Summit puts IT issues top of agenda

Date: 16/03/2000

By Tim Jones

Next week's Lisbon summit would be ground-breaking indeed if it agreed to set deadlined targets for the EU's very own information technology revolution.

Based on past experience, however, this is highly unlikely. Issues which can be readily agreed with a timetable attached are usually, by definition, less important than those that cannot.

Instead, as Union leaders gather in the Portuguese capital on 23-24 March to discuss 'A Europe of Innovation', they are more likely to be flattened by an onrush of innovative companies, canny consumers and risk-taking lenders pioneering such a Europe in spite of - rather than because of - government action.

This is because, amid the endless plaudits for the US miracle, it is often forgotten that two EU champions - Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson - lead the field in mobile technology and software, while thousands of Internet start-ups are tapping the new markets in Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels for capital the banks would not stump up.

Nevertheless, Portuguese Prime Minister and summit host Antonio Guterres wants it to set the goal of making Europe the world's most competitive region by 2010 by embracing the 'knowledge and innovation' economy and leaving low-cost production to the developing world.

He believes that this will only be achieved if governments push the agenda through by establishing bench-marks for policy aims. "The idea of a bench-marking system is to simplify the coordination of policies," he said last month. "If we have clear strategies, quantified and verifiable objectives, I think the markets will respond in a much more coherent way."

For instance, topping both Guterres' and the European Commission's wish-list is a commitment by all member states to connect all schools to the Internet by 2001, train all teachers in using the Net by 2002 and obtain specified "digital literacy skills" for all workers and school-leavers by 2003.

For Guterres, this means that the EU should draft a charter fixing standard levels of competence for school-leavers in mathematics, IT-use and foreign languages. Labour mobility within the Union would also be encouraged, he argues, if a 'passport' were devised to prove the holder possessed basic IT skills.

"These aims are admirable but need to be tightened up," says one member state official who is helping prepare his national delegation for the talks. "For example, telecoms regulators should be asked to ensure that local-call tariffs are driven down. That would do more for the IT revolution than any number of other initiatives."

Many EU schools have banks of computers and Internet access but are reluctant to allow students to surf during the day because of the high tariffs and unpredictable bills. In North America, on the other hand, monthly bills of €10 allow unlimited daytime access.

In its submission to the summit, the Commission has called for an opening-up of the local telecoms access markets by the end of this year to "substantially reduce the cost of Internet access" and agreement as soon as possible on outstanding legislation to promote electronic commerce.

In a keynote speech earlier this month, Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen set out his department's targets for the next five years. Following the 1999 communications review, he will propose changes to existing laws to relax regulation progressively as markets become more competitive.

"The challenge for the coming years will be to establish effective self-regulation which is, with technology, the indispensable partner to the legal framework in order to provide the flexibility needed for this fast-moving economy," he said.

The stakes, according to the rhetoric used by the Commission and presidency top brass, are high. "If the Commission, the member states and European citizens at all levels summon the political energy and courage to implement this ambitious integrated programme, Europe will see a new renaissance with full employment and prosperity," said Commission President Romano Prodi recently.

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