ICT Task-Force
The ICT Task-Force was one of several initiatives taken under the Commission's industrial policy, which aims to help create a more favourable environment for business in the EU, and was designed to complement the Commission's main ICT-related initiative, i2010.
Mandate
- Identify major obstacles to the sector's competitiveness and the uptake of ICTs.
- Help mobilise the sector and draw the attention of Member States to the obstacles identified.
- Recommend possible policy responses.
Composition
The membership 
[15 KB] comprised high-level representatives of the ICT industry and civil society.
Industry members came from across the ICT sector and included incumbents, new entrants, and both large and medium-sized firms. Non-industry members represented trade unions, SMEs, chambers of commerce, consumers, investors and academia.
Each member of the Task-Force had a personal representative, or sherpa, and the group of sherpas was assisted by a trade association contact group [18 KB] .
The Task-Force was chaired by Heinz Zourek, Director-General of DG Enterprise & Industry, and Fabio Colasanti, Director-General of DG Information Society & Media.
Working methods
Working groups [56 KB] were made up of members, their sherpas, industry associations and other stakeholders. The membership of working groups was open during the drafting process.
Each working group had a coordinator and deputy coordinator [12 KB] selected by the members of the working group concerned, and used a common topic paper format [10 KB] .
The six working groups tackled the following topics:
- ICT uptake
- IPR for competitiveness and innovation
- Innovation in R&D, manufacturing and services
- SMEs and entrepreneurship
- Skills and employability
- Achieving a single market
These topics were selected after discussions with the ICT trade associations BSA, ECTA, EICTA, ESIA, ETNO, European Software Association and ObjectWeb, who formed a Trade Association Contact Group for the duration of the Task-Force.
An external rapporteur drew together the findings and recommendations of the working groups into an overall report [138 KB] .
Milestones
- 27 November 2006: Task-Force meeting to adopt;
- 8 November 2006: meeting of sherpas to settle outstanding issues;
- 27 October 2006: draft final report circulated to sherpas;
- 20 October 2006: finalisation of output of working groups;
- 19 September 2006: meeting of sherpas to review outputs of working groups;
- mid-July 2006: engagement of external rapporteur;
- 26 June to 6 July 2006: kick-off meetings of working groups;
- 6 June 2006: inaugural meeting of Task-Force;
- 17 May 2006: first meeting of sherpas;
- 17 January 2006: roundtable between Commission and ICT industry associations;
- 5 October 2005: adoption by Commission of Communication on new industrial policy
