Activites

• #2195
• 1999/06/28 Council Meeting
• 1999/06/01 Final act published in Official Journal
• #2172
• 1999/04/22 Council Meeting
• 1999/02/25 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T4-0141/1999 summary

    The Parliament adopted the report drafted by Alan DONNELLY (PES, UK) concerning the Commission's communication on the Year 2000 computer problem. It stated its serious concern about the degree of progress made by some Member States in tackling the millennium problem and the lack of cross-border co-operation in vital sectors, particularly energy, telecommunications and transport. It recommends that Member States and the Commission ensure the availability of information on known problems and best practices and the knowledge about the existence of such information, especially for SMEs. It urges the Commission and Member States to start awareness actions for consumers. It asks the Commission to draw up a contingency plan regarding the risks that could arise from the cross-border impact of disasters in Eastern Europe and Russia, which, in addition to promoting awareness of the seriousness of the situation, should provide for financial aid to the authorities concerned. In the context of its concern regarding the responsibility of public authorities to ensure the security of persons and goods and the continuity of public service and basic utilities, it also calls on the Commission to encourage Member States to take measures, and in particular : - step up preparations and devise contingency plans to ensure the continues functioning of essential government services; - establish special co-ordinating bodies and programmes to raise awareness, facilitate information exchange and to oversee progress; - encourage business to partake in international alliances in key sectors where cross-border operations are critical, such as aviation, telecommunications, energy and finance; - consider practical policy options for helping companies to tackle Year 2000 problems; - increase information transparency by reporting on their own preparations where this is not already being done, as well as by requesting disclosure by quoted companies of their projected Year 2000 costs and readiness; - participate in programmes for developing countries, such as those run by the World Bank and the United Nations; - improve international co-operation and exchanges of information in the nuclear sector, therby clarifying the situation in that sector in which connection with the WANO, OECD and IAEA, among others, could play an important role; - use influence to urge Member States which are not doing enough to tackle the problem more seriously. The EU should add value to its Year 2000 efforts, rather than duplicate or replace existing initiatives. Lastly, the Parliament calls on the Commission to keep it informed every three months until the turn of the century about progress inn tackling the millenium problem in the EU.�

• 1999/01/20 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0014/1999
• #2096
• 1998/05/19 Council Meeting
  • 2096
• #2091
• 1998/05/07 Council Meeting
  • 2091
• 1998/04/29 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• #2079
• 1998/03/30 Council Meeting
  • 2079
• #2071
• 1998/02/26 Council Meeting
  • 2071
• 1998/02/25 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1998)0102 summary

    OBJECTIVE: the purpose of this Commission communication is to outline a series of actions designed to encourage suppliers and users of information systems to resolve the problems posed by the inability of a large number of systems to achieve correctly the transition from 1999 to the year 2000. CONTENT: the main problem results from the fact that since the early days of electronic computing, only two digits have generally been used to represent the year in date fields (DDMMYY). As a result, in many applications, the year 2000 will be interpreted as the year 1900, causing failures in arithmetic computations and data processing. The millennium bug is a cause for concern to companies of all sizes and to every sector of the economy, it also represents a major risk to consumers and an important challenge to the public authorities, especially as recent surveys show that progress with preparations is still very limited and varies from country to country. At the same time, administrations, companies and citizens are also worried by the fact that the problem arises during the early stages of the single currency. The Commission stresses that responsibility for resolving the problem of the millennium bug rests first and foremost with suppliers and users but also emphasises the part which governments and associations can play in raising awareness, especially among the most vulnerable categories such as consumers and SMEs. The Commission, for its part, will encourage and facilitate cooperation between individual, national or sectoral initiatives, especially in the infrastructure sectors (telecommunications, energy, transport), and will launch a dialogue on this matter both within the Community and with third countries. With the Member States, the Commission will monitor progress, exchange information and experiences and identify and compare best practices and will provide regular reports to the Council.�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1998)0102
• Debate in Council: 2071
• Debate in Council: 2079
• Debate in Council: 2091
• Debate in Council: 2096
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0014/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0141/1999

History

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