Spain ready to make strides on Internet progress during EU Presidency
Anna Birulés, Spanish Minister for science and technology, has said that progress on Internet penetration will be a priority during the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, which starts on 1 January 2002. Not only does she want to see a major push on eGovernment, but she would also like to see outstanding issues such as unbundling of the local loop, privacy issues and the use of cookies addressed. Moves to focus on flat rate connection fees could also be brought forward. Ms Birulés, speaking at the eGovernment conference in Brussels on 28 and 29 November, expressed her desire to place emphasis on helping move further towards and information society. 'We need to see more security for information and we need a major push for pan-European services,' she said. 'I would also like to see more education and training of users and a judicial framework to help maintain the secure use of electronic services.' She went on to emphasise that the kind of training and education that is required could be assisted by programmes such as the Sixth Framework programme (FP6) and the TEN-Telecom programme. One of the initiatives that has been taken by the European Commission in relation to the slow progress in unbundling the local loop has been to prepare infringement proceedings, expected to be launched on 20 December, on those countries who have not enacted the Commission's Directive on the subject. Ms Birulés stated that she was confident that Spain will not be charged under the proceedings, although it is not one of the four countries that have complied with the Directive (Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Denmark).
Countries
Spain