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[FYI] Prodi launches 'eEurope' initiative for Europe



CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 1999.  

Record Control Number: 14050  

Date: 1999-12-10  

Category: General policy  

General Information:  

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi recently launched 
an initiative that aims to bring the benefits of the Information 
Society to all European citizens.  

He said the eEurope initiative, which focuses on ten priority areas 
including education, transport and healthcare, would be one of his 
priorities at the Helsinki European Council on 10 December 1999. It 
will also be on the agenda of the special meeting of the European 
Council of Lisbon to be held in March 2000.  

Mr Prodi said: These changes, the most significant since the 
Industrial Revolution, are far-reaching and global. Managing this 
transformation represents one of the central economic and social 
challenges facing Europe today.  

'The eEurope initiative is intended to help overcome these challenges 
and thereby accelerate the modernisation of the European economy, 
with a positive impact on employment, growth, productivity and social 
cohesion.'  

Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for the Enterprise and the Information 
Society, coordinated the preparation of the initiative. 'Technologies 
and markets today move at a much faster pace than perhaps ever before 
in economic history,' he said. 'There is no time to wait until the 
current policies of Member States and the Commission deliver. A major 
effort has to be made to advance key policies. This is why an 
initiative - eEurope - needs to be taken now.'  

The key objectives of the initiative include bringing all of Europe 
online, creating a digitally literate Europe and ensuring that the 
process is socially inclusive.  

The initiative will be implemented during the forthcoming Portuguese 
presidency with cooperation from the Commission and Member States. 
The aim is to have it adopted at the European Council on Employment, 
Economic Reform and Social Cohesion - Towards a Europe of Innovation 
and Knowledge - to be held in Lisbon during March. It will be further 
developed at a special ministerial conference on the Information 
Society to be held a month later, also in Lisbon.  

Data Source Provider: Information-Society Directorate General  

Document Reference: Based on a Commission press release no IP/99/953  

Subject Index Codes: Information Processing, Information Systems  

Contact Person:  

The text of the Communication can be found on the Internet at:  

URL: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg13/com081299_en.pdf  

Any comments on the initiative can be sent to:  

E-mail: eeurope@cec.eu.int