Raad Telecommunicatie: Mondiaal overleg informatiemaatschappij (beheer IP-adressen, internet in arme landen), Europese programma ICT en Groei i2010 (en)

The EU Telecommunications Council will meet on 27 June 2005 in Luxembourg. Commissioner Viviane Reding will represent the European Commission.

EU line for negotiations for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)

Background

The second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis (16-18 November 2005) should reach an international consensus on the issues of Internet governance and financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries. These are the two key unresolved issues from the first WSIS Summit meeting in Geneva (December 2003), which agreed on a global approach to an inclusive Information Society common to all UN Member States, including a political Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action.

A Commission Communication of 2 June 2005, setting out an EU line for negotiations in the run-up to the Tunis meeting, provides the basis for Telecoms Council conclusions. The Communication recommends not reopening debate on questions settled in Geneva, but instead focusing on arrangements for implementing agreed principles. The Commission would like to build on progress made in emerging economies by backing wider access to the Internet with comprehensive strategies for developing the Information Society, including the development of creative content and applications. On the main items currently discussed in the WSIS context, the Commission proposes that the EU adopts the following approach:

• On Internet governance, the question of internationalising the management of the Internet's core resources, namely, the domain name system, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and the root server system, is currently being discussed. The Commission believes that a new cooperation model is needed to give effect to WSIS wording on the crucial role of stakeholders within Internet governance, including governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations. The current Internet Governance mechanism is based on the work of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private, internationally organized, non-profit corporation, which operates under a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Commerce of 1998.
• With regard to financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries, the EU should insist that these mechanisms be simple and efficient, making full use of existing UN organisations and government agencies, and ensuring full participation of the civil society and the private sector.

At this Council

In parallel to the discussions in the WSIS process, the telecommunications ministers' exchange of views will centre on the future of Internet governance.

The Luxembourg Presidency announced, at the 18 April 2005 meeting of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance, that a new cooperation model was needed in order to implement the WSIS Declaration of Principles regarding the crucial role of all stakeholders within Internet governance, including governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations. Ministers will discuss which form this new cooperation model could take.

The Council advocates that the existing Internet Governance mechanisms should be founded on a more solid democratic, transparent and multilateral basis, with a stronger emphasis on the public policy interest of all governments. The Council takes the view that the role of governments within this new cooperation model should centre on public policy, excluding any involvement in the day-to-day operations. The following issues are of particular importance to the Council:

• respect for the architectural principles of the Internet, including interoperability, openness and the end-to-end principle,
• stability, dependability and robustness of the Internet remain a high priority (in particular security and protection against "spam" e-mail), and
• given the importance of ICTs for the competitiveness of the European industry, active involvement of the private sector in the Internet governance discussions during the WSIS second phase.

Furthermore, the Council will adopt conclusions on the basis of the Commission Communication on WSIS to give guidance to Member States and the Commission for preparatory meetings and the Tunis Summit itself. This should allow the EU to take a coherent position during the negotiating process.

"i2010 - A European Information Society for growth and employment"

Background

On 1 June 2005, the Commission adopted the initiative i2010 to foster growth and jobs in the information society and media industries. i2010 is a comprehensive strategy for modernising and deploying all EU policy instruments to encourage the development of the digital economy: regulatory instruments, research and partnerships with industry. i2010 is the first Commission initiative adopted under the EU's renewed Lisbon strategy. It focuses on the most promising sector of the EU economy: information and communication technologies (ICTs) account for 40% of Europe's productivity growth and for 25% of EU GDP growth. Member States are asked to define National Information Society Priorities in their National Reform Programmes in mid-October 2005 to contribute to the objectives of i2010.

In its i2010 initiative, the Commission outlines three policy priorities:

• To create a truly open and competitive single market for information society and media services. To support technological convergence with "policy convergence", the Commission will propose: an efficient spectrum management policy in Europe (2005); a modernisation of the rules on audiovisual media services (end 2005); an updating of the regulatory framework for electronic communications (2006); a strategy for a secure information society (2006); and a comprehensive approach for effective and interoperable digital rights management (2006/2007).
• To increase EU investment in ICT research by 80%. Europe lags behind in ICT research, investing only €80 per head as compared to €350 in Japan and €400 in the US. i2010 identifies steps to put more into ICT research and get more out of it, e.g. by trans-European demonstrator projects to test out promising research results and by integrating small and medium sized enterprises better in EU research projects).
• To promote an inclusive European information society. To close the gap between the information society "haves and have nots", the Commission will propose: an Action Plan on e-Government for citizen-centred services (2006); three "quality of life" ICT flagship initiatives (technologies for an ageing society, intelligent vehicles that are smarter, safer and cleaner, and digital libraries making multimedia and multilingual European culture available to all (2007); and actions to overcome the geographic and social "digital divide", culminating in a European Initiative on e-Inclusion (2008).

At this Council

An exchange of views between the Member States and the Commission on the overall objectives of i2010, the interplay of i2010 with the renewed Lisbon strategy and its reporting mechanisms as well as concrete implementation issues for i2010 to be addressed at the Telecom Council in December 2005 is foreseen.