Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, April 2000

EUR-LEX OFFERS ANOTHER ACCESS ROUTE TO COMMISSION PROPOSALS

EUR-Lex now provides a List of available Commission proposals organised by year and number in addition to the Directory of Commission proposals and Recent proposals not yet included in the Directory access routes at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/index1.html/. This makes it simple to identify whether a specific document number is available. It is possible to select the year and limit it to a batch of fifty documents which are listed in number order, rather than the classified order of the twenty chapter headings and subheadings of the Directory analytical structure. The document titles appear with an indication of its availability by HTML or pdf format and by language. There are gaps where documents are not available. However on the occasions when this facility was tested, the screens were exceedingly slow to load. Use of the search function remains an option.

POLICY FOR IMPROVED INTERNET MANAGEMENT

The European Commission has followed up its consultation document COM (2000) 153 final of 29 February 2000 on the creation of the .EU Internet top level domain with a Communication to the Council and the Parliament on 11 April. This lays out recommendations for ways of improving Internet management and co-ordination to establish a framework for future development of this key infrastructure. A good response was received to the consultation process. The latest proposals address issues such as the international co-ordination of domain name registration and policies, ways of increasing availability of Internet addresses and - to expand our vocabulary - how to combat cybersquatting. These will be key building blocks for the success of e-Europe.