as well. Such content
should also be accessible by the global Diaspora of European
nationals.

5.5.
Between these islands it is necessary to build bridges.
These exist today outside the Internet. Many citizens are
multilingual and enjoy literature, drama and opera in many
European languages. The Internet does not create barriers to
this existing dialogue. The challenge for the EU is to use the
Internet to create even better bridges.

The strategic objectives of the Programme are given in

6.1.
point 1.3.

Creating favourable conditions for the commer-
6.1.1.
cialisation, distribution and use of European Digital Content in
Global Networks

In the judgement of the ESC, the programme is likely to start
to create favourable conditions but, given the few resources
available, may not go far enough.

6.1.2.
and, in particular, public sector information

Stimulating the use of Europe’s content potential

The programme will specifically address public sector infor-
mation. Given the huge potential of public sector information,
the ESC is excited by the ambition of these developments.

6.1.3.
global networks

Promoting multilingualism in digital content on

(1) OJ C 407, 28.12.1998, pp.123-159.

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To the extent that this involves national languages for national
audiences, the programme will undoubtedly make an impact.
Reaching international audiences in international languages
may be more difficult to achieve.

Increasing the export opportunities of European content
firms, in particular SMEs, through linguistic customisation.

This is a very important initiative for SMEs. It should lead to
innovation and job creation.

6.1.3.1.
development of the citizens of the EU

Contributing to the professional, social and cultural

Facilitating the economic and social integration of citizens
in the candidate countries in Information Society

a)

b)

the content
To meet both these strategic goals, all
described in Section 5.2 needs to be available. This
requires, in particular, national language ISPs and the full
scale digitalisation of professional, social and cultural
content onto the relevant web-sites.

The Programme proposed by the Commission can help
to kick-start the development of national web-sites in
both Member States and candidate countries. In this
respect it can be a valuable initiative and has ESC support.
However, the scale of EU finance available means that
Member States will have to provide most of the resources
needed.

Brussels, 29 November 2000.

7. Conclusions

the funding allows
7.1. We have already shown that
expenditure of 1 million euros per annum on average in each
of the 15 Member States in each of the five years of the
programme. To have any impact at all, this support will need
to be highly effective and focused.

7.2.
The funding can only support preparatory work in
applicant countries. Further sources of revenue will then be
needed.

7.3.
The digital content action line, with its focus on public
sector information, provides the opportunity to open up a
storehouse of treasure for EU governments, commercial inter-
est and citizens.

7.4.
Enhancing linguistic and cultural customisation pro-
vides the content industry with welcome stimulus to exploiting
the cultural strengths derived from our national diversity. It
also facilitates the participation of European citizens in the
information society.

7.5.
The ESC is very supportive of the main action lines of
the programme. It believes that they are well conceived and
targeted and have an importance for the European family of
nations which cannot be overstated. However, more funds will
inevitably be needed.

On its own, this programme cannot fulfil the strategic
7.6.
objectives set
it can contribute to the
development of these strategies as part of the eEurope 2002
initiative.

for it. However,

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS