PRESS RELEASE ON THE eCONTENT PROGRAMME
22.12.2000
Commissioner Liikanen welcomes the Council's adoption of the eContent Programme aimed at stimulating the development and use of European digital content on the Internet and to promote the linguistic diversity of European web-sites in the Information Society.
The Council today adopted a new programme "eContent" in favour of European digital content industries. eContent is part of the eEurope Action Plan that aims at accelerating the uptake of digital technologies across Europe and at ensuring that all Europeans have the necessary skills to use them. Mr Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and Information Society said: "In order to exploit the strong European position in mobile telephony, mobile internet access and digital TV, content is key for a new range of services to emerge. European firms are best positioned to tailor culturally and linguistically diversified services to the users' needs. We have to ensure that there is an environment conducive to these changes in Europe." The main focus of the new programme is the access and use of public sector information, as well as expansion of the information supply, linguistic and cultural adaptation of information products and removal of market barriers to content use.. Mr Liikanen further stated that: "We should turn Europe's rich content base into a competitive advantage in the Information Society and ensure that European operators get a more prominent place on the Internet. The consumers are not likely to be willing to pay for content, unless it is available in a culturally customised format and in their own language. Thus, having the right conditions in place for European, multilingual digital content production is rapidly becoming a key issue."
 |
 |
