EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General XIII Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research Information society International aspects of Information society and telecommunications       Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe LOCREGIS Seminar on Local and Regional Information Society Tha Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, Helsinki, 21-23 January 1998   European Union Information Society Policy and Actions in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe Mr Joerg Wenzel Chief Advisor, European Commission DGXIII Thankyou, Mr Mayor for your kind words of welcome. I am delighted to visit Helsinki even in the depths of winter and I note in particular the warmth of the welcome inside which is more than adequate compensation for what we see outside. Even in the long winter nights there are many bright lights in these northern latitudes and the one which impresses me most is the dynamic way that Scandinavian countries in particular have addressed themselves to the demands of the new age of the Information Society. Their adoption of new telecommunications services e.g. mobility, their agility in being at the forefront of modernising telecommunications regulations and their speed of adoption of new services of the Information Society are truly remarkable and an example to the rest of us. The OECD paid tribute to the “astonishingly high level of IT and telecommunications penetration and expertise” in Finland already in 1992 but also noted that the country lacked a clear statement of strategy in these areas. Finland responded at ministerial level by developing their National Strategy in a publication entitled “Finland’s Way to the Information Society” which was devised to address three vital challenges to Finland’s future namely: the external challenge of integration into the open global economy, the internal challenge of societal renewal to overcome an economic depression of unprecedented proportions, with concomitant mass unemployment and an expansion in the public debt, pressures for change posed by the new technologies. It should be noted that this document was prepared at the time that Finland was negotiating to join the European Union and it is remarkable that the objectives go beyond achieving accession to addressing the fundamental problems of the transition to the Information Society and achieving competitiveness not only in the Union but in the global marketplace. The above-metnioned challenges are also faced by the countries which have applied for membership of the European Union ( the CEECs ) along with a formidable range of other challenges as well. I hope that the CEECs will follow the example of Finland in looking beyond the immediate target of accession towards the longer term aim of improving competitiveness (performance), especially in the IS. The purpose of my talk is to describe our actions, hopes and expectations concerning the development of the IS in these countries and to put this in the context of the Enlargement Process.   EU Policy The aim of the Union’s strategy is to ensure that the drive towards the Information Society takes place in the best possible socio-economic and cultural conditions. The concrete goals of the Union’s strategy are therefore threefold:   1. The first is to ensure that the European information-related sectors, i.e.telecommunications, computing, consumer electronics,services and content,reap the benefits of the emerging multimedia market. Industrial stakes are huge. The EU is a top of the league producer of telecommunications equipment with first class, large and profitable manufactureres like Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and several others. A positive and successful adjustment to the Information Society is therefore a prerequisite for a consolidation of Europe’s competitiveness in advanced markets. We are convinced that this can best be achieved through a worldwide market-opening approach, and we are therefore very positive about the success of the WTO negotiations in March of this year and look forward to an early ratification by all countries concerned. We welcome the submission of offers by some CEECs ( Bulgaria, Czech, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Poland although their offer has not yet been accepted) to the WTO. We encourage the remaining CEECs to make their own offers, since we consider that an early opening of markets will encourage foreign investment and accelerate the modernisation and extension of the services in these countries. 2. A second, but equally important priority is to make sure that all potential users, whether persons or businesses, in all regions of the European Union, enjoy the benefits of the new technologies. In the professional sphere, where the use of information and communications technologies is directly linked to improving productivity and competitiveness, it is particularly crucial that small and medium-sized enterprises -- and not only large corporations-- make full use of the new technologies. As for private users, it is particularly important to prevent the creation of a two-tier Information Society, in which only part of the population has access to new services and is comfortable using them. In concrete terms, the Union has a policy of providing Universal Service, and Regulatory Authorities may impose the obligation on particular operators of providing this. Since this involves not only making access universally available but also offering an affordable price, each country is required to decide, according to national requirements, on the scheme to be used to achieve univeral service. The average telepenetration in CEECs was about 21 lines per 100 inhabitants compared to an average of about 42 lines per 100 inhabitants for the three least developed countries of the Union (Greece,Portugal and Ireland). Increasing telepenetration in the CEECs to the average level in the Union will take many more years unless substantial increases in investment can be found.   3. The third priority is to ensure that areas of societal interest, for instance healthcare, education and training, the environment, employment systems or public administrations also benefit from the Information society. If the development of the Information society is entirely left to the private sector, a number of public areas risk being left out because they lack the prospect of sufficient profits, This would be particularly damaging as the new technology can increase government openness as well as the cost-efficiency of public services.   EU Actions EU Policy is supported through the use of the following mechanisms: – the establishment of public consultation through the so-called Information Society Forum consisting of representatives of widely different societal groups i.e. users, different social groups, content and service providers, network operators, equipment manufacturers and institutions. This Forum advises the Commission on social, cultural, political and economic aspects of the development of the Information Society. The work is structured in 7 Working groups  namely,   (1) employment and job creation (2) social and democratic values, and the future of new services and the media (3) universal access and consumer protection and support (4) sustainability in an Information Society (5) public services: bringing administration closer to citizens (6) lifelong learning   – a Rolling Action Plan based on the advice received which contains lists of all actions completed, those ongoing and thosein preparation, this Action Plan contains an exhaustive list of Community documents and actions in the IS area, – an Information Society Project Office which acts as a one-stop shop for information dissemination in the Union.

Widening refers to the start of enlargement negotiations with the 6 countries:
  Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, Czech and Hungary plus Cyprus.

At the same time preparations for accession will started with the other 5 countries namely:
  Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

Neither of these two major initiatives may be delayed since the consequence would be an unnacceptably long delay in the other amounting to years, to say nothing of the likely loss of public confidence. Member State governments therefore prefer to take the risk of launching both initiatives together.

The Commission has delivered its opinions on the readiness of these countries to join the Union. Detailed plans are being drawn up in the form of so-called “Accession Partnerships” to respond to those aspects of the Opinions where further development is considered necessary for the country to meet the requirements of the acquis. These also contain financial provision for financing actions. It should be noted that the total amount of investments made will be around 74 billion ECU during the period 2000 to 2006, comparable in size to the Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of Europe just after the War.

It is currently intended that the main priorities in these Partnerships will be in the areas of Justice, the Environment, Finance and Agriculture. However, it is clear that applicant countries must also pay a great deal of attention to their peformance and competitiveness in the Union after entry and therefore considerable attention must be paid to the Single Market issues. Of greatest interest to me, and in my view of very great value to the prosperity of applicant countries in all their industrial areas, is the sector which came under Single Market rules only on 1 Jan 1998, namely telecommunications and the Information Society. This sector already accounts for 2% of the GDP of the Union and as competition grows and services spread this is expected to grow substantially in coming years.

Policies and Actions with CEECs

Four Panels were convened as a result of the First forum on the subjects of:

	Infrastructure and Financing (lead country Hungary)
	Standardisation and Technical Regulation (lead country Poland)
	Legal and Institutional Framework(lead country Slovakia)
	Cooperation in RTD (lead country Slovenia)

The results of these panels were presented at the Second EU/CEEC IS Forum in Prague held in September 1996. I would like to note in particular that an Action Plan was drawn up which included some 30 actions covering a wide range of IS subjects ranging from participation in international G7 projects through awareness campaigns to specific pilot actions in application areas ( e.g. European driving license, education, telemedicine....) Today many of these actions, undertaken jointly with organisations in the Union, are nearing completion and have increased awareness, knowledge and experience in the CEECs enormously. These pilot projects now need to be converted into practical commercial services on the ground wherever possible.

Four panels were also convened at the second Forum on the subjects of

	National Policy and Strategy Formulation (lead country Hungary)
	Implementation of the Action Plan (lead country Slovenia)
	ICT in education (lead country Estonia)
	ICT in public services (lead country Czech Republic).

For details of these activities I refer you to our website:
http://www.ispo.cec.be/peco/peco.html

Complete information about Union activities can be found on the site:
http://www.ispo.cec.be/

I will not go into these details. Rather I will summarise the main results and orientations for the future. I would classify the work into 4 action lines:

First, since the CEECs have been now preparing actively for enlargement for some time, they will invited to be represented alongside their Union counterparts in the activities of the IS Forum. Practically, this means that representatives of the different societal groups in the CEECs will have a voice in advising the Commission on future policy orientations of the Union. From the perspective of the Commission the advice we receive will increasingly include the requirements of the CEECs.

Second, CEEC organisations will be encouraged to participate in Community programmes. Of especial importance to the Information Society is the Fifth Framework Programme, the proposed extension of the TEN Telecom programme to neighbouring countries and educational and training programmes such as Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates....and there are others. However, CEECs must define their priorities in the Accession Partnerships mentioned earlier since the funding for their participation in these programnmes must come out of the global pot of 74 billion ECUs budgeted for Enlargement ( plus of course any national contributions which CEECs make).

Third, CEECs are invited to finalise their national plans and strategies for the transition to the Information Society in each of their countries according to their national priorities. This should include:

	arrangements for awareness raising which must be done in the local language,
	arrangements for education and lifelong training of the motivated members of the population ( note in particular the excellent Tiger Leap project in Estonia which aims to equip every school with PCs before the year 2000),
	methods for public consultation on important ( e.g.regulatory ) issues,
	and perhaps most important of all actions which will help business to flourish.

This is not intended to be a complete list but it contains some of the most important points which should be covered AND BUDGETED.

Fourth, in order to ensure that we are aware of the views of industry, an Information Society Industrial Round Table will be convened in which we will solicit the views of industry. The widest possible range of views and concerns will be welcome but we would expect views on the extent and type of regulation needed for this sector, as well as identification of particular problems that they expect to face in joining the Union especially the Single Market.

This work will be carried out over the next two years and will be planned and monitored through a so-called "Joint High Level Committee” consisting of representatives from CEECs, the Commission and possibly Member States. This Committee will report to a ministerial conference which will be planned for 1999.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this brings me to the end of my presentation. But I cannot leave the rostrum without at least making mention of the Internet. The sale of PCs in CEECs as well as in the Union and other countries is exploding giving more and more people access cheaply to information on a worldwide scale. The result is globalisation both of benefits and problems. Even the boundaries of the Union will not contain the explosion of services. It is clear that in order to create a fair operating environment for all, that we must agree globally on practices and norms when using the Internet. The Commission has recently issued a Regulation on the protection of minors, but the issues are much wider involving standards for international commerce, taxation and many other issues. For this reason the Commission is taking the lead in promoting a Global International Charter which is intended to establish a set of practices to be discussed, agreed and hopefully adopted by all countries. This will be a major activity in the coming months involving not only CEECs but governments from all over the world.

Ladies and Gentleman, Thankyou for your attention.