Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions eEurope 2005 Action Plan: An Update
Date: 2004-11-18
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: action programme, electronic government, information society

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Official Journal of the European Union

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Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Communication from the Commission to the
the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Council,

the European Parliament,

Committee of the Regions eEurope 2005 Action Plan: An Update

(2005/C 71/14)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on eEurope 2005 Action Plan:
An update (COM(2004)380 final),

Having regard to the decision of the European Commission of 17 May 2004 to consult it on this subject,
under the first paragraph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to the decision of its Bureau of 20 April 2004 to instruct its Commission for Culture and
Education to draw up an Opinion on this subject,

Having regard to its Opinion on eEurope 2005: An information society for all (CdR 136/2002 fin) (1),

Having regard to its Opinion on the Role of eGovernment for Europe's future,

Having regard to its Draft Opinion CdR 193/2004 rev. 2 adopted on 22 September 2004 by its Commis-
(Rapporteur: Mr Risto Ervelä, Chairman of Sauvo Local Council,
sion for Culture and Education,
Chairman of the Regional Council of Southwest Finland (FI/ELDR),

Whereas:

1)

2)

information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in implementing the
economic, social and sustainable development goals of the Lisbon Strategy,

the most important goal must be considered to be the creation of a socially and regionally equitable
European information society,

Adopted the following opinion at its 57th plenary session, held on 17-18 November 2004 (meeting
of 18 November).

1. The Committee of the Regions' views

A socially and regionally equitable information society

notes that the Commission's proposed actions to speed
1.3
up e-inclusion are appropriate as such, but has doubts about
their effectiveness in the short run and thinks that, in order to
avoid digital exclusion, it must be ensured, at least for time
being, that citizens also have the possibility to receive essential
services via traditional channels.

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1.1
shares the concern, reiterated in the mid-term review of
the eEurope Action plan, about the effects of problems caused
by the digital divide and thanks the Commission for making e-
inclusion and social cohesion, as regards regional imbalances
and the potential for delivery of e-services to widen accessibility
for all, a new in priority in the Action Plan update, which is
the subject of the present opinion;

ICT and the Lisbon Strategy

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

feels that regional differences in the availability and
1.2
pricing of broadband services have become a major obstacle to
equal access to and participation in the information society and
considers it important that the work of the Digital Divide
Forum set up to address this problem get under way as soon as
possible;

(1) OJ C 128, 29.5.2003, p.14

agrees with the Commission that

ICT has made it
1.4
possible to raise productivity and increase the opportunities for
inclusion, but stresses that, for example in public administra-
tion, only a small part of the potential has been exploited in
this regard not only in terms of the provision of e-services in
in compliance with the
specific fields, but also investment,
Community legal framework for competition,
in those areas
where demand may not be sufficient to attract commercial
investors;

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1.5
finds that the measures presented in the original Action
Plan and its update put the emphasis on developing on-line
services although using ICT to make government more efficient
and effective also requires changes in the way organisations
work and cooperate with each other;

thinks that, without

1.11
the extensive involvement of
Europe's local and regional authorities, it will not be possible to
implement open-coordination processes to promote voluntary
and multilateral commitments to the priorities for the deploy-
ment of on-line services.

1.6
supports the Commission's view that, after 2005, the
EU's information society policy be aligned more closely to the
needs of the different areas of the Lisbon Strategy so that, in
addition to the economic and social objectives, it give greater
to the relation between ICT and
attention than at present
sustainable development.

2. The Committee of the Regions recommendations

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Impact of enlargement

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

hopes that

2.1
information
society policy by publishing a synthesis of the original eEurope
Action and Plan and its update;

the Commission clarify its

1.7
appreciates the fact that the Commission has responded
quickly to the needs created by enlargement by updating the
eEurope Action Plan;

2.2
thinks that the monitoring of broadband availability
should be improved so as to take better account of differences
in user needs, as broadband services with the lowest capacity
cannot contribute towards achieving the Action Plan targets for
public on-line services, especially in the most remote regions;

points out that, as a result of enlargement, the differ-
1.8
ences between Member States and,
in particular, between
regions have increased, as measured in terms of benchmarking
indicators, and welcomes the steps the Commission proposes
to take to improve the provision of information on bench-
marking results;

1.9
hopes that it will be possible to make use of the good
networks of local and regional authorities, which also cover the
new Member States, particularly in the transfer of good experi-
ence.

Role of local and regional authorities in implementing the Action
Plan

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1.10
emphasises the important and often independent role
of Europe's local and regional authorities in the provision of
on-line services in the areas of administration, health, culture,
tourism and education and training and the part they play in
local and regional projects for the development of communica-
tions services and e-business;

feels that the availability of communications services
2.3
that are important for society cannot depend solely on whether
the private sector is interested in developing them in a particu-
lar area or not; rather, the public sector must be able, where
necessary, to take steps of its own to ensure that the availability
of communications services meets users' needs;

hopes that, particularly in the dissemination of good
2.4
practice, prominence be given not only to on-line services but
also to examples of how ICT has helped to improve quality and
productivity in traditional services and reduce unnecessary red
tape;

supports the idea of enhancing the pan-European
2.5
the
dimension in public on-line services but stresses that
provision of day-to-day services required by companies and
individuals in another Member State is also largely the responsi-
bility of local and regional authorities, and it is hard to imagine
that an effective pan-European dimension could be developed
in this regard without the close involvement of the local and
regional sector;

2.6
proposes that a more detailed report be drawn up on
the reasons why the demand for public on-line services in
Europe falls short of supply;

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2.7
emphasises that all the parties responsible for the devel-
opment of on-line health services should be afforded the
opportunity to participate in drawing up national and regional
roadmaps for e-health;

2.8
expresses the hope that interoperability in the area of
e-learning, as called for in the Action Plan, can be increased by,
for example, establishing European e-learning quality criteria
for different types of education and training;

2.9
considers it important that the Commission carry out,
as quickly as possible, an analysis of the market for and intero-
perability of electronic signatures which also takes into account
in so
applications other than qualified certificates and that,
doing, it place special emphasis on pan-European services;

2.10
requests the Commission to take steps to ensure that
the fact that technology makes it easier to use electronic signa-
tures does not lead to a situation where, especially in the public
sector, their use is demanded even though this is neither neces-
sary nor appropriate from the point of view of the quality or
security of the service;

2.11
points out that, in addition to e-signature procedures
intended for service users, it is at least as important to develop
the use of e-signature enabling a citizen to be absolutely sure
that a message he/she receives from a public authority or a
company comes from the source it is purported to come from;

Brussels, 18 November 2004

endorses

the Commission's blueprint

2.12
for mobile
payments and stresses that, because of Europe's advanced
mobile market, mobile payments could help to spearhead the
achievement of the Lisbon Strategy goals over the next few
years;

2.13
notes that the Commission's contribution to devel-
oping a framework for digital rights management and inviting
stakeholders to joint discussions is necessary and that digital
rights owners will be encouraged to agree on the degree of
interoperability;

2.14
warmly welcomes the Commission's plan to establish
a database of SME best practices with regard to e-business and
hopes that Europe's local and regional authorities, which work
in close cooperation with SMEs, will also be able to play a full
part in the development and use of the database;

requests the Commission to widen the scope of the
2.15
guidelines on multi-platform approaches to include traditional
service channels, in addition to on-line services, so as to alle-
viate the problems caused by the digital divide;

thinks that the benchmarking data provided by the
2.16
proposed eEurope information service should make it possible
to compare the performance of not only Member States but
also regions since the differences between the latter are large
and information on a region's shortcomings would enable the
region's decision-makers to focus on redressing them.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB