Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

28. 2. 9 1 Official Journal of the European Communities N o C 5 3 / 6 5

Proposal for a Council Decision setting u p a programme for an information services market

_**CC)M(90)**_ _**570**_ _**final**_

_**(Submitted**_ _**by the**_ _**Commission**_ _**on 28**_ _**January**_ _**1991)**_

( 9 1 / C 53/07)

**THE** **COUNCIL** **OF THE** **EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,**

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Having regard t o the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235

thereof,

Having regard t o the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard t o the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard t o the opinion of the Economic and Social

Committee,

Whereas, by virtue of the economic importance of

information, the creation of an internal information services

market occupies an essential place in the consolidation and
strengthening of the internal market after 1992;

Whereas the initial results of the plan of actions for setting u p
an information services market in Europe adopted by the
Council by Decision 8 8 / 5 2 4 / E E C ( [J] ) indicate that a much
broader programme is necessary;

Whereas there exist numerous legal, administrative, fiscal
and other technical barriers t o the development of an internal
information market which are hindering the setting u p of
new services causing, in some cases, distortions of
competition;

Whereas the future development of information resources
and information-based services requires the application of
new technologies and the achievement of economies of

scale;

Whereas the Community has a competitive position which is
strong in some sectors of the information market but which
needs t o be strengthened in others;

Whereas the need for simplification of procedures, as well as

harmonization, in the field of database access should

undergo priority scrutiny;

Whereas the needs and legitimate demands of users of
information services, and particularly of those in small and
medium-sized enterprises and in the less-favoured regions of
the Community, merit special attention;

**(M OJ N o L 288, 21. 10. 1988, p. 39.**

Whereas the different rates of development in the provision

and use of information services in the Member States merit

special attention with the view of strengthening the internal
cohesion of the Community and the working of the internal

market;

Whereas the growing importance of information in
international transactions, and of the related problems
concerning services, is receiving increasing attention in
international fora and this fact serves t o emphasize the
necessity for Member States t o develop common positions in

those fora;

Whereas the Community's financial engineering mechanisms
may contribute t o the implementation of the present plan of
action, in particular with regard t o strategic or other pilot
and demonstration projects;

Whereas that part of the amount deemed necessary which is
intended t o finance pilot and demonstration projects may be
used, in particular, t o attract any necessary additional
sources of funding from the partners concerned, thereby
having a multiplier effect o n the development of the
European information services market;

Whereas any information market policy must be
complementary t o other Community initiatives, notably in

the fields of telecommunications;

Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary powers t o

this end, other than those of Article 235,

**HAS** **DECIDED** **AS** **FOLLOWS:**

_**v**_ _**Article**_ _**1**_

A programme is hereby set u p with the following
objectives:

1. t o establish an internal market for information

services;

2 . t o stimulate and reinforce the competitive capability of
European suppliers of information services;

3. t o promote the use of advanced information services;

4 . t o reinforce joint efforts t o achieve Community cohesion
with respect to information service policies.

**N o C** **5 3 / 6 6** **Official Journal** **of the** **European Communities** **2 8 . 2 . 9 1**

_**Article**_ _**2**_

**In** **order** **t o** **attain** **the** **objectives referred** **t o in** **Article** **1, the**

**following** **actions** **shall** **be** **undertaken** **under** **the**

**responsibility** **of the** **Commission,** **in** **accordance with**

**Annex** **I:**

**1.** **improving** **the** **understanding** **of the** **market;**

**2 .** **overcoming legal** **and** **administrative barriers;**

**3 .** **increasing user-friendliness** **and** **improving information**

**literacy;**

**4 .** **supporting strategic information initiatives.**

**N o n e** **of the** **actions shall duplicate** **the** **work carried** **out in**

**these areas under Community** **or** **national programmes.**

_**Article**_ _**3**_

**The** **programme shall cover** **a** **period** **of** **five years.**

_**Article**_ _**4**_

**At the** **midterrr^** **and at the end of the** **programme,** **the**

**Commission shall submit** **t o the** **European Parliament** **and t o**

**the** **Council evaluation reports** **o n the** **results obtained**

**through** **the** **implementation** **of the** **actions** **and may** **present,**

**o n the** **basis** **of** **those results, proposals** **for** **adjustment** **in the**

**orientation** **of the** **programme.**

_**Article**_ _**5**_

**1.** **The** **Commission** **is** **hereby authorized** **t o** **negotiate**

**agreements with third countries taking part** **in the**

**development** **of the** **information services market with** **a** **view**

**t o** **associating them wholly** **or** **partially with** **the** **programme.**

**These agreements shall** **be** **based** **o n the** **criteria** **of** **mutual**

**advantage.**

**2 .** **Before entering into** **the** **negotiations referred** **t o in**

**paragraph** **1, the** **Commission shall inform** **the** **Council** **of its**

**intentions** **t o** **negotiate** **and of the** **terms** **of** **reference** **of** **these**

**negotiations.**

_**Article**_ _**6**_

**This Decision shall take effect** **o n . . .**

_ANNEX_ _I_

ACTION LINES O F IMPACT 2

Action line 1: Improving the understanding of the market

1.1. The European Information Market Observatory (IMO) will continue and extend the scope of its activities
for the identification of the European Community's competitive strengths and weaknesses in the sector in
order to keep Community institutions and Member States informed in drawing up their policy. During the
initial phase of Impact the IMO focused its investigations on the supply of database services. It will enlarge
the scope of its investigations to neighbouring publishing markets with particular attention to the market for
business and trade press and scientific, technical and medical publishing. The IMO will give greater focus to
user surveys, in order to gain better knowledge of the means by which users get access to the professional
information they need and identify gaps which require Community initiatives.

1.2. The IMO will keep a permanent inventory of existing market data sources. It will primarily rely on these
sources to purchase the data it needs for its investigations. It will launch or stimulate additional surveys when
the data required are unavailable, incomplete or unreliable. It will also carry out sectoral investigations in
order to identify those sectors of the information market which are inadequately served or slowly progressing
although they are of strategic importance for the Community. Following the initial methodological
workshop organised in 1989 in cooperation with Eurostat, the IMO will support the long term
methodological efforts required for the creation of a conceptual framework that will allow the inclusion of
the information services sector in official statistics. In addition, the IMO will encourage further work in
information sciences and economics of information to stimulate the development of models and forecasting
tools which are required for the prognosis of information market trends and the assessment of their impact
on the rest of the economy.

1.3. The intention of the IMO is to supplement the efforts of Member State companies and other organizations
interested in the development of the market. The activities of the IMO will therefore be undertaken in
conjunction with and not supplant, the efforts of Member States, private sector companies and other

**28. 2. 91** **Official Journal** **of the** **European Communities** **N o C** **5 3 / 6 7**

organizations. The I M O will strengthen its network of national correspondents and improve links with
existing European and national associations in the information market. It will cooperate with these
associations and relevant research organizations on shared-cost projects. In order .to improve its
documentation on the world market for information services, the I M O will seek to exchange on information
with appropriate non-Community organizations such as the Japan'Database Promotion Center and the
American Information Industry Association.

1.4. The results of the I M O analysis will be widely disseminated to users and industry through dissemination
agreements with representative associations and specialized publishers. Each year, the I M O will prepare a
report to Council and Parliament on the main changes which have occurred on the information

market.

Action line 2: Overcoming legal and administrative barriers

2.1. The actions which will be undertaken within the framework of Impact 2 will contribute to strengthening the
synergy of work being carried out on legal problems of a horizontal nature (e.g. protection of privacy,
responsibility, intellectual property, proof and authentication of electronic signatures) and to proposing
Community initiatives specific to certain segments of the information services market.

2.2. The first category of work will contribute to the improvement of the coordination of sectoral initiatives on
legal problems of a horizontal nature being undertaken within the framework of different programmes. With
this in view, the Commission will reinforce the expertise and documentary resources it has acquired with the
help of the Legal Advisory Board (LAB) in order to provide Member States and Community institutions with
easier access to reference documents and to information on current work in the area. T o this effect, the
Commission will examine the possibility of encouraging the development of a specialized database. It will
seek the expertise of LAB in preparing legal initiatives linked to new technologies. In parallel, it will continue
and strengthen its cooperation with the Council of Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development in areas of common interest.

2.3. The second category of work will concentrate on the contribution to the preparation of initiatives specific to
certain segments of the information market. The Commission will examine the legal problems raised by the
implementation of the guidelines designed to strengthen the synergy between the public sector and the
private sector in the information market; it will draw up proposals for harmonizing the rules on the
marketing of data files held by public and quasi-public bodies. It will encourage the drawing up of European
codes of conduct and monitor the application of data privacy protection in relation to the marketing of
certain database services, such as mailing lists and databanks on credit and solvency. It will draw up
Community guidelines to harmonize the conditions for opening up electronic information services to the
public and to provide the framework for contractual arrangements between the various market actors in
areas such as editorial liability, service quality control, confidentiality, database usage and, in particular,
publishers' rights.

2.4. The composition of LAB will be modified by the Commission so as to make better provision for the
participation in its work of public authorities and of relevant market actors as a complement to the
participation of independent legal experts specialized in the various topics for examination.

2.5. The Commission will implement an active policy of disseminating the results of LAB's work, in conjunction
with specialized publishers, in order better to inform the actors of their rights and obligations.

Action line 3: Increasing user-friendliness and improving information literacy

3.1. In complement to current efforts for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) the Commission will promote the
development of open information interchange standards in cooperation with existing standardization
structures such as EWOS, ETSI and CEN/Cenelec. The demonstration and efficient application of
information standards or industry norms for the encoding and structuring of information will be supported.
Incentives will be provided to the acting parties to complete and extend existing information standards. The
Commission will support demonstration projects to promote the application of information standards and
to demonstrate their benefits. This will include in particular standards like the Standardized General
Markup Language (SGML) and Office Document Architecture (ODA). The use of information standards in
public sector information products will be promoted.

3.2. The development of generic interfaces providing flexible and economic solutions to access a large spectrum
of information services will be encouraged. This will cover multimedia and European-wide access. The
integration of multilingual facilities or icons and graphics in information services, the development of
controlled vocabulary and natural language retrieval methods will be supported to facilitate access by
untrained users. Incentives to extend existing natural language interfaces to other Community languages will
be provided to support the Community's cohesion. Efforts will be undertaken to encourage the application
of research results in areas such as experts systems, human-computer interface and natural language
processing, in information services. An umbrella project for testing the viability of European business Kiosk

**N o C** **53/68** **Official Journal** **of the** **European Communities** **28. 2. 91**

facilities that will provide SMEs with easy access to professional audiotex, videotex and ASCII information
services will be developed. Integrated application of different types of information using sound, graphics,
text and images will be stimulated.

3.3. T o promote information literacy among professional people, the Commission will rely primarily on
multipliers in the information services market and on certain groups of end-users. These multipliers include
educational institutions, professional associations, national focal points, gateway operators and the

specialized press.

Actions aimed at supporting the multipliers, experts and end-users will comprise: development of
appropriate tools such as documentation, multi-media shows, videos, in all Community languages;
organization of conferences, seminars, workshops, information days, press conferences; participation in
exhibitions; maintenance of existing directories and extension by new information products; publication of
a regular newsletter giving information on Community initiatives; presence in information distribution
networks of database inventories etc.; providing of a central help desk for users of information services,
including a free phone enquiry service; operation of the multilingual host service E C H O (European
Commission Host Organization) which will continue to especially support new users of electronic
information services and will act as an instrument for transferring know-how to the market place in
accordance with the guidelines for the improvement of the synergy between the public and the private sectors

in the information market.

3.4. Training actions will address all kinds of information handlers within the information chain covering:
database production, host service operatidn, multimedia dissemination of information and use of
information. Support will be given to training intermediaries and professionals in the use of electronic
information both on-line and off-line, with special attention being given to less favoured regions. Actions
will also include training of future trainers in different regions, economic sectors and companies. Close
collaboration with national and local authorities and other programmes (e.g. STAR, Delta) will be

sought.

**Action line** 4: Supporting strategic information initiatives

4.1. The provisions of electronic scientific and technical information services (STI) — a basic resource for the
European research community and for industrial progress — will be stimulated and strengthened. The
Commission will build on recent initiatives in the areas of biotechnology information and engineering
materials data systems by creating a European cooperative network for biotechnology information and the
further development of material data services. These initiatives will aim at improving the availability, quality
and accessibility of European STI services through the creation of appropriate tools and structures which
will foster the integration of existing systems and services and a more efficient sharing of resources.

4.2. Information services development in strategically important market sectors will be stimulated and facilities
for cooperation will be made available. Where necessary the creation of embryonic structures will be
supported. In particular information services which are relevant to Community policies or internal market
operations will be stimulated. Harmonization efforts will be undertaken in new sectors in which
spontaneous but uncoordinated developments take place; in order to stimulate cooperation and networking.
The areas of patent information, information on standards, tourism and transport information, cultural
information, environment and health information, and the standardised production of digitized basic

' geographical maps have been identified as sectors for Community action.

4.3. The strategic information projects may be extended and/or reviewed in the course of programme
implementation on the basis of requirements identified by the IMO, of the results obtained at the mid-term
review of this- programme, and following close consultation with the information industry and the
programme's advisory body. The priority areas which had been identified for pilot/demonstration projects
under the previous Impact programme, but not yet developed so far, will be reviewed and action undertaken,

if market needs are confirmed.

4.4. Commercial ventures for the development of information products and services on the basis of European
partnership, e.g. Groupement Europ6en d'Int£ret Economique (GEIE), will be stimulated by reducing the
financial burden involved in international cooperation. This will be applied in particular to small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A support scheme will be provided for the preparation of international
projects, for joint ventures agreed by partners from different Member States and for the transfer of
know-how from advanced to less favoured regions of the Community. Closer cooperation between
European and national trade or professional organizations will be supported, as well as the involvement of
national focal points in order to promote strategic projects and the creation of an internal market for

information.

4.5. The Commission will explore the possible linking of relevant organizations in the Member States into a
networked media laboratory to develop a European expertise in information product prototype
development for multimedia information services products, for promoting the exchange of experience and
the transfer of know-how, and for achieving synergy between publishers and system suppliers.

**28. 2. 91** **Official Journal** **of the** **European Communities** **N o C** _**53/69**_

4.6. The taking off of the information market in less favoured regions depends on strategic information projects
with catalytic effects. Adequate national/regional initiatives will be encouraged through Community
support to projects with multiplier effect and elements of reproducibility on other geographical areas.

4.7. ' Shared cost projects will be one of the main instruments of the Commission to boost the strategic information

initiatives. In some market sectors pilot and demonstration projects will be required to demonstrate new
development on a sufficiently wide scale and to achieve a catalytic effect on the development of European
information services which otherwise would remain inadequate in size, coverage and scope. These projects
will be defined in collaboration with users and/or industry.

_ANNEX_ _II_

INDICATIVE INTERNAL BREAKDOWN OF APPROPRIATIONS

_**in %**_

1. Improving the understanding of the market 8—10

2. Overcoming legal and administrative barriers 7 9

3. Increasing user friendliness and improving information literacy 33 35

4. Supporting strategic information initiatives 48—50

_ANNEX_ _III_

MODALITIES FOR PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

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

2. The modalities for programme implementation will reflect the experience obtained with the implementation
modalities of the previous Impact programme and taking into account the results of the evaluation report.
This suggests an increased number of shared cost projects for horizontal activities, in particular with regard to
investigations carried out by the IMO, and streaming of procedures with regard to the implementation of
vertical actions to better respond to the constraints and interests of all kinds of market actors, and to increase
and facilitate their participation in the programme.

3. The modalities will comply with the Commission's administrative procedures, and with the criteria of
maximum impact and efficiency, equality and objectivity. They will be designed not to distort competition
and will be adapted to the specific aims of the various action lines of the programme.

4. The project participants must be physical or legal persons established in the Community, or associations
thereof, in particular European Economic Interest Groups (EEIG).

Physical or legal persons from countries which have concluded agreements providing for cooperation in this
programme can, on the basis of the criterium of mutual benefit, participate in projects in the framework of the
present programme. These partners shall not benefit from the financial contribution of the Community. They
will contribute to the general administrative cost!

I

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5. The selection of pilot and demonstration projects will normally be based on the normal call for proposals
procedure which is published in the _Official Journal_ _of the_ _European Communities._ The procedures for the
implementation of the calls for proposals will be tailored to each area and the specific subject needs. The
objectives will be defined by workplans developed in close consultation with the market actors and the

programme's Committee.

The main criteria in supporting projects through calls for proposals will be the impact in expanding the
market without distorting it. Special add-on incentives will be provided to encourage participation of SMEs
and less favoured regions, as well as for the transfer of know-how.

6. The Commission might also implement a more flexible funding scheme than the call for proposals in order to
provide incentives for the creation of European partnerships, in particular involving SMEs and organizations
in less favoured regions, or for other exploratory activities in different segments of the information market.
This scheme might be operated on a continuous basis.

7. The Commission will make provisions to consider in exceptional cases unsolicited project proposals which
provide for a particularly promising and significant information market development, a new highly
innovative approach, an exceptional technology or methodology, and which cannot be submitted within the
normal call for proposals procedure. The objective of avoiding market distortion will be maintained.

8. The modalities for the two latter procedures will be implemented in consultation with the programme's
Committee and in accordance with the Commission's financial Regulations. They will be published each year
in the _Official Journal_ _of the_ _European Communities._

9. Projects fully financed by the Commission within the framework of study and service contracts will be
implemented through calls for tenders in accordance with the Commission's financial Regulations.
Transparency will be achieved by publishing and circulating regularly the work programme to trade

associations and other bodies.

10. For the implementation of the programme the Commission will also undertake activities designed to achieve
the general objectives of the programme and the specific ones of each action line. Such activities will include
workshops, seminars, conferences, studies, awareness campaigns, training courses, support schemes for
joint ventures, assistance to national focal points and specific support for the LFR's information market

development.