Liikanen highlights the requirements of an Information Society in run-up to IST 2000
European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information society, Erkki Liikanen summarised what he saw as the framework for the new e-economy on 19 October, in preparation for the IST 2000 event to be held in Nice on 6 to 8 November. Reiterating the goals of the Commission's eEurope plan, of accelerating and then harmonising Europe's transition to an information society, Mr Liikanen went on to specify the roles of legislation and regulation in helping to realise this goal. 'Effective legislation in the Internet age calls for a new approach. For one thing the system needs to be very flexible. Secondly, it is necessary to concentrate on the essentials: for example, the protection of personal data and privacy, copyright, legal responsibility, action to combat illegal content and cybercrime, taxation, etc,' said the Commissioner. He went on to add that he saw legislation and self-regulation as mutually complementary. 'The challenge is to make a framework that will make it possible to combine the two approaches,' said Mr Liikanen, and this requires input from both the legislative authorities and the private sector. There is an area where specific legislation is required the Commissioner emphasised - in the telecommunications sector. One issue is the massive investment required for new entrants into the telecommunications market - at present 90 per cent of local communications are dominated by the incumbent, as opposed to new competition. The major step forward in helping to eradicate this was the step taken on 3 October, when the European Union member states agreed on a proposal for unbundling the local loop. Commissioner Liikanen will also be speaking at the forthcoming IST2000 event which will running on the theme of 'an Information Society for all' in Nice on 6 to 8 November. He will be joined by Nicole Fontaine, president of the European Parliament and Mr Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg, French Minister for Research. As well as keynote speeches, the event will provide an exhibition, which will include results from certain EU-funded research projects.
Countries
France