CELEX: 51982PC0191
Language: en
Date: 1982-04-15
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION offering support under the Community support mechanism in the field of data-processing under Council Regulation (EEC) No 1996/79 to Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling of Utrecht and Christian Rovsing of Copenhagen (submitted to the Council by the Commission)

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COM (82) 191
Vol. 1982/0060
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 ---pagebreak---       COMMISSION                                                   Brussels , „  ...
        OF THE                                                                15 April 1982
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES                                               FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
    General Secretariat
                                              Proposal for a
                                            COUNCIL DECISION
                    offering support under the Community support mechanism in
                        the field of data-processing under Council Regulation
                  ( EEC ) No 1996 / 79 to Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling of Utrecht
                                  and Christian Rovsing of Copenhagen
                             ( submitted to the Council by the Commission )
     C0M(82 ) 191         final
 ---pagebreak---                                  EXPOSE DES MOTIFS
Introduction
1.  Council Regulation ( EEC ) No . 1996 / 79 establishing a Community support
    mechanism in the field of data processing provides for the Commission
    to execute the mechanism , and to take the Decisions necessary to
    support projects once the Advisory Committee for the Management and
    Coordination of Data Processing Programmes , set up by Decisi i
    79/ 784/EEC , has given a favourable opinion . The Regulation goes on to
    provide ( in Article 8 ) that , when the Advisory Committee does not give
    a favourable opinion , by the qualified majority that is laid down , the
    Commission shall submit a draft Decision to the Council without delay .
2.  During the last week of August 1981 the Commission submitted to the
    Advisory Committee 22 proposals for Community support - for 22 projects .
    At its meeting on 13th and 14th October the Committee gave a favourable
    opinion by the required qualified majority on 18 of these 22 , and
    agreed to deal with 2 of the other 4 at a later date . The draft
    Decision attached concerns one of the remaining 2 projects , and is su-
    mitted in accordance with Article 8 of the Regulation
The Proposal                                                    ,
3.  The proposal was for a development project for multilingual facilo. t.-s
    for videotex information distribution systems from the Euro voor
    Systeemontwikkeling , Utrecht , in collaboration with Christian RO-JS in-
    International A/ S of Copenhagen . They asked for a p,rant of the maxi •
    of 100% of the cost of the feasibility phase of the project , estir-
    at 92 . Q00 ECU , and a loan of 1.856.500 , or 50% of the cost of the
    development phase . The Commission had counter proposed a grant for 1 c?
    feasibility phase to be followed by a pilot project for the crucie 1
    element of the project ( the development of the final fully automat :
    translation stage of the system ) at an overall cost of 298.785 ECU ,
    arguing that if this crucial element were proved , the full development
    project should then be financable from the private sector alone without
    thei need for further public aid ( in other words would no longer then
    conform to criterion 2.1.3 of the mechanism - Council Decision
    79 /783/EEC ). The proposers had indicated that they would accept such
    a counter proposal .
 ---pagebreak--- The development of the use of videotex systems to provide Community
wide information services from databases to the general public is
inevitably hampered by our using many languages . A database in , say ,
English is only of immediate use to those v/ho understand English ; it
has to be first translated into other languages , and then be maintained
in these other languages , if it is to be generally available in non
English-speaking member states - a costly procedure possibly worthwhile
for say German , or French , or Italian , but never likely to be worth­
while for minority languages . .
The proposers believe they can develop a system , using a binary coded
version of Esperanto as an intermediate language ( because Esperanto
is a viable language - it is understood by about 20 million - and
because of the absence of grammatical irregularities and lexical ambi­
guities in it ), making use of a firmware chip incorporated in videotex
sets , that will allow the general public to interrogate databases and
receive them on their screen in their own language . The final system
would make use of computer aided translation of the original database
into Esperanto ( which , with the original language version , will be the
only version that will need updating ) and fully automatic translation
from the Esperanto database via the firmware chip into the language
of the owner of the videotex receiver . Such a possibility would have
advantages for main language speakers - the costs of creating and main­
taining a separate database in each language would be avoided - but
even greater advantage for those who share the native language of the
two proposers since , without some such development , they will either be
barred access to Community wide databases , or be condemned to learn
another language , probably English .
The project is technically risky . Success can in no way be guaranteed .
However the Commission does not , nor did the other members of the
Advisory Committee , accept the arguments put forward by the two
member states opposing the project that it is too far fetched , at: n
duplication of other work on , for example , Eurotra . The proposal ■.?
not for a general purpose translation system , but specially get- d
videotex systems , and the sorts of database likely to be made ^ _
through videotex . Other work , on for example the Titus projet , : ,
shown that the approach might be feasible . The Commission 's prop
to finance a feasibility study and pilot trial of the software nt :.
sary for the firmware chip is well suited to showing if the technical
difficulties in the way of developing the full system can be resolveu .
 ---pagebreak---                                       ,1
Wider aims of the support mechanism
7.  There is one other consideration which , in particular , argues for the
    adoption not only of this but also of the one other proposal on which
    the Advisory Committee did not find a qualified majority for a favour­
    able opinion , and which is also being put forward by the Commission
    at this time . This is national - balance . By this the Commission is not ,
    in any way , advancing the doctrine of juste retour . However , one of
    the objects of the Community support mechanism is to build up the
    industry , Community wide , through collaborative projects . To this end
    the Commission has sought to include worthwhile projects ( and this
    project is in the Commission 's opinion , as has already been said , worth­
    while in its own right ) from the smaller member states and software
    houses . Now this , and the other proposal , involve three of the smaller
    member states , and one state - the Netherlands - would be involved in
    both . Both were rejected in the Advisory Committee by the votes of the
    same two larger member states , both of whom are well represented among
    the 18 accepted and 2 proposals still under consideration . The
    Commission hopes that the Council will give due weight to this politi­
    cal argument , and will let it outweigh the technical arguments against
    these two projects that were put forward in the Advisory Committee by
    the representatives of those two states , which arguments were not , in
    any event , supported by the majority of the representatives from the
    other member states .
 ---pagebreak---                                                  PROPOSAL FOR A
                                                 COUNCIL DECISION
            offering support under the Community support mechanism in the field
            of data-processing under Council Regulation ( EEC ) N° 1996 /79 to
            Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling of Utrecht and Christian Rovsing of
            Copenhagen
        THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,
      Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic
      Community ;
      Having regard to Council Regulation ( EEC ) N° 1996 /79 of 11 September
       1979 on a Community support mechanism in the field of data-processing
       ( 1 ) and in particular Article 8 thereof ;
      paving regard to the proposal from the Commission ;
      Whereas the Commission has received an application for support for
      a feasibility study for " multi-lingual facilities /"or videotex
       information systems ", to be followed , if successful , by a pilot project
       ( hereinafter the project ) in response to its second call for proposals
      for software and application projects from Buro voor Systeem-
      ontwikkeling of Utrecht and Christian Rovsing of Copenhagen ;
      Whereas the Commission has intended proceeding with the proposal and
      Jias submitted accordingly to the Advisory Committee for the Management
      and Cpordination of Data-Processing Programmes a Draft Decision
      accompanied by a report ;
      Whereas the Committee did not give a favourable decision on the *
      Commission 's Draft Decision with the qualifying majority required by
      the said Regulation ;
      Whereas the project covered by the application corresponds with the
      conditions of the said Council Regulation and with the aims and
      iprj,teria of' the multiannual programme ( 1979 to 1983 ) adopted by the
      Coupcii             jj-ts Decision 79/783/EEC ( 1 );
      Whereas this project is likely to lead to the development of a system
      which would include , in. due course , firmware for videotex terminals
      that will translate information from an unambiguous intermediate
       language ( eg . Esperanto ) into a given natural language , and , thus , help
      to overcome the language barrier to the opening up of the Common Market
       to the widespread provision of information services from initially-
      mono-lingual databases through videotex , and appears , therefore , to be
       of Community interest within the terms of Article 3 of the said Council
      Regulation ;
      Whereas £t is the Commission 's opinion that the proposers should
       concentrate in the first instance on the problems posed by translation
       from the intermediate language and that this point be covered in the
       support contract ,
       f -n n.T 1. 9-31              11 gppt-pmhpr 1 97-0-                                                      .../...
Provisional address : Ru« de I. Loi 200. B-1049 Brussels - Telephone 735 00 40 / 73580 40 - Teiepr.pn.c «C = re„: "COMEUfi BrusseV -
                                                        Telex : " 21 877 COMEU B "
                                                      A
 ---pagebreak---                                 - 2  -
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
Article 1
Buro voor Systeemontwikkelmg of Utrecht and Christian Rovsing of
Copenhagen shall be offered the support of a grant of 100% of costs up
to a maximum of 100.000 ECU for the feasibility study and a loan of 50%
of costs up to a maximum of 198.785 ECU for the pilot project to be
paid as the work proceeds .
Article 2
The loan shall be repayable to the Commission during the period i?87 to
1991 .
Article 3
This support shall be the subject of a contract to be negotiated speci­
fying the details of the project and the detailed conditions for the
support . The offer of support shall lapse if this contract be not
concluded within four months of the date of this Decision or within
such longer period that at the request of the proposers the Commission
shall have granted in writing .
Article 4
This Decision is addressed to :
Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling
Kon . Wilhelminalaan 3
Postbus 8348
3503 Utrecht
The Netherlands
Christian Rovsing International A / S
H.C. Andersons Blvd 12
1553 Copenhagen V
Denmark .
Done in Brussels ,                     For the Council