Telecommunications Ministers back the new European Digital Agenda
02.06.201014:46
Piotr
31 May 2010, the Council of Ministers of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy approved a document of conclusions supporting the European Digital Agenda at its telecommunications session in Brussels. The ministers form 27 EU Member Countries also decided that the Office of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) would be based in Riga (Latvia).
The key point of the conference was to present the Digital Agenda for Europe 2010-2020. Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes identified its most significant fundations and components for development of information and communication technologies (ICT).
The Digital Agenda continues the trends envisaged under the Lisbon Strategy and outlines seven priority areas for action:
• A new Single Market to deliver the benefits of the digital era;
• Improve ICT standard-setting and interoperability;
• Enhance trust and security;
• Increase Europeans' access to fast and ultra fast Internet;
• Boost cutting-edge research and innovation in ICT;
• Empower all Europeans with digital skills and accessible online services;
• Unleash the potential of ICT to benefit society.
The programme first of all aims to contribute significantly to the EU’s economic growth and spread the benefits of the digital era to all sections of the society. It is crucial to allow people to create, combine and innovate we need ICT products and services to be open and interoperable. Another target is fast and very fast Internet to ensure citizens can access the content and services they want.
To give another examples, within a Digital Single Market, citizens should be able to enjoy commercial services and cultural entertainment across borders. The Digital Agenda proposes actions for a variety of issues, e.g. borderless and safe EU web services and digital content markets, a balanced regulatory framework with clear copyrights regimes, public digital library Europeana and digitalisation of cultural heritage, bridging the digital gap by promoting digital literacy and competences, smart use of ICTs and exploitation of information, combating cyber-attacks against information systems, radio spectrum, and ultra high-speed networks.
For more information on the Digital Agenda please see:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm
At its session, the ministers discussed the summary of the responses to the public consultation on future universal service in digital era.
For consultation on universal service principles in e-communications please see:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/public_consult/universal_service_2010/index_en.htm
During the meeting, the Council debated on 15th Progress Report on the Single European Electronic Communications Market - 2009, and Report on the National Telecoms Product and Service Markets. The first one analyses the market and regulatory developments in each Member State in 2009, and incorporation of the EU law into national legislation. The second one reviews national regulatory measures in each EU country.
For more information on the reports please see respectively:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/communications_reports/annualreports/15th/index_en.htm
and
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/implementation_enforcement/eu_consultation_procedures/index_en.htm
