The European Commission has decided to formally request Denmark to comply fully with EU rules regarding the financing of basic telecoms services provided to consumers, known as "universal services". In particular, the Commission has asked Denmark to remove maritime emergency services from the list of services which the telecom sector has to bear the cost of providing. The Commission's request to Denmark to amend its universal service rules takes the form of a 'reasoned opinion' under EU infringement procedures.

How Member States are implementing EU Recommendations ensuring children can enjoy the digital world confidently and safely are reviewed by the European Commission in a report presented today. Member States and industry are increasingly making efforts to implement EU Recommendations dating from 1998 and 2006 on the protection of minors using audiovisual and online services. But the measures taken have been insufficient overall.

The first measure to ensure that by 2015 your car can dial emergency services for you when you have a serious accident has been adopted by the European Commission today. The Commission wants the life-saving eCall system to be fitted to all new models of cars and light vehicles from 2015. eCall automatically dials Europe's single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious accident and communicates the vehicle's location to the emergency services. A Commission Recommendation adopted on 8th September, urges Member States to ensure that mobile phone network operators upgrade their infrastructure so that eCalls are efficiently passed on to emergency services.

The European Commission has written to eight EU Member States (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg) seeking information about their implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. The Commission has asked the Member States to reply within 10 weeks. The fact-finding letters are part of the Commission's efforts to ensure that the national media laws of all Member States correctly implement all aspects of the AVMS rules. The issues raised vary from one Member State to the other. The requests for information do not imply that the Directive has been incorrectly implemented by the Member States concerned but simply that, at this stage, the Commission has some outstanding questions concerning their implementation of the Directive.

Authorisation to use the 24 GHz radio frequency band for short-range anti-collision radar in cars has been extended until 2018 by a European Commission decision. This temporary extension will ensure short range car radar systems remain available on the market until manufacturers develop technology using the 79 GHz band, which was the operating frequency designated for such systems back in 2004. Only 0.05 % of cars in Europe are equipped with such radar systems, which currently all use the 24 GHz band, and are mainly in luxury cars. Manufacturers have encountered difficulties in developing systems using the 79 GHz band, so that technology in the 79 GHz band has not developed as fast as initially predicted by the industry. As a result, 79 GHz-technology is not mature enough for commercial deployment in cars by 2013, when the use of the 24 GHz band by these systems had been due to end.

European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes indicated to CEOs at their final Roundtable meeting in Brussels on 13th July that she will take into account messages from all of the participants delivered during the past four months' discussions on boosting investment in high speed broadband networks to meet the Europe 2020 broadband targets.

The European Commission has sent requests for information to twenty EU Member States which have not yet notified measures to implement in full new EU telecoms rules into national law. The deadline set by the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers for implementing the new rules was 25th May 2011. The requests for information take the form of letters of formal notice under EU infringement procedures.

The views of telecoms operators, Internet service providers, Member States, national data protection authorities consumer organisations and other interested parties are being sought by the European Commission on whether additional practical rules are needed to make sure that personal data breaches are notified in a consistent way across the EU. The revised ePrivacy Directive (2009/136/EC), which entered into force on 25 May 2011 as part of a package of new EU telecoms rules, requires operators and Internet service providers to inform, without undue delay, national authorities and their customers about breaches of personal data that they hold. The Commission wants to gather input based on existing practice and initial experience with the new telecoms rules and may then propose additional practical rules to make clear when breaches should be reported, the procedures for doing so, and the formats that should be used. Contributions to the consultation are welcome until 9th September 2011.

Four out of ten Europeans households are buying "bundled" internet, phone and TV services from a single provider, a new Eurobarometer survey shows. The survey also found that 65% of people limit their mobile phone calls because of cost and that calls over the Internet are becoming increasingly popular. The E-Communications Household Survey was carried out between 9 February and 8 March 2011 using a sample of 27,000 households that are representative of the EU population.

A proposal for a long-term solution to the continued high cost of using mobile phones and other mobile devices whilst travelling in the EU (roaming) has been presented by the European Commission. The directly binding Regulation proposed would for the first time introduce structural measures to boost competition by allowing customers from 1 July 2014, if they so wish, to sign up for a cheaper mobile roaming contract, separate from their contract for national mobile services, whilst using the same phone number. The proposal would also give mobile operators (including so-called virtual mobile operators, who do not have their own network) the right to use other operators' networks in other Member States at regulated wholesale prices, and so encourage more operators to compete on the roaming market.

With effect from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 EU mobile operators will again be obliged to lower retail prices for roaming calls in line with EU rules first introduced in 2007 and amended in 2009. Consumers opting for the EU-regulated "Eurotariff" will pay no more than 35 cents per minute for calls made and 11 cents per minute for calls received while abroad in the EU. This is the last in the series of regulated price cuts under the current EU Roaming Regulation, which expires end June 2012.

Only two social networking sites (Bebo and MySpace) tested on behalf of the European Commission have default settings to make minors' profiles accessible only to their approved list of contacts and only 4 sites ensure minors can be contacted by default by friends only (Bebo, MySpace, Netlog and SchuelerVZ). However, a majority of 14 social networking sites tested do give minors age-appropriate safety information, respond to requests for help and prevent minors' profiles from being searched via external search engines. The number of minors using social networking sites in the EU is growing - currently 77% of 13-16 year olds and 38% of 9-12 year olds who use the Internet.

The European Commission has expressed a number of concerns on a proposal by the Belgian audiovisual regulators to regulate broadcasting services in Belgium. It has also raised some questions on the Belgian telecommunications regulator's proposal to regulate broadband access. In particular, the Commission is asking the Belgian regulators to take full account of market developments in both markets and to further substantiate and justify its reasoning with regard to the broadcasting market. The Commission's role is to oversee the details of remedies proposed by national telecoms regulators to address competition problems so as to ensure that customers and businesses are able to benefit from a fair and competitive single EU telecoms market, and that operators have the regulatory certainty they need to confidently operate EU-wide.

Senior officials from the EU and Japan have agreed on a common area for research in Future Internet and New Generation Networks. This will be the subject of the first ever EU-Japan coordinated calls for ICT research proposals in 2012-13. The EU and Japan share many similar goals in designing the Internet of the future. We have the Internet of connected computers, and connected people, and the Internet is now going mobile. In the near future it will connect a whole range of machines and objects, generating ever-increasing volumes of data. But the internet needs to adapt to manage future data streams, and provide the associated levels of accuracy, resilience and safety. Challenges of this magnitude require a global response and global cooperation. A firm understanding on developing coordinated calls for research in Future Internet was reached at a meeting between the European Commission and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

Representatives of the Hungarian and Polish Presidencies of the EU's Council of Ministers, the European Commission and European Parliament, meeting in Brussels on 17 June, have agreed on talks to reach an agreement by the end of this year on an EU strategy for management of Europe's radio spectrum, one of the most important legislative proposals of the Digital Agenda for Europe.

Three out of four Europeans accept that revealing personal data is part of everyday life, but they are also worried about how companies – including search engines and social networks – use their information. These are the main conclusions of a new Eurobarometer survey on attitudes towards data protection and electronic identity, released by the European Commission today. The report reveals that 62% of people in the European Union give the minimum required information so as to protect their identity, while 75% want to be able to delete personal information online whenever they want to – the so-called right to be forgotten. There is also strong support for EU action: 90% want to have the same data protection rights across Europe.

In order for innovation to benefit patients, healthcare professionals, industry and society by improving individual health and quality of life it should be increasingly patient- and user-centred and demand-driven.

On World IPv6 Day the European Commission is making its Europa website accessible for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) users (as well as IPv4 users). The Internet operates by transferring data in small packets that are independently routed across networks, as specified by an international communications protocol known as the Internet Protocol. In 1984 over 4 billion addresses were made available on Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) but due to increasing demand for new Internet services, the last remaining IPv4 address was assigned in February 2011. The uptake of IPv6 will make available a practically unlimited amount of Internet addresses to support the explosive growth of new services in the future. By making its website IPv6 accessible, the European Commission is setting an example and hopes to encourage other public sectors to persuade European companies and manufacturers to make their new smart devices and servers IPv6 compatible. Deploying IPv6 is a key action under the Digital Agenda for Europe.

This MEMO explains what IPv6 is, why it is needed, how it is due to be deployed and the steps being taken by the Commission to encourage its deployment.

The Telehealth Campaign is a series of initiatives whose objectives are to increase the collaboration and awareness about telehealth in support of integrated care in Europe amongst all the relevant stakeholders. The current promoters, representing patients, hospitals, health managers, health insurers and industry are AIM, EHMA, EPF, COCIR, CONTINUA, EHTEL and HOPE. The Telehealth Campaign is calling for submissions of successful Telehealth stories to be part of a brochure titled “Real Telehealth Stories”. The brochure will be disseminated across a wide audience, namely the EU institutions, national and regional policymakers and officials, patients, healthcare professionals and managers, and industry. If you would like to contribute to the development of Telehealth in Europe and let the world know about your work, then submit your success Telehealth story.