Activites

• 2005/03/24 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Decision 2005/456
  • OJ L 079 24.03.2005, p. 0001-0008
• 2005/03/09 Final act signed
• 2005/03/09 End of procedure in Parliament
• #2643
• 2005/02/28 Council Meeting
• 2005/01/27 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T6-0016/2005 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by Paul RÜBIG (EPP-ED, AT), approving the Council's common position under the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure, subject to one amendment increasing the programme's budget. The financial framework for the implementation of the Community actions under this Decision for the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2008 is hereby set at EUR 149 million, of which EUR 55,6 million is for the period until 31 December 2006.

• 2005/01/26 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2005/01/19 Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading
  • A6-0002/2005
• 2005/01/18 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
• 2004/10/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #2605
• 2004/09/24 Council Meeting
  • 10458/4/2004 summary

    Whilst the Council shares the overall objective of the proposal, in the course of discussion within the Council the text has been partly reworded. The main points of the common position which differ from the Commission proposal and the European Parliament amendments are as follows:- given the size of the projects envisaged in the proposal, reference is made to SMEs, and to people with special needs;- a new paragraph specifies the consistency of the programme with other relevant Community policies, programmes and actions;- the Council favours the management procedure with regard to comitology;- the total amount proposed by the Commission for the financial framework is reduced to EUR 135 million. In line with other legislation a break clause has been inserted to maintain budget discipline as the programme extends beyond the current financial perspective. The indicative breakdown of expenditure in Annex III has been modified, with more impetus on Action line 1.All Parliament amendments save one were accepted, although in slightly modified form.

• #2589
• 2004/06/10 Council Meeting
• 2004/04/30 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(2004)0367 summary

    The Commission states that all the changes made by the European Parliament are in line with the Commission's proposal and make useful clarifications for the implementation of the eContentplus programme. The Commission therefore accepts them all. They aim to: - clarify the reference to digital content stakeholders; - ensure the consistency of the annual appropriations with the financial perspective; - forward the results of the quantitative and qualitative evaluations to the European Parliament and the Council together with any appropriate proposals for the amendment of the Decision before presentation of the draft general budget of the European Union for the year 2007 and 2009 respectively.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/connect/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Communications Networks, Content and Technology'}],
• 2004/04/22 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0364/2004 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by W.G van VELZEN (EPP-ED, NL). While agreeing with the proposed objectives, MEPs felt that in some cases the wording was too general. They specified, for example, that access to digital content should be facilitated at Community level "in areas of public interest". The Parliament makes the following amendments: - digital content stakeholders refer to content providers (including organisations that create, collect or own digital content) and content users (including organisations and enterprises that are end-users, that re-use and/or add value to digital content); - in the context of the evaluation, the Commission shall report on the consistency of the amount for 2007-2008 with the financial perspective. If applicable, the Commission shall take the necessary steps within the budgetary procedures for 2007-2008 to ensure the consistency of the annual appropriations with the financial perspective; - the Commission shall forward the results of its quantitative and qualitative evaluations to the European Parliament and the Council together with any appropriate proposals for the amendment of this Decision. The results shall be forwarded before presentation of the draft general budget of the European Union for the year 2007 and 2009 respectively; - the financial framework for the implementation of the Community action under this Decision for the period from 1st January 2005 to 31 December 2008 is hereby set at EUR 163 million, of which EUR 55,6 million is for the period until 31 December 2006; - for the period following 31 December 2006, the amount shall be deemed to be confirmed if it is consistent for this phase with the financial perspective in force for the period commencing in 2007; - the annual appropriations for the period from 2005 to 2008 shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial perspective. An indicative breakdown of expenditure is given in Annex III.�

• 2004/04/21 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2004/04/06 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0235/2004
• 2004/02/25 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2004/02/13 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2004)0096 summary

    PURPOSE : to establish a Community programme to make digital content in the Community more accessible, usable and exploitable, facilitating the creation and diffusion of information and knowledge - in areas of public interest - at Community level. PROPOSED ACT : Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council. CONTENT : Media convergence and the global reach of the Internet have turned digital content into a potentially lucrative asset. However, in relation to the uptake of digital content, Europe has barriers. In particular, barriers relating to the multiplicity of languages, cultures and practices of public administration and enterprises affect the establishment of cross border services in Europe based on digital content. In order to address the challenges posed, it is proposed to adopt a financial support programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible. The programme will contribute to the Lisbon strategy and strengthen European competitiveness in the knowledge economy. The programme focuses on the end-user - be it the citizen in society, the student, the researcher, business user wishing to augment their knowledge, or the 'reuser' wishing to enhance and exploit digital content resources for economic return. It should broaden user choice and help stakeholders to reap the benefits that knowledge-enhanced digital content can offer. The programme envisages three operational goals: - Facilitating access to European Digital Content - Improving quality by facilitating best practice related to digital content; - Reinforcing co-operation and awareness between digital content stakeholders. The programme will finance projects designed to improve tools, processes and services related to the production, access, use and distribution of digital content. The programme will facilitate the transfer of knowledge, experiences and good practices; coordination activities; cross-fertilisation between content sectors, content providers and users. To this end, the programme encompasses the use of best practice actions normally conducted in thematic clusters as well as thematic networks bringing together a variety of stakeholders around a given technological and organisational objective. The overriding principle of the programme is to maximise the impact on a group of actors beyond the participants of the programme. A tighter focus in terms of participants as well as objectives should help achieve this. The financial envelope for the implementation of the programme is proposed to be EUR 163 million covering a period of 4 years (2005-2008). Specifically, the activities of the programme will support the emergence of pan-European frameworks (services, information infrastructures, etc.) facilitating discovery of and access to digital content in Europe, the creation of new content-based services and their organizational underpinnings. A series of experiments will showcase how semantically well-defined metadata can improve usability and reusability, searchability and interoperability of digital content in multilingual and multicultural environments. Where digital content involves personal data, the technologies used should be privacy-compliant and, where possible, privacy-enhancing. Target areas will bepublic sector information, spatial data, learning and cultural content. Fostering the organisational frameworks to ease access to digital resources and showcasing the best use of technologies for their exploitation will lower the perceived risk for organisations and thus create a better environment for investment and innovation in digital content. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS : Budget lines and headings : 09 03 02 and 09 01 04 02 Overall figures: Total allocation for action: EUR 163 million Period of application: From January 1st, 2005 to December 31st, 2008 Schedule of commitment appropriations/payment appropriations (financial intervention): total EUR 160 million Technical and administrative assistance and support expenditure: EUR 3 million Overall financial impact of human resources and other administrative expenditure: EUR 7.928 million. The needs for human and administrative resources shall be covered within the allocation granted to the managing DG in the framework of the annual allocation procedure. Total: EUR 170.928 million Staff to be assigned to management of the action using existing and/or additional resources: 17�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/connect/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Communications Networks, Content and Technology'}],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2004)0096
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0235/2004
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0364/2004
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(2004)0367
• Council position published: 10458/4/2004
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A6-0002/2005
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T6-0016/2005
• : Decision 2005/456
• : OJ L 079 24.03.2005, p. 0001-0008

History

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