Digital Europe - faux pas or coupe-de-grace?
If Europe is to be the most competitive and advanced ICT region in the world, its progress must be uniform, its benefits had by all. Without regional cohesion therefore, Europe's progress will be both one sided as well as impeded by those regions less able to exploit the benefits offered. A study undertaken by a European consortium sought to highlight just how far Europe has come in meeting the goals set out in Lisbon. The study sought to become the most comprehensive of its kind, assessing a considerable number of issues. It looked at both the broader EU concerns as well as focusing on more localised matters. For example it aimed to identify whether market forces alone would help create a more balanced spatial development or rather create a digital divide between various European regions instead It also sought to identify a greater number of reasons why some regions might develop faster than others. It looked into such things as a region's connection speeds, associated costs, mobile services and consumer behaviour. Overall the results of the study showed considerable complementary benefits in meeting the two objectives. For one thing, greater use of ICT technologies would result in a greater dispersion of economic activity. While this is good news, the study also revealed that certain trade-offs also existed. For example, a shift towards the knowledge-based economy will probably result in a less cohesive Europe. So while Europe becomes more competitive on the one hand, it is unlikely to be cohesive throughout. This trend is called clustering and it is not a new phenomenon. As yet, the study was unable to effectively determine whether the clustering recorded was the regional imbalances of a pre-knowledge based economy or directly attributive to the exploitation of Information technologies. These results, however, remain tentative, and the study concludes that more research would be needed in order to gain a fully comprehensive view. What remains clear however is that Europe's ambitious project goals are still far off, but for the time being, we've made steps in the right direction.
