Before i2010: eEurope initiative
The European Commission launched the eEurope initiative in 2000 with the aim of accelerating Europe's transition towards a knowledge based economy and to realize the potential benefits of higher growth, more jobs and better access for all citizens to the new services of the information age.
The first phase of eEurope was the eEurope 2002 Action Plan which focused on exploiting the advantages offered by the Internet and therefore on increasing connectivity. It comprised a total of 64 targets to be achieved by end 2002. The majority of those were successfully completed and in June 2002 the European Council launched a second phase, eEurope 2005 Action Plan, which focused on exploiting broadband technologies to deliver online services in both the public and private sector. eEurope was not a public expenditure programme and did not make new funds available. It rather provided a policy framework within which existing expenditure, such as the6th Framework programme for research, the eTEN or the Structural Funds, could be better focused.
eEurope 2002
The European Commission launched the
eEurope initiative
(
)
in December 1999 to bring the benefits of the Information Society to all
Europeans. The eEurope
2002 Action Plan (),
agreed by the Member States at the Feira European Council in 2000, targeted
three areas: 1) cheaper, faster and secure Internet, 2) investing in people and
skills, and 3) stimulating the use of the Internet. Its achievements are
summarized in a
Final Report presented by the Commission in February 2003. The initiative
was complemented by
eEurope+ Action Plan for the candidate countries. Financial support for the
implementation of eEurope 2002 was provided by the PROMISE programme.
eEurope 2002 was very successful in extending Internet connectivity and helped the Member States adopt the existing legal framework for electronic communications and important legislation for e-commerce. However, the effective use of the Internet was not developing as fast as connectivity. Therefore subsequent policy attention shifted to supporting effective use of ICT through an increased availability of high quality infrastructure, as well as availability of attractive services and applications and the encouragement of organizational change.
eEurope Communication (COM 1999/687, December 1999)
(EN, other language versions on request)
eEurope 2002 Action Plan (June 2000)
eEurope 2002 Benchmarking Report (February 2002)
eEurope 2002 Final Report (February 2003)
PROMISE programme evaluation (June 2005)
For further information on eEurope 2002, contact infso-i2010@ec.europa.eu
eEurope 2005
In June 2002, the Seville European Council gave a broad political endorsement to
the eEurope 2005 Action
Plan which was then adopted by the Council in December 2002.
eEurope 2005 was based on the recognition that high speed connectivity
(broadband) stimulates the use of the Internet by enabling the usage of more
developed applications and services. eEurope 2005 aimed to stimulate a positive
feedback between infrastructure upgrading and service development. To this end
it set out to create more favorable conditions for the deployment of
infrastructure - often called the "supply side" of the broadband equation - and
to support the development of services - the "demand side" - within a more
secure digital environment. Finally, it also attempted to make the benefits of
the Information Society available to the socially excluded the people with
special needs.
The supply side, the objectives of the action plan were to:
-
remove remaining obstacles to the upgrading of existing infrastructure and to the deployment of new one;
-
ensure the availability of financial incentives (from the EU or the national level), in case of clear market failures, especially in peripheral regions characterised by low density of population and/or geographical remoteness.
On the demand side, the action plan focused on:
-
removing regulatory obstacles to the development of new services (e.g. easier re-use of public sector information; development of digital rights management systems, etc.);
-
encouraging the public sector to fully exploit the possibilities offered by high speed connections and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public services (e-Government, e-Health, e-Learning);
-
creating a favourable environment to encourage firms to adopt ICT and invest in human capital to develop e-Business activities;
-
pooling the demand of different public bodies (demand aggregation strategy) to facilitate the achievement of a critical mass of users that facilitates the deployment of infrastructure by enhancing commercial incentives to invest.
Financial support for the implementation of eEurope 2005 was provided by the MODINIS programme.
More information is available on the (archived) eEurope 2005 website.