Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable’ (COM(2004) 96 fin – 2004/0025 (COD))
Date: 2004-04-29
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU programme, access to information, dissemination of information, information technology

30.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 117/49

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council establishing a multiannual Community programme to
make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable’

(COM(2004) 96 fin – 2004/0025 (COD))

(2004/C 117/12)

On 25 February 2004, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 157(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the ‘Proposal for a decision
of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a multiannual Community programme to make
digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable’
(COM(2004) 96 final -2004/0025
(COD)).

On 24 February 2004, the Committee Bureau instructed the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure
and the Information Society to prepare the work on the subject.

At its 408th plenary session of 29 April 2004, and in view of the urgency of the matter, the European
Economic and Social Committee appointed Mr Pegado Liz as rapporteur-general and adopted the following
opinion by 56 votes to one, with four abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1
This proposal to establish a multiannual Community
programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible,
usable and exploitable, known as eContentplus (2005-2008) (1)
for short, takes account of the strategic objective of eEurope
2005 (2), the achievements of the current eContent programme
(2001-2004) (3), the mid-term evaluation of this programme (4)
legislation (5)
and subsequent developments in technologies,
and the market, as mentioned in the explanatory memorandum
of the proposal in question.

2. The eContent programme (2001-2004)

2.1
The objectives of the eContent programme (2001-2004),
which was welcomed by the European Economic and Social
the EESC) (6), were
Committee (hereinafter
defined as follows:

referred to as

(1) Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the
Council establishing a multiannual Community programme to make
digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable -
COM(2004) 96 final – 2004/0025 (COD).

(2) Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European
Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee
of the Regions – eEurope 2005: An information society for all –
COM(2002) 263 final.

(3) Council Decision 2001/48/EC of 22 December 2000.
(4) Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European
Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions concerning the mid term evaluation of
the multiannual Community programme to stimulate the develop-
ment and use of European digital content on the global networks
and to promote linguistic diversity in the information society (eCon-
tent) – COM(2003) 591 final.

(5) In particular, the Directive on the re-use of public sector informa-
tion [Directive 2003/98/EC of 17 November 2003], the Directive
on copyright and related rights in the information society [Directive
2001/29/EC of 22 June 2001], the Directive on the legal protection
of databases [Directive 96/9/EC of 11 March 1996] and a whole
series of Directives to promote trade and on-line services in the
internal market: e.g. the Directives on electronic commerce (22 May
2001) and electronic billing (20 December 2001) and the Directive
and Regulation (7 May 2001) on VAT on digital products.

(6) 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 linguistic diversity in the
Information Society - COM(2000) 323 final – 2000/0128 (CNS).

a. create favourable conditions for the development of the

European multimedia content industry;

b. stimulate demand for, and use of, multimedia content;

c. contribute to the professional, social and cultural develop-

ment of citizens;

d. promote the exchange of knowledge between users and

suppliers.

2.2
The eContent programme covers the four-year period
between January 2001 and January 2005 and is implemented
through three action lines:

a.

improving access to and expanding use of public sector
information;

b. enhancing content production in a multilingual and multi-

cultural environment;

c.

increasing dynamism of the digital content market.

3. The mid-term evaluation of the eContent programme

The mid-term evaluation of the eContent programme (7)
3.1
recognised the programme's positive impact and expressed a
recommendation to continue supporting digital content via
Community policies and programmes.

The evaluation report also contains recommendations
3.2
addressed to the Commission and the Member States on the
implementation of the current eContent programme,
in par-
ticular that the commercial dimension of projects should be
emphasised and that the Commission should encourage coop-
eration and networking among the national contact points that
disseminate information about the programme, with a view to
improving the quality of service provided. The report concludes
by pointing to the need for a follow-on programme and asks
the Commission to maximise the programme's impact by
restricting the potential target group.

(7) See previous footnote - COM(2003) 591 final.

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30.4.2004

3.3
The Commission shared the view that the programme's
impact should be maximised and that some rationalisation of
activities was needed. It also supported the view that multilin-
gual and multicultural elements should be at the core of all the
projects supported.

22 December 2000 adopting the Community eContent
programme.

The EESC also considers the legal instrument used – a

5.2
Decision – to be appropriate.

4. The proposal to establish the eContentplus programme

(2005-2008)

4.1
The objective of the financial support programme eCon-
tentplus is to make digital content in Europe more accessible,
usable and exploitable, facilitating the creation and diffusion of
information and knowledge – in areas of public interest – at
EU level. The programme will thereby help to meet the objec-
tives of eEurope 2005.

4.2
The overall emphasis of the programme, which has a
proposed financial envelope of EUR 163 million over a four-
year period (2005-2008), is on producing quality content that
helps disseminate information and knowledge, and not just
more content. The programme encourages the emergence of
pan-European frameworks
information infrastruc-
tures, etc.) that facilitate the discovery and use of reusable and
interoperable quality digital content with a view to creating
new content-based services. Target areas for action will be
public sector
spatial data, and learning and
cultural content.

information,

(services,

In short,

the programme envisages three operational

4.3
goals:

a. facilitating access to European digital content;

b.

improving quality by fostering best practice in the area of
digital content;

c. reinforcing co-operation and awareness between digital
students,

content
researchers, professionals, ‘reusers’, public services, etc.).

(in particular

stakeholders

scientists,

6. General comments

6.1
The EESC welcomes the Commission's proposal to adopt
a multiannual Community programme to make digital content
in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable, known as
eContentplus (2005-2008), which follows on from the eCon-
tent programme.

6.2
The EESC has in previous opinions expressed its support
and encouragement for all initiatives to promote the informa-
tion society, in particular the eEurope action plan, the multi-
annual MODINIS programme (2003-2005) (1), network and
information security policy (2), combating computer-related
crime (3), the need to develop a non-discriminatory knowledge-
based society (4), the right to safe Internet access in terms of
protection of personal data, commercial transactions and infor-
mation services (5), making Internet use safer by combating
illegal and harmful content, and the reuse of public sector
information (6).

6.3
The EESC wholeheartedly agrees with the Commission's
objective that Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity must be
assured and as such be an integral factor in the development of
the information society (7) and has recently adopted an explora-
tory opinion on creative industries in Europe (8) in which it
explicitly states that the public authorities of the European
Union,
the Member States and the regions must help to
strengthen diversity.

for

(1) Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the
Proposal
a multi-annual
a Council Decision adopting
programme (2003-2005) for the monitoring of eEurope, dissemina-
tion of good practices and the improvement of network and infor-
mation security (MODINIS) - COM(2002) 425 final – 2002/0187
(CNS) of 25 October 2002.

(2) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Communi-
cation from the Commission to the Council, the European Parlia-
ment, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of
the Regions on network and information security: proposal for a
European policy approach – OJ C 48 of 21.02.2002.

(3) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Communi-
cation from the Commission to the Council, the European Parlia-
ment, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of
the Regions - Creating a safer information society by improving the
security of information infrastructures and combating computer-
related crime: eEurope 2002 – OJ C 311 of 7.11.2001.

(4) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on Public sector
information: a key resource for Europe - Green Paper on public
sector information in the information society – OJ C 169 of
16.06.1999.

(5) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for
the Council
a Directive of
concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of
privacy in the
sector – OJ C 123 of
25.04.2001.

the European Parliament and of

telecommunications

5. Legal basis

The EESC agrees with the legal basis suggested by the
5.1
Commission for this initiative (Article 157(3) of the Treaty
establishing the European Community), which is moreover the
same legal basis as the one used in the Council's Decision of

(6) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for
a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
re-use and commercial exploitation of public sector documents -
COM(2002) 207 final - 2002/0123 (COD) of 11 December 2002.
(7) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Communi-
cation from the Commission to the Council, the European Parlia-
ment, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of
the Regions - Principles and guidelines for the community's audiovi-
sual policy in the digital age - COM(1999) 657 final of 19 October
2000.

(8) Exploratory opinion of

the European Economic

and Social

Committee on Europe's Creative Industries of 28 January 2004.

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6.4
Therefore, the EESC cannot but welcome the proposed
Community action, which is intended to bring about the right
conditions to overcome the technical and economic barriers
created because there is too much diversity for relatively small
national markets to absorb. The EESC welcomes the program-
me's approach, as it focuses on methods, tools, processes and
services related to the design, development, access and distribu-
tion of high-quality digital content, while leaving the quantity
of digital content produced up to market forces and other
specific Community initiatives.

6.5
The EESC takes account of the fact that one of the
conclusions of the mid-term evaluation report of the eContent
programme points to the need to clarify the programme's focus
in order to prevent user groups being too diverse and target
markets too fragmented for the initiative to achieve the critical
mass it needs to succeed.

The EESC therefore understands and accepts that the
6.5.1
overriding principle of eContentplus is to maximise the impact
on a group of participants. To this end, a clearer definition is
needed of the criteria governing participants and the frame-
work of objectives.

6.5.2 Nonetheless, in order to prevent an increase in regional
asymmetries between beneficiaries of the eContent programme,
the EESC calls on the Commission to widen the scope of the
‘reinforcing cooperation and awareness’ measure, in particular
‘accompanying measures’.

7. Specific comments

7.1
As regards the programme's financial impact, the EESC
requests clarification on why the appropriations for the ‘Facili-
tating access to, use and exploitation of digital content’ action
for 2006 have been cut back [see point 6.1.1. Financial inter-
vention (Commitment appropriations)], given that this occurs
only once during the initiative's entire programming period.

7.2
Still with regard to the financial impact, and following
on from the above comments, the EESC considers the overall
appropriation for the ‘Reinforcing cooperation and awareness’
measure (between 6 % and 10 %), in particular the budget for
programme evaluation measures, to be insufficient.

7.2.1
The EESC therefore urges the Commission to increase
the appropriations in question and thereby attach greater
importance to the mid-term evaluation of the programme.

in view of the mid-term evaluation report's
7.3 Moreover,
recommendations concerning the profile of
the eContent
follow-on programme (1), in particular that the two overarching

Brussels, 29 April 2004.

for all projects

requirements
to be supported should be
commercialisation – by favouring projects that have a high
market potential and are of demonstrable interest to future user
groups - and ‘Europeanisation’ – i.e. projects should be of
interest to a wide group of European businesses and private
users and at the same time enhance European cultural diversity
– the EESC is of the view that the planned evaluation measures,
as well as the evaluation report mentioned in Article 5(3) of
the proposed Decision, must also gauge – as far as possible –
the degree of satisfaction of users of the projects supported.

The Committee

7.4
also recommends developing and
promoting educational content and scientific and technical
databases that can be accessed free of charge by all. Such mate-
rial, which should be prepared by institutions, universities or
associations, would make a significant contribution to the
Lisbon strategy and the free movement of knowledge in
Europe.

8. Summary and final comments

8.1
Acknowledging the role of digital content in improving
people's access to information and stimulating the economic
and social development of European businesses, the EESC is in
favour of establishing the eContentplus programme as an
instrument to encourage the reuse of public sector information
and the creation of multilingual and multicultural European
content.

8.2
The EESC agrees with the eContentplus programme's
objective that Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity must be
assured and as such be an integral factor in the development of
the information society. It therefore welcomes the programme's
approach, as it focuses on the design, development, access and
distribution of high-quality digital content.

8.3 While it understands and accepts that the overriding
principle of eContentplus is to maximise the impact on a
smaller group of participants, the EESC points to the need to
widen the scope and the respective financial impact of the ‘rein-
forcing cooperation and awareness’ measure, in order to miti-
gate the potential worsening of regional asymmetries between
beneficiaries of the current Community initiative.

in view of the mid-term evaluation report's
8.4 Moreover,
recommendations concerning the profile of
the eContent
follow-on programme, the EESC recommends that the planned
evaluation measures and reports should also gauge – as far as
possible - the degree of satisfaction of users of the services
supported by the programme.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Roger BRIESCH

(1) Point 3.2.3 - A possible profile for ‘eContent II’ - COM(2003) 591

final.