Activites

• 1998/05/18 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1998/04/30 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0225/1998 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr Norbert GLANTE (PSE, D), the European Parliament stressed the importance of information technologies for the development of the European economy and called on the Commission to draw up an action plan to promote this sector. It considered that the public sector should play a key role in increasing the competitiveness of ICT (information and communication technologies) industries, particularly by means of its capacity to create demand and also by means of education and training measures. To this end, it was important for the public authorities to be represented on electronic networks. Parliament called for European guidelines for skills vital to the industry's competitiveness to be drawn up and published. This should ensure that enough specialists in information and communication technologies were trained. Among other recommendations, Parliament called for: - better legislative coordination in order to avoid fragmentation of markets within the European Union; - Europe to play a leading role in the formulation of international standards; - encouragement of research in the field of multilingual software; - promotion of cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, using the European Training Foundation; - support for cooperation between business and higher education in the field of ICT and their use; - the adoption of measures to improve access to venture capital for small innovative companies; - an increase in the funds adopted for the 1998 budget on the Technology facility for SMEs; - the Fifth Framework Programme to assign greater priority to ICT-related R&D. Parliament called on the Commission to provide a detailed assessment of the number of people engaged in teleworking, with a breakdown according to sectors, level of educational attainment, age group and gender, and to consider the practical implications for social legislation, health and safety and training requirements. �

• 1998/04/23 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0148/1998
• #2043
• 1997/11/13 Council Meeting
  • 2043
• 1997/07/18 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1997/04/16 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1997)0152 summary

    OBJECTIVE: the Communication identifies the main challenges facing the European Information and Communication Technologies Industries (ICT) and suggests several types of measures which could help improve their competitiveness. SUBSTANCE: the ICT industries represented an important and growing proportion of manufacturing industries in Europe: 8.3% of turnover, 6.5% of employment, 7.8% of production, 9.1% of total gross value added. Market growth rates are of the order of 7% and are expected to continue at this rate over the next few years. Although these were high figures, they are still lower than those of the USA and the growing Asian economies. Since 1990, Europe's share of world-wide information technology markets has declined from 35% to 28%, while the US share of the market increased from 35% to 41% in 1996. Although the European manufacturers of semiconductors and telecommunications equipment have been able to maintain a competitive position, the electronic assembly sector (both for consumer electronics and for computers) has been less fortunate, and Europe, as a production area, shows the heaviest handicap, largely because of the high cost of labour. With a view to improving the industry's competitiveness, the Commission underlines the need to accelerate the implementation of priority measures already undertaken. These include: the effective liberalization by all Member States before, 1 January 1998, of the telecommunications markets; a European initiative in electronic commerce; the acceptance of internationally agreed principles and rules (competition, intellectual property rights, information security, etc.); ensuring a significant European presence in satellite-based broadband communication systems; action plans for Intelligent Transport Systems; making maximum use of the Framework Programme for R&D education and training in using new technologies; study of the language issue, particularly important in Europe for software. The Commission also suggests measures aimed at improving conditions on the supply side or opening up the demand side: - improve global competition; - accelerate ICT take-up and promote awareness: education authorities should improve the provision of ICT in schools in order to pave the way for the Information Society; - create new markets by timely standards: to ensure consistency and an optimal use of the European standardization resources, a 'guichet unique' under the umbrella of the European standardization organizations should be considered as a matter of urgency; - exploit the potential of enlargement by paying particular attention to facilitating cooperation between EU industries and the Eastern and Central European countries; - promote transborder cooperation in industry; - facilitate the emergence of SMUs by concentrating on the provision of venture capital and cooperation with financial institutions and reducing the administrative burden; - focus on employment (skills, education, training): the Commission suggests that a 'skills standard' scheme be established to provide a clear reference for building a competent workforce, improving performances and defining training programmes; - promote benchmarking to improve competitiveness in enterprises, particularly in SMUs. The Commission proposes to follow up on this Communication by working together with the Member States and Industry to draw up specific actions responding to these key areas, to establish a work programme for their execution by all concerned parties (Commission, Member States, Industry), and a mechanism for regular review of progress. �

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1997)0152
• Debate in Council: 2043
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0148/1998
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0225/1998

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)