The eEurope Action Plan was set up within the framework of the Lisbon Agenda. It seeks to encourage and facilitate the uptake of Internet use for both commercial and domestic users. In February 2004 the Telecom Council adopted the mid-term review of the Action Plan. The present Commission Communication follows up on the mid-term review by proposing a set of revisions to the eEurope Action Plan 2005, through the creation of fifteen additional actions. The new actions seek to complement the existing ones in a bid to speed up the implementation of the Action Plan. The new Actions do not substantially change the balance or structure of eEurope.

The fifteen Actions proposed are:

1) The adoption of national broadband strategies by the new Member States by the end of 2004.

2) The setting up of the "Digital Divide Forum" during 2004. This will provide input to the Commission report on the "Growth Initiative" in spring 2005.

3) Preparing a progress report on the uptake of the Internet Protocol Ipv6. Greater commercial and domestic up-take of the Internet is dependant on a network of security. Together with the implementation of the broadband strategy, many of the Member States have already created National Ipv6 Task Forces, which seek to facilitate the uptake of the new version of the Internet Protocol and include compliance with Ipv6 in public tendering.

4) Identification, by the end of 2005, of a detailed list of priorities for a wide deployment of ICT solutions for the delivery of public services in Europe. The emphasis here would be on establishing a commitment to common platforms and/or standards for the deployment of e-services on a voluntary and multilateral basis.

5) Bringing e-government good practice solutions to full operational use by the middle of 2005. Local, regional, national, European and international level experiences can help fulfil the objectives of this Action. Measures include, providing good practice exchanges; addressing issues such as the ownership of systems and how this may relate to tendering procedures and the engagement of public-private partnership.

6) Creating an inventory of best practices on interoperability in e-health. It is hoped that this action will encourage the Member States to develop, by the end of 2005, a national or regional roadmap for e-health. This roadmap should focus on setting targets for the interoperability and use of electronic health records and issues such as the reimbursement of e-health services.

7) Establishing, by 2005, a roadmap of activities to foster closer co-operation between educators, trainers, researchers, those working in industry and public sector workers. This action seeks to encourage lifelong learning services based on e-learning. This activity will be launched at a conference at the beginning of 2005.

8) Continued promotion of e-Signatures. The Commission will present a report analysing the operational effects of the e-Signature Directive.

9) Endorsing a blueprint for Mobile payments by the end of 2005. The blueprint will seek to set priorities and to identify a pragmatic roadmap for interoperable mobile payments, taking into account existing initiatives on standardisation work. For it to be effective, the Blueprint should be endorsed by a critical mass of market actors in both the financial and the telecommunications sectors.

10) This Action deals with "Digital Rights Management", in other words control of copyright on the Internet. Currently, market developers are being held back by a lack of consensus between stakeholders on implementation of DRM in relation to factors such as interoperability and standardisation, privacy concerns of consumers, finding the right balance between remuneration for private use and the application of technological protection measures. In order to address these issues, Action 10 has been devised, to provide an overview of technological, economic and legal challenges to DRM as well as offering recommendation on how to move beyond dialogue to action. The review will be undertaken by the "High Level Group on Digital Rights Management" and will be presented in 2004.

11) Creating favourable conditions for an "Enterprise Interoperability Centre" and to make the Centre operational by end of 2005.

12) Creating a database of SME best practices regarding e-businesses by the end 2005.

13) Establishing the priorities of e-inclusion by the end of 2005. Policy areas to be examined will include employment, education, training, R&D etc. As an overall strategy, the Commission will examine a more coherent, strategic and integrated approach to e-inclusion.

14) Implementation of "e-Europe on-line". This is an integrated web-platform for eEurope and is supported by a flexible response data gathering and reporting mechanism. The action has two components. The first is an integrated web-based information service on e-Europe. This produces benchmarking data and links to other relevant sources. In 2005, the page will also provide an analysis of official statistics. The second is a response data gathering and reporting mechanism.

15) Submitting, prior to the European Council in 2005, a strategic analysis of eEurope in the context of the synthesis report and orientations on the support of ICT to the Lisbon strategy and how this is helping achieve the Agenda's goal in its second phase leading up to 2010.

To conclude, in a bid to identify pathways towards progress, the Commission is proposing a series of actions with an emphasis on stakeholder dialogue and an exchange of best practice – rather than radically overhauling the whole Action Plan. In addition, the Commission is proposing a period of evaluation and review before any successor to eEurope is proposed. Making the eEurope Action Plan fully effective, however, requires the full engagement of the Member States. The Commission, therefore, calls on all 25 of the EU Member States to play a full and active role in assuring the success of the new initiatives proposed and in particular with regard to the deployment of new services in e-government, e-learning and e-health.

COM(2004)0380
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SEC(2004)0607
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SEC(2004)0608
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SEC(2004)0278
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COM(2004)0108
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T5-0056/2003
OJ C 043 19.02.2004, p. 0072-0264 E

CDR0136/2002
OJ C 128 29.05.2003, p. 0014-0018

T5-0056/2003

COM(2003)0066
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A5-0013/2003

A5-0013/2003

COM(2002)0263
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COM(2002)0263
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