Bridging Europe’s digital divide

Bridging the divide between the digital haves and have-nots is an essential component of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs.

Digital illiteracy still stands at nearly 40% across the EU. With countries such as China and India racing forward in terms of digital development, Europe will have to work fast to keep ahead of the game.

Failure to bridge the skills gap could cost Europe dearly. Next year, the European Commission will launch a campaign called "e-inclusion, be part of it!", which is part of an action plan drafted under the Riga declaration. Signed last year by EU member states, the Riga declaration aims to halve the digital divide by 2010 by improving citizens’ access to information, media, content and services.

The declaration recognised that many Europeans still have limited access to information and communications technologies (ICT). According to a report on internet use compiled by the Commission in 2005, more than half of EU citizens did not regularly use the internet. Only 10% of persons over 65 were online, against 68% of those aged 16-24. Education was deemed a determining influence on e-access. Some 73% of those who had gone on to further education used the internet, against 24% of people who had not.

Earlier this year, Günter Verheugen, the enterprise and industry commissioner, launched an action plan aimed at plugging the e-skills gap. "Developing e-skills is a pre-condition for the competitiveness of EU enterprises," says a Commission official.

According to Viviane Reding, the information society commissioner, who participated in the initiative, the scarcity of qualified IT workers in the EU is costing the Union "billions of euros" in lost investment opportunities. Firms prefer to go to emerging economies, where hundreds of thousands of new engineers qualify each year.

The action plan encourages companies to get involved. Firms such as Cisco and Microsoft are already co-ordinating their investments under the European alliance on skills for employability, a programme launched last year, which is training and certifying significant numbers of people. "The skills gap threatens Europe’s competitiveness and social balance," says Jan Muehlfeit, chairman of Microsoft’s European division. "We need less talk and more action."

Microsoft is also working directly with national governments through its EU grant advisor programme, donating IT equipment to schools. Muehlfeit believes that schools are not well-prepared for the advent of the knowledge society. "Today’s education system is static, academic. It’s about memorising and there’s not that much project-based learning," he says. "We can work with schools and contribute."

Access to IT facilities varies across EU member states. According to a Eurostat study published in 2005, more than two out of every three households had a computer in Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and European Economic Area members Iceland and Norway. More than half of these households had internet access.

Fewer than one in three households had a computer and fewer than one in six had internet access in Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Internet access in the EU was low in rural areas, with only a quarter of households in the countryside benefiting from high-speed internet access.

Bridging the divide between the digital haves and have-nots is an essential component of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs.