EP votes in favour of eContentplus programme
The European Parliament (EP) has voted in favour of the eContentplus programme, aimed at supporting the development of multilingual content for innovative, online services across the EU. The Parliament only included one amendment, setting the budget of the programme at 149 million euro for the period 2005 to 2008, instead of 135 million as proposed by the Council. The Commission's eContentplus proposal deals with the fragmentation of the European digital content market and aims to improve the accessibility, usability and exploitability of geographical information, cultural content and educational material. 'The Internet offers a unique opportunity for content companies to outgrow their so far mostly national markets,' said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, welcoming the positive vote in the Parliament. 'The eContentplus programme will facilitate the production and distribution of online European content, thus stimulating innovation and creativity. At the same time it will help to preserve and share Europe's cultural and linguistic identities and give them a more prominent place on the Internet.' Furthermore, added Ms Reding, the Parliament's vote allows for a budget that is substantially higher than the predecessor programme. As the Commission explains, so far Europe has failed to take up the opportunities provided by the fact that media convergence and the global reach of the Internet have turned digital content into a potentially lucrative asset. Barriers relating to the multiplicity of languages, cultures and practices of public administration and enterprises hinder the establishment of cross border services in Europe based on digital content. The Commission therefore proposed adopting a financial support programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, thus contributing to the Lisbon strategy and strengthening European competitiveness in the knowledge economy. 'The new programme will concentrate on those parts of the digital content market where there is clear fragmentation in Europe, and where market forces alone so far have been insufficient to drive growth. It targets three domains: spatial (or geographical) data, educational material and cultural content,' explains the Commission. The programme will aim to create greater economic return from services based on access and (re)use of digital content. It will also look into broadening user choice and helping stakeholders to reap the benefits that knowledge-enhanced digital content can offer. It envisages three operational goals: facilitating access to European digital content; improving quality by facilitating best practice related to digital content and reinforcing cooperation and awareness between digital content stakeholders. 'The stage has now been set in Europe to exploit vigorously the untapped potential of digital content,' concludes the Commission.