Council adopts 2nd information services market programme (IMPACT 2)
A new phase of the IMPACT programme, aimed at promoting the establishment of an internal information services market, has been adopted by a Council Decision of 12 December 1991 (91/691/EEC) for a period of four years with a budget of ECU 64 million. The programme includes four Action Lines: - Improving the understanding of the information market (continuation and extension of the Information Market Observatory (IMO) activities); - Overcoming legal and administrative barriers (in cooperation with the Legal Advisory Board (LAB), the Council of Europe and the OECD); - Increasing user-friendliness and improving information literacy (e.g. via continued operation of the multilingual host service ECHO); - Supporting strategic information initiatives (e.g. electronic and technical information services, commercial ventures for the development of information products and services via European partnerships, information product prototype development for multimedia information services products). The programme will be implemented by means of shared-cost projects, including pilot and demonstration projects, normally selected on the basis of calls for proposals published in the Official Journal. Provision will also be made to consider in exceptional cases unsolicited project proposals.