Enterprise and IT come under the spotlight in Manchester
Filling the gap on reliable figures concerning progress in Europe's enterprises and addressing Europe's IT skill shortage were two of the main goals of a meeting in Manchester, UK, which brought together European Commissioners and Swedish ministers Called by the Swedish Presidency of the European Union as preparation for the meeting of the European Council in Stockholm on 23 and 24 March, the gathering was attended by Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for Enterprise and information society, who also presented a plan for gauging European enterprise progress, as set out in the Enterprise Europe initiative backed by the Lisbon European Council in March 2000. The plan includes looking at factors such as lending to SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), time taken to process bankruptcy claims, cost of company registration and level of state aid as a way of providing objective ways for all European states to gauge their progress. Mr Liikanen claimed that, though there is monitoring of progress towards Enterprise Europe already, there is a need for more. 'Identifying problems and solutions, though vital, is not enough. We also need objective measures, to show whether policy responds to challenges identified really are fostering a culture of economic dynamism to complement and sustain the culture of economic stability already well entrenched in the EU,' he said. Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin, endorsed the move to help European firms, particularly by means of research. 'We need more investment in research and innovation to make European enterprises more competitive,' he said. 'I also believe that the Union's support mechanisms for research should be reshaped to promote European-wide cooperation on frontier technologies, such as biotechnologies.' Measures are needed to ensure that the goal of establishing Europe as a world class and knowledge based economy is realisable. This includes looking at the IT skills gap that could affect Europe in the near future. This has taken on particular importance as a recent study brought out by the European information technology observatory (EITO) claimed that Europe could suffer from a shortage of 3.8 million people in IT posts if further measures are not taken. 'One of the greatest impediments to growth in the IT sector and other business areas is the lack of qualified manpower,' said Björn Rosengren, chairman of the telecommunications and transport council. Discussions at the event centred on establishing a task force comprising all parties at EU level which would look at (and investigate solutions for) IT skills problems. One issue that has already been noted is the lack of women in IT, which, apart from representing a potential area to exploit in the future, is also a threat to the goal of social inclusion envisaged by European Union policies. The meeting represented the first time that a joint informal meeting has been called of ministers of employment and telecommunications.
Kraje
Sweden