Prodi launches 'eEurope' initiative for Europe
President of the European Commission Romano Prodi recently launched an initiative that aims to bring the benefits of the Information Society to all European citizens. He said the eEurope initiative, which focuses on ten priority areas including education, transport and healthcare, would be one of his priorities at the Helsinki European Council on 10 December 1999. It will also be on the agenda of the special meeting of the European Council of Lisbon to be held in March 2000. Mr Prodi said: These changes, the most significant since the Industrial Revolution, are far-reaching and global. Managing this transformation represents one of the central economic and social challenges facing Europe today. 'The eEurope initiative is intended to help overcome these challenges and thereby accelerate the modernisation of the European economy, with a positive impact on employment, growth, productivity and social cohesion.' Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for the Enterprise and the Information Society, coordinated the preparation of the initiative. 'Technologies and markets today move at a much faster pace than perhaps ever before in economic history,' he said. 'There is no time to wait until the current policies of Member States and the Commission deliver. A major effort has to be made to advance key policies. This is why an initiative - eEurope - needs to be taken now.' The key objectives of the initiative include bringing all of Europe online, creating a digitally literate Europe and ensuring that the process is socially inclusive. The initiative will be implemented during the forthcoming Portuguese presidency with cooperation from the Commission and Member States. The aim is to have it adopted at the European Council on Employment, Economic Reform and Social Cohesion - Towards a Europe of Innovation and Knowledge - to be held in Lisbon during March. It will be further developed at a special ministerial conference on the Information Society to be held a month later, also in Lisbon.