Council Resolution of 9 December 2004 on Looking into the future of Information Communication Technologies (ICT)
Date: 2004-12-09
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: European Union, competitiveness, economic development, electronic government, information network, information society, information system, information technology, research and development

12.3.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 62/1

I

(Information)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 9 December 2004

on Looking into the future of Information Communication Technologies (ICT)

(2005/C 62/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Welcoming the Commission Communication on Challenges for
the European Information Society beyond 2005 and the
Commission Communication on Mobile Broadband Services,

Recalling

10. the Presidency Conclusions of the European Council of 4-5
November 2004 welcoming the Report by the High Level
Group chaired by Mr Kok;

11. the orientations of

the High-Level Meeting of 29-30

September 2004 on Looking into the future of the ICT,

1. the Presidency conclusions of the Lisbon European Council

of 23-24 March 2000;

Acknowledging

2. the Presidency Conclusions of the June 2002 European
the eEurope 2005

Council endorsing the objectives of
Action Plan;

3. the Council Resolution of 18 February 2003 on the imple-

mentation of eEurope Action Plan;

4. the Presidency Conclusions of the 2003 Spring European
inviting EU-15 Member States to put national

Council
broadband strategies in place by the end of 2003;

5. the Council Conclusions of 20 November 2003 on the

Role of e-Government for Europe's Future;

6. the Presidency Conclusions of the 2004 Spring European
Council highlighting the need for new strategies in the
area of electronic communications;

7. the Council conclusions of 8 March 2004 on recent devel-
opments
in
in the electronic communications
Europe confirming the importance of ICT for growth and
competitiveness;

sector

8. the Council conclusions of 8 March 2004 on the mid-term
review of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan, confirming the
validity of the eEurope 2005 targets in the context of
enlargement;

9. the Council conclusions of 10 June 2004 on the revision
of eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the National Broadband
Strategies;

1. that, to help achieve the Lisbon goals of March 2000, there
is clear need at European and national level to review and,
where necessary, improve policies in order to increase the
take-up and deployment of ICT across society as a whole;

2. that the ICT sector is a major economic sector in its own
right, including information technology, electronic commu-
nications and audio-visual
industries, with considerable
potential for future growth and having impact on nearly all
other economic activities;

3. that the use of ICT has a direct and substantial impact on
the European

the productivity and competitiveness of
economy;

4. that ICT is a valuable tool to stimulate social and geogra-
phical cohesion as well as citizenship in an inclusive
Europe, to foster cultural
identities, social integration and
multilingualism, and to increase transparency and participa-
tion in society;

5. that comprehensive and holistic ICT policies can strongly
contribute to EU growth, productivity and competitiveness
objectives by creating high-quality jobs, improving overall
economic performance and by modernising public services
and encouraging modernized business processes both in the
public and the private sector;

C 62/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

12.3.2005

6. that

the policies should be developed in a continuing
dialogue among public authorities, private sector and other
stakeholders in order to be able to address new develop-
ments in the field of ICT;

7. that the EU would benefit from an innovative and competi-
in rapidly expanding and increasingly

tive ICT sector
competitive global markets,

CONSIDERS that for comprehensive and holistic ICT policies
the following issues are relevant:

An excellent ICT sector and innovative businesses

— to continue investing in a solid R&D area for ICT, both in
the public and the private sector, reinforcing European
excellence in R&D, through the creation of a favourable
scientific, financial and entrepreneurial environment;

— to promote a supportive environment which stimulates the
free movement of knowledge and innovation and where
research results are translated into value-added applications
and products;

— to encourage, especially within SMEs, the effective take up
of new e-business processes and the adoption of new busi-
ness models to exploit the potential of ICT.

ICT for Citizens and ICT skills

— To promote access to and the availability of ICT services for
all, inter alia through increased understanding of the poten-
ICT and by encouraging continuous
tial benefits of
improvement of user-friendly technologies thus,
inter alia,
continuing to address the digital divide;

— to encourage measures, such as e-Learning,

to further
develop e-skills for all,
in particular with respect to the
ageing population, genders and people of all ethnic and
social origins, in order to allow them to fully benefit from
the opportunities presented by the Information Society;

— to further integrate ICT in the workplace in ways that raise
productivity and quality of work as well as to strengthen
the ICT component during training processes;

— to find strategic responses to job migration,

including
through promoting adaptability of workers and enterprises
and flexibility combined with security in the labour market.

ICT for public services

— to agree and implement, where appropriate at European
level,
integrated approaches in the use of e-Government
applications, in particular by stimulating cooperation and
exchange of best practices;

— to develop a comprehensive approach, taking into account
the need for organizational adaptation, to exploit the poten-
tial of ICT in order to achieve a better performing and
more efficient public sector while tailoring on-line services
to the needs of businesses and citizens and reducing admin-
istrative burden notably taking into account the need for
trans-border European services;

— to develop European-wide services in the field of e-Health
giving particular attention to the issues of standardisation
and interoperability in order to optimize the provision of
patient treatment and care.

Content and development of products and services

— to promote the development and distribution of rich and
creative content, e.g. through encouraging the re-use of
public sector information;

— to remove, where appropriate, barriers for the availability
of content on different platforms by for instance, encoura-
ging the search for practical solutions in the field of digital
rights management;

— to support the emergence of new services in the enlarged
Internal Market by enhancing an enabling regulatory envir-
onment which takes account of new developments, such as
technical innovation;

— to create, in answer to the growing amount of ICT based
applications, a favourable environment for industry and the
public sector to develop, both in Europe and globally, effec-
tive and interoperable solutions, in particular for electronic
payments, authentication, identity management as well as
security.

Development of networks

— to ensure a consistent and effective regulatory environment
stimulating competition,

for electronic communications
investment and innovation;

— to support the development and use of open standards and

to enhance interoperability of networks and services;

— to support, taking into account the principle of technolo-
gical neutrality, the wider use and availability of broadband
in particular by promoting competing platforms and intero-
perable networks;

— to continue assessing different

spectrum management
models with a view to a more flexible and efficient use of
spectrum at European and global level, taking into account
the development of new and innovative technologies as
well as the methodologies which make use of market
mechanisms.

12.3.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 62/3

Trust and security

— To develop a coherent approach addressing all relevant
to further enhance the culture of
trust-related issues,
network and information security in order to promote reli-
able and effective electronic communications and contri-
buting to the development of
trans-European
services;

secure

— to devise measures for combating illegal, harmful and unso-
licited content in the Internet, in particular where children
are concerned, as well as ‘spam’, in cooperation with all
relevant stakeholders including at international level;

— to ensure an appropriate level of network and information
security for the uptake and usage of new services and the
proper functioning of other infrastructures dependent on
ICT taking into account trust and privacy aspects.

INVITES THE MEMBER STATES to actively review and enhance
their strategic orientations and implementation efforts in order
to contribute to a new Agenda for the Information Society
towards 2010.

INVITES THE COMMISSION

1. to continue monitoring the regulatory framework in the
light of current and future technological and market devel-

opments, and put forward, where needed, proposals to keep
the appropriate regulatory environment that facilitates effi-
cient competition and that is conducive to more investment,
more innovation, new services and lower prices;

2. to analyse the competitiveness of the ICT sector and to start
the preparatory work, taking into account the impact of
ICTs on the European economy, for the follow-up of the
eEurope 2005 Action plan as an important part of the new
Agenda for the Information Society beyond 2005;

3. to recognise the importance of ICT in the coming proposal

for the next research Framework Programme.

INVITES INDUSTRY to continue to feed the market with inno-
vative new ICT applications and services and produce attractive
new content, inter alia benefiting from the European cultural
diversity and multilingualism.

INVITES ALL STAKEHOLDERS to further integrate ICT in their
respective activities in order to reap the full benefits of ICT.

SUBMITS the present Resolution as a contribution to the
debate on the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy by the
Spring European Council 2005.