| Author (Person) | Davies, Eric | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 26.3.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 25/03/2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On March 23-24 the European Council met in Lisbon at the 'dot.com' Summit. The main issue discussed at this special Council meeting was the Union's desire to tackle unemployment and promote economic reform and social cohesion by developing a digital, knowledge-based economy. At the Summit, EU leaders agreed that this decade should see Europe 'become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.' To achieve this ambitious goal, EU governments approved a strategy to:
The strategy will be implemented by improving existing mechanisms (the Broad Economy Policy Guidelines and the Luxembourg, Cardiff and Cologne processes) and by ensuring better coordination. The European Council will itself play a coordinating and guiding role and will meet every Spring to discuss economic and social questions. The Council of the European Union and the Commission have been asked to draw up a comprehensive 'eEurope Action Plan' to be presented to the European Council when it meets in June. An annual progress report on employment, innovation, economic reform and social cohesion will be produced by the Commission. EU governments believe that the measures proposed should produce an average economic growth rate of around 3%. By 2010, the intention is to raise the rate of employment from a current average of 61% to a target 70%, and to increase the level of women's employment from an average 51% today to more than 60%. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that the dot.com economy might create 20 million jobs. Background This is the latest move in the EU's progress towards an Information Society which has seen a number of initiatives adopted since the mid-1980's, primarily intended to generate employment through adopting new technologies. Unemployment became a significant issue for the Member States during the 1980's, as competition from the United States and Japan increased. It was the relative decline in economic standing which persuaded the then European Economic Community to develop the Single Market initiative. The Single Market was intended to increase the competitiveness of European businesses both within the Community and on the world stage. In 1993 - the year in which the Single Market was launched - the European Commission produced a White Paper on growth, competitiveness, and employment: The challenges and ways forward into the 21st century. This appears to be the first time the phrase 'Information Society' was used: 'A new 'information society' is emerging in which the services provided by information and communications technologies (ICTs) underpin human activities. It constitutes an upheaval but can also offer new job prospects' (Chapter 5A). In response to the rhetorical question 'Why this White Paper?' the Commission was quite clear - 'The one and only reason is unemployment. We are aware of its scale, and of its consequences too. The difficult thing, as experience has taught us, is knowing how to tackle it.' Chapter 8 of the White Paper discussed the scale and nature of the problem, including the low rate of employment in the Member States. An ambitious target was set of creating 15 million new jobs by 2000. The Brussels European Council, meeting in December 1993, requested a report on the information society. The resulting report, 'Europe and the global information society - Recommendations to the European Council' (known as the Bangemann Report, after its Chairman, Commission Vice-Commissioner Martin Bangemann) was presented six months later to the Corfu European Council. A month later, in July 1994, the Commission published 'Europe's way to the information society. An Action Plan'. The following year the Information Society Project Office was established (ISPO - since renamed Information Society Promotion Office). The first meeting of the European Council devoted exclusively to employment was held in Luxembourg during November 1997. The Summit identified 'the potential impact on training - and hence employment - of the knowledge and information technologies' and the Commission was requested to produce a report on the 'prospects for electronic commerce, the development of open networks and the use of multimedia tools for education and teaching.' The Commission's response was COM (1998) 590: Job opportunities in the Information Society: Exploiting the potential of the information revolution [pdf; an executive summary is available in html format]. According to the report, the Information Society (IS) had already made an impact on employment: 'Between 1995 and 1997 more than 300,000 IS-related new jobs [have] been created. Thus the IS now creates one in every four net new jobs in the EU.' The Commission was also clear that 'the future employment potential is enormous - with the Information Revolution only just beginning, the prospects of employment growth in areas such as electronic commerce are significant. The EU is clearly well placed to exploit the potential opportunities that exist. With the largest single market in the world, a single currency, liberalised telecommunications markets, a strong voice on the world stage, and a diverse, creative and innovative pool of talent, all the ingredients are in place for sustained success.' Whilst keen to establish the positive aspects of the Information Society, the Commission also pointed out that 'there is worrying evidence that the EU is not making the most of the IS's potential. Over 500,000 ICT jobs vacancies in the EU were unfilled by late 1998 because of skill shortages. This calls for urgent attention. These markets are global by nature, and the EU must move quickly if it is to take, and keep, its place at the forefront of the information age. Failure to do so will carry a heavy price in terms of European jobs, growth and competitiveness.' The Cologne Summit in June 1999 reiterated the belief that 'the jobs of the future will be created by innovation and the information society' and looked forward to the Spring 2000 Summit under the Portuguese Presidency. In December 1999, just before the Helsinki Summit, the Commission launched the 'eEurope' initiative, intended to accelerate the take-up of digital technologies across Europe and to ensure that all Europeans have the skills necessary to use them. The Helsinki European Council invited the Commission and Council to prepare an eEurope Action Plan for discussion at the European Council in Feira in June 2000 under the Portuguese Presidency. Discussions at the Lisbon Summit were informed by a Commission document, Strategies for jobs in the Information Society [COM (2000) 48 - pdf], which stressed 'the strong linkage between enhancing Europe's response to the Information Society and fostering employment in Europe.' Domain names on the internet are currently dominated by the American '.com' suffix. As part of the eEurope initiative the Commission has suggested establishing '.EU' as a top level domain, arguing that it would give the European Union a higher profile in cyberspace and stimulate electronic commerce in Europe. A public consultation exercise started in February 2000 (Commission promotes idea of 'dot EU' on the Internet). Further information within European Sources Online
Eric Davies On March 23-24 the European Council met in Lisbon at the 'dot.com' Summit. The main issue discussed at this special Council meeting was the Union's desire to tackle unemployment and promote economic reform and social cohesion by developing a digital, knowledge-based economy. |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Employment and Social Affairs, Politics and International Relations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
