Common Position (EC) No 2/2005 of 24 September 2004 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to the adoption of 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
Date: 2004-09-24
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU aid, EU programme, digital technology, information society, technological change

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COMMON POSITION (EC) No 2/2005

adopted by the Council on 24 September 2004

with a view to the adoption of Decision No.../2005/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of... establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe
more accessible, usable and exploitable

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2005/C 25E/02)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO-
PEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com-
munity, and in particular Article 157(3) thereof,

secure services, applications and content over broadband
networks and thus to provide a favourable environment
for private investment, for the creation of new jobs, to
boost productivity, to modernise public services and to
give everyone the opportunity to participate in the
global information society.

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee (1),

(5)

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (2),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The evolution of the information society and the emer-
influence the life of every
gence of broadband will
citizen in the European Union by, inter alia, stimulating
access to knowledge and new ways of acquiring knowl-
edge, thus increasing the demand for new content, appli-
cations and services.

Internet penetration in the Community is still growing
considerably. The opportunities offered by the Internet
should be exploited in order to enable every individual
and organisation in the Community to enjoy the social
and economic benefits of
sharing information and
knowledge. The stage has now been set in Europe to
exploit the potential of digital content.

The conclusions of the European Council held in Lisbon
on 23 and 24 March 2000 stressed that the shift to a
digital, knowledge-based economy, prompted by new
goods and services, will be a powerful engine for
growth, competitiveness and jobs. On that occasion the
role of the content industries in creating added value by
exploiting and networking European cultural diversity
was specifically recognised.

(4)

The eEurope 2005 Action Plan, developing the Lisbon
strategy, calls for actions to stimulate the emergence of

(1) OJ C 117, 30.4.2004, p. 49.
(2) Opinion of the European Parliament of 22 April 2004 (OJ C 104 E,
30.4.2004), Council Common Position of 24 September 2004 and
Position of the European Parliament of ………. (not yet published
in the Official Journal).

The demand for quality digital content in Europe, with
balanced access and user rights, by a broad community,
be they citizens in society, students, researchers, SMEs
and other business users, or people with special needs
wishing to augment
‘re-users’
wishing to exploit digital content resources to create
services, is increasingly apparent.

their knowledge, or

(6)

(7)

(8)

are

content

stakeholders

Digital
content providers
(including public and private organisations and institu-
tions that create, collect or own digital content) and
content users (including organisations and entreprises
that are end-users that re-use and/or add value to digital
content). Particular attention should be given to the
participation of SMEs.

The eContent Programme (2001 to 2004) adopted by
Council Decision 2001/48/EC of 22 December 2000 (3)
favoured the development and use of European digital
content on the Internet and the linguistic diversity of
in the information society. The
European websites
Commission Communication of 10 October 2003
concerning the mid-term evaluation of
the eContent
Programme reaffirms the importance of acting in this
field.

Technological advances offer the potential to add value
to content in the form of embedded knowledge and to
improve interoperability at the service level, which is
fundamental to accessing, using and distributing digital
content. This is particularly relevant to those areas of
public interest to be addressed by this programme.

(3) OJ L 14, 18.1.2001, p. 32.

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(9)

of

Fostering of solid business models will enhance the
continuity
this
projects
programme, and will thus improve the conditions for
greater economic return from services based on access
to, and reuse of, digital content.

initiated

under

the

(16)

This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the
programme, a financial
framework constituting the
prime reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the
Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the
European Parliament, the Council and the Commission
on budgetary discipline
the
budgetary procedure (7),
the budgetary authority
during the annual budgetary procedure.

and improvement of

for

(10) A legislative framework has been defined to deal with
in the information

the challenges of digital content
society (1) (2) (3).

(17)

(11) Different practices among Member States continue to
pose technical obstacles impeding wide access, use, reuse
and exploitation of public sector information in the
Community.

Since the objectives of
the proposed action, namely
aiming at making digital content in Europe more acces-
sible, usable and exploitable, cannot be sufficiently
achieved by the Member States due to the transnational
character of the issues at stake and can therefore, by
reason of the European scope and effects of the actions,
be better achieved at Community level, the Community
may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of
subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.
In
accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set
out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond
what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,

(12) Where the digital content involves personal data, Direc-
tives 95/46/EC (4)
be
respected and the technologies used should respect and,
where possible, enhance privacy.

and 2002/58/EC (5)

should

(13)

Community actions undertaken concerning the content
of information should promote the Community's multi-
lingual and multicultural specificity.

(14)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this
Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council
Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down
the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers
conferred on the Commission (6).

(15)

The Commission should ensure complementarity and
synergy with
and
related Community
programmes, in particular those related to education and
culture and to the European Interoperability Framework.

initiatives

(1) Directive 2003/98/EC of

the
Council of 17 November 2003 on the reuse of public sector infor-
mation (OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, p. 90).

the European Parliament and of

(2) Directive 2001/29/EC of

the
Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of
copyright and related rights in the information society, (OJ L 167,
22.6.2001, p. 10).

the European Parliament and of

(3) Directive 96/9 EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of
11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases (OJ L 77,
27.3.1996, p. 20).

(4) Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to
the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such
data (OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31). Directive as amended by
Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

(5) Directive 2002/58/EC of

the European Parliament and of

the
Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data
and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications
sector
communications)
(OJ L 201, 31.7.2002, p. 37).

(Directive on privacy and electronic

(6) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Objective of the Programme

1.
This Decision establishes a Community programme for
the period 2005 to 2008 to make digital content in Europe
more accessible, usable and exploitable, facilitating the creation
and diffusion of information — in areas of public interest — at
Community level.

The programme
shall be known as
programme (hereinafter ‘the Programme’).

the

‘eContentplus’

In order to attain the overall aim of the Programme, the

2.
following lines of action shall be addressed:

(a) facilitating at Community level access to digital content, its

use and exploitation;

(b) facilitating improvement of quality and enhancing best
practice related to digital content between content provi-
ders and users, and across sectors;

(c) reinforcing cooperation between digital content

stake-

holders and awareness.

(7) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1. Agreement as amended by Decision
2003/429/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L
147, 14.6.2003, p. 25).

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The activities to be carried out under those lines of action
target areas of public sector information, spatial data and
educational, cultural and scientific content as set out in Annex
I. The Programme shall be implemented in accordance with
Annex II.

Article 2

Participation

Community contribution equal to, or more than, EUR 1
million;

(d) any departure from the rules set out in Annex II.

The Commission shall inform the committee referred to
the

5.
in Article 4 of progress with the implementation of
Programme.

1.
Participation in the Programme shall be open to legal
entities established in the Member States. It shall also be open
to participation of legal entities established in the candidate
countries in accordance with bilateral agreements in existence
or to be concluded with those countries.

Article 4

Committee

1.

The Commission shall be assisted by a committee.

2.
Participation in the Programme may be opened to legal
entities established in EFTA States which are contracting parties
to the EEA Agreement, in accordance with the provisions of
that Agreement.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and
7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

3.
Participation in the Programme may be opened, without
financial support by the Community, to legal entities estab-
lished in third countries and to international organisations,
where such participation contributes effectively to the imple-
mentation of the Programme. The decision to allow such parti-
cipation shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure
referred to in Article 4(2).

The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at three months.

3.

The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

Article 3

Monitoring and Evaluation

Article 5

Competences of the Commission

The Commission shall be responsible for the implementa-

1.
tion of the Programme.

The Commission shall draw up a work programme on

2.
the basis of this Decision.

3.
In the implementation of the Programme, the Commis-
sion shall, in close cooperation with the Member States, ensure
general consistency and complementarity with other relevant
Community policies, programmes and actions that impinge
upon the development and use of European digital content and
the promotion of linguistic diversity in the information society,
in particular the Community research and technological devel-
opment programmes,
eLearning,
MODINIS and Safer Internet.

eInclusion,

eTEN,

IDA,

The Commission shall act in accordance with the proce-
the

4.
dure referred to in Article 4(2)
following:

for the purposes of

1.
In order to ensure that Community aid is used efficiently,
the Commission shall ensure that actions under this Decision
are subject to prior appraisal, follow-up and subsequent evalua-
tion.

2.
The Commission shall monitor the implementation of
projects under the Programme. The Commission shall evaluate
the manner in which the projects have been carried out and
the impact of their implementation in order to assess whether
the original objectives have been achieved.

3.
The Commission shall report on the implementation of
the lines of action referred to in Article 1(2) to the European
Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions by mid-2006 at
the latest. In this context, the Commission shall report on the
consistency of the amount for 2007 and 2008 with the finan-
cial perspective. If applicable, the Commission shall take the
necessary steps within the budgetary procedures for 2007 and
2008 to ensure the consistency of the annual appropriations
with the financial perspective. The Commission shall submit a
final evaluation report at the end of the Programme.

(a) adoption and modifications of the work programme;

(b) determination of the criteria and content of calls for propo-

sals, in line with the objectives set out in Article 1;

(c) assessment of the projects proposed under calls for propo-
sals for Community funding of an estimated amount of

4.
The Commission shall forward the results of its quantita-
tive and qualitative evaluations to the European Parliament and
the Council together with any appropriate proposals for the
amendment of this Decision. The results shall be forwarded
before presentation of the draft general budget of the European
Union for the years 2007 and 2009 respectively.

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Article 6

Financial framework

1.
The financial framework for the implementation of the
Community actions under this Decision for the period from 1
January 2005 to 31 December 2008 is hereby set at
EUR 135 million, of which EUR 55,6 million is for the period
until 31 December 2006.

2.
For the period following 31 December 2006, the amount
shall be deemed to be confirmed if it is consistent for this
phase with the financial perspective in force for the period
commencing in 2007.

3.
The annual appropriations for the period from 2005 to
2008 shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the
limits of the financial perspective. An indicative breakdown of
expenditure is given in Annex III.

Done at Brussels,

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

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ANNEX I

ACTIONS

I. INTRODUCTION

eContentplus has the overall aim of making digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable, facili-
tating the creation and diffusion of information – in areas of public interest – at Community level.

It will create better conditions for accessing and managing digital content and services in multilingual and multicul-
tural environments. It will broaden users' choice and support new ways of interacting with knowledge-enhanced
digital content, a feature which is becoming essential to make content more dynamic and tailored to specific contexts
(learning, cultural, people with special needs, etc.).

The Programme will pave the way for a structured framework for quality digital content in Europe — The European
Digital Content Area — by facilitating transfer of experiences, best practice and cross-fertilisation between content
sectors, content providers and users.

Three lines of action are foreseen:

(a) facilitating at Community level access to digital content, its use and exploitation;

(b) facilitating improvement of quality and enhancing best practice related to digital content between content provi-

ders and users, and across sectors;

(c) reinforcing cooperation between digital content stakeholders and awareness.

II. LINES OF ACTION

A. Facilitating at Community level access to digital content, its use and exploitation

The activities to be carried out under this line of action encompass the establishment of networks and alliances
between stakeholders, encouraging the creation of new services.

Target areas are public sector information, spatial data, learning and cultural content.

The focus will be on:

(a) supporting a wider recognition of the importance of public sector information (PSI), its commercial value and
associated societal implications of its use. Activities shall improve effective cross-border use and exploitation
of PSI between public sector organisations and private companies, including SMEs, for added-value informa-
tion products and services;

(b) encouraging a wider use of spatial data by public sector bodies, private companies, including SMEs, and citi-
zens through cooperation mechanisms at European level. Activities should tackle both technical and organisa-
tional
issues, avoiding duplications and underdeveloped territorial data sets. They should promote cross-
border interoperability, supporting coordination between mapping agencies and fostering the emergence of
new services at European level for mobile users. They should also support the use of open standards;

(c) fostering the proliferation of open European knowledge pools of digital objects, for education and research
communities, as well as the individual. The activities will support the creation of trans-European brokering
services for digital learning content, with associated business models. The activities should also encourage the
use of open standards, and the creation of large user groups analysing and testing pre-standardisation and
specifications schemes with a view to conveying European multilingual and multicultural aspects into the
process of definition of global standards for digital learning content;

(d) promoting the emergence of trans-European information infrastructures for accessing and using high quality
European digital cultural and scientific resources through the linking of virtual
libraries, community
memories, etc. Activities should encompass coordinated approaches to digitisation and collection building,
preservation of digital objects and inventories of cultural and scientific digital resources. They should improve
access to digital cultural and scientific assets through effective licensing schemes and collective pre-emptive
clearing of rights.

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B. Facilitating improvement of quality and enhancing best practice related to digital content between

content providers and users, and across sectors

The activities to be carried out under this line of action are intended to facilitate the identification and wide diffu-
sion of best practice in methods, processes and operations to achieve higher quality, greater efficiency and effec-
tiveness in the creation, use and distribution of digital content.

These activities encompass experiments that demonstrate searchability, usability, reusability, composability and
interoperability of digital content within the context of the existing legal framework while meeting from the early
stage of the process the requirements of different target groups and markets in an increasingly multilingual and
multicultural environment, and extending beyond mere localisation technologies.

These activities will exploit the benefits of enhancing digital content with machine-understandable data (semanti-
cally well-defined metadata based on relevant descriptive terminology, vocabularies and ontologies).

The experiments will be conducted in thematic clusters. The gathering, dissemination and cross-sector fertilisation
of gained knowledge will be an integral part of the experiments.

Target application areas are public sector information, spatial data, digital learning and cultural content, as well as
scientific and scholarly digital content.

C. Reinforcing cooperation between digital content stakeholders and awareness

The activities to be carried out under this line of action include measures accompanying relevant legislation
relating to digital content, and fostering increased collaboration between digital content stakeholders, as well as
awareness building. These activities will support the development of benchmarking, monitoring and analysis
tools, the impact assessment of the Programme and the dissemination of results. They will identify and analyse
emerging opportunities and problems (e.g. trust, quality marking, intellectual property rights in education) and
propose, as appropriate, solutions.

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ANNEX II

THE MEANS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAMME

1. The Commission will implement the Programme in accordance with the technical content specified in Annex I.

2. The Programme will be executed through indirect action comprising:

(a) shared-cost actions

(i) Projects designed to increase knowledge so as to improve existing products, processes and/or services and/or
to meet the needs of Community policies. The Community funding will normally not exceed 50 % of the
cost of the project. Public sector bodies may be reimbursed on the basis of 100 % of additional costs;

(ii) Best practice actions to spread knowledge. They will normally be conducted in thematic clusters and linked
through thematic networks. The Community contribution for the measures set out under this point will be
limited to direct costs deemed necessary or appropriate for achieving the specific objectives of the action;

(iii) Thematic networks: networks bringing together a variety of stakeholders around a given technological and
organisational objective, so as to facilitate coordination activities and the transfer of knowledge. They may be
linked to best practice actions. Support will be granted towards the additional eligible costs of coordinating
and implementing the network. The Community participation may cover the additional eligible costs of
these measures.

(b) accompanying measures

Accompanying measures will contribute to the implementation of the Programme or the preparation of future
activities. Measures devoted to the commercialisation of products, process or services, marketing activities and
sales promotion are excluded.

(i) studies in support of the Programme, including the preparation of future activities;

(ii) exchange of information, conferences, seminars, workshops or other meetings and the management of clus-

tered activities;

(iii) dissemination, information and communication activities.

3. The selection of shared-cost actions will be based on calls for proposals published on the Commission's Internet site

in accordance with the financial provisions in force.

4. Applications for Community support should provide, where appropriate, a financial plan listing all the components
of the funding of the projects, including the financial support requested from the Community, and any other requests
for or grants of support from other sources.

5. Accompanying measures will be implemented through calls for tenders in accordance with the financial provisions in

force.

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ANNEX III

INDICATIVE BREAKDOWN OF EXPENDITURE

1. Facilitating at Community level access to digital content, its use and exploitation

40 – 50 %

2. Facilitating improvement of quality and enhancing best practice related to digital content between

45 – 55 %

content providers and users, and across sectors

3. Reinforcing cooperation between digital content stakeholders and awareness

8 – 12 %

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 13 February 2004 the Commission adopted the above proposal for a Decision of the European

Parliament and of the Council (1). The proposal is based on Article 157(3) of the Treaty.

2. The European Parliament delivered its opinion on 22 April 2004 and the Economic and Social

Committee on 29 April 2004 and the Committee of Regions did not give an opinion.

3. The Commission forwarded its amended proposal to the European Parliament and the Council on 4

May 2004.

4. On 24 September 2004 the Council adopted its common position in accordance with Article 251

of the Treaty.

II. OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this proposal is to create conditions for broader access to and use of digital content
and where necessary for greater economic return from services based on access and (re)use of digital
content through making a significant contribution to the eEurope strategy in sectors such as e-learning,
e-government etc (a succession programme to the current eContent programme expiring end-2004).

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The common position shares the overall objective of the proposal submitted by the Commission, and
in the course of
also, in general terms, the proposed means of attaining that objective. However,
discussion within the Council, the text of the proposal has partly been reworded. The main points of
the common position which differ from the Commission proposal and the European Parliaments
amendments (see below point IV) are as follows:

1. Given the size of the projects envisaged in the proposal, the Council considered it appropriate to
make a reference to the SMEs and the particular attention to be given to their participation (Recitals
5 and 6 as well as Annex I.II.A). Moreover, a reference to people with special needs was added to
Recital 5 and Annex I.I.

2. The common position modifies Article 3 by adding a new paragraph specifying the consistency and
complementarity of the programme with other relevant Community policies, programmes and
actions.

3. The Council considers that in implementing the programme, the Commission should work in close
cooperation with the Member States and ensure transparency. The common position has conse-
quently modified Articles 3 and 4 as far as comitology is concerned in favour of a management
procedure. These changes are further clarified in Recital 14.

4. As far as the financial framework (Article 6) of the programme is concerned, the common position
reduces the total amount proposed by the Commission. The Commission had proposed a substan-
tial increase of the budget from the current programme and, while all Member States recognised the
importance of the programme, a lesser increase was considered appropriate. In line with other legis-
lation a break clause was inserted to maintain budget discipline as the programme extends beyond
the current financial perspective.

5. The common position also modifies the indicative breakdown of expenditure in Annex III. The

Council considered it appropriate to give more impetus on Action line 1.

(1) OJ C 98, 23.4.2004, p. 39.

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IV. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMENDMENTS

1. European Parliament amendments accepted by the Commission and adopted by the Council

— Amendment 1 has been incorporated into the common position as Recital 6 with an addition

from the Council concerning the SMEs.

— Amendment 2 was incorporated into Article 1(1).

— Amendments 3, 4 and 5 have been incorporated into Article 1(2) of the common position
except for the reference to ‘areas for public interest’ which the Council considered already
covered in paragraph 1 of the same Article. Moreover, the Council has kept in the reference to
‘awareness’ in paragraph 2, which it considers of importance. This is also valid for the related
amendments 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16 which the Council has incorporated into Annexes I and III.

— The Council incorporated the amendments 6 and 7 into Article 5 of its common position,

although in a slightly redrafted wording for amendment 6.

— The amendments 8, 9 and 10 have all been incorporated to Article 6 of the Common position
except for the total amount of the financial framework, which the Council changed according
to reasons given above.

2. European Parliament amendments accepted by the Commission but not adopted by the

Council

— The Council has not adopted amendment 15 as it feels that awareness building is an important

part of the programme.