Parliament resolution on development of information and communications technologies
The European Parliament has adopted an own-initiative opinion on the development and application of new information and communications technologies (ICT) in the next decade. The Parliament is concerned that Europe's ICT industries are falling behind in global competition, and are in danger of being squeezed out of major markets. Consequently, the Parliament calls on Member States to make greater efforts to improve their coordination of national ICT policies, with a view to establishing a single European market in ICT products and services. In particular in this area, they should focus on standards, trade marks and patents, and accessibility of infrastructure. In this field, the resolution calls for efforts to improve the efficiency and reduce costs of protecting intellectual property at European level, and also calls for development of Community research in the areas of standards. Within the development of ICT policies, the Parliament calls for account to be taken of the needs of SMEs, and for efforts to be made to ensure that disadvantaged regions receive priority treatment in funding infrastructure developments. This policy should lead to a better balance between technology and applications/content, according to the resolution, and should also encourage networking and clustering. Parliament also urges the Commission and Member States to encourage European companies to use ICT applications and services which aim to promote the European cultural, artistic, historical and linguistic heritage. With regard to the development of the Fifth Framework Programme, the resolution calls for even greater priority to be given to the research and development of ICT. Community research efforts and funding in this field should be better apportioned between basic technologies, systems and applications. The balance between technology and content also needs to be improved. The achievements of RTD programmes in this area need to be analysed and evaluated, to provide lessons for the future. Parliament calls on Member States to make maximum use of ICT in providing services, taking a lead in supporting the development of European applications and services by purchasing and using them. In particular, the resolution calls on Member States to make maximum use of new ICT services in education. The Commission is called upon to draw up a programme for ICT responses to the problems of Europe's ageing population.