Liikanen spells out role of e-Commission
The European Commission key role in the new digital age should be to create appropriate regulatory conditions for industry to prosper and to avoid unnecessary interference, according to Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for Enterprise and the information society Speaking at the eScandinavia conference in Copenhagen on September 8, Mr Liikanen outlined the Commission's plans for promoting information technology and ensuring that European industry remains competitive in the global market. 'The environment in which we are operating is that of rapid technological development and convergence both in technologies and markets. Our actions must be in line with this changing environment. We have to let the technologies and markets drive this change and not to over regulate,' said Mr Liikanen. Nevertheless there were various areas in which action by the Commission was vital. The European Community was the world leader in the mobile telephone and digital television industries, both vital components of the next stage of the Internet revolution, he said. However, there were some areas in which Europe was falling behind, one of the most important tasks being to remedy the chronic shortage of skilled staff, with an estimated 1 million IT professionals vacancies within Europe. The Commission was encouraging programmes in lifelong training to fill the skills gap and would encourage efforts both in attracting IT professionals from outside the Community and utilising an untapped reservoir of talent - women, he pointed out, are greatly underrepresented in the IT industry. In its eEurope initiative launched in December last year, the Commission announced various other measures for encouraging the development of the information society. A major element was further liberalisation to promote competition in the telecommunications sector, allowing cheaper and faster access to the Internet, he said. At the same time it would ensure that those in poorer economic groups were not disadvantaged by setting up public access points for those without the means to buy their own equipment. By the end of 2001, the Commission would be publishing a new regulatory framework for telecommunications, considering the necessary steps to maintain public confidence in the technology by ensuring that it respected standards of privacy, fairness and reducing 'cybercrime'. The Commission was also establishing an eEurope Action Plan to be implemented by the year 2002. It would work in close collaboration with Member States in setting key targets with associated deadlines. 'We will benchmark and monitor progress constantly. An open, fair and rigorous measurement of Member States' performance in achieving the targets will be an efficient instrument. Nobody wants to be last in this area,' Mr Liikanen said