Regions/World :: EU Regions > Overview
New Opportunities for Europe's Regions
By making your physical location less important in getting an education, finding new business opportunities and expanding your horizons generally, the Information Society can bring new social and economic opportunities to people in Europe's less developed or remote regions.
Overview ¦ Example Projects
"The challenge is to ensure that all of Europe's regions benefit"
By helping balance urban and rural development, the Information Society can slow or even reverse the depopulation of Europe's regions and the uncontrolled growth of its cities, with benefits felt in areas as diverse as culture and environment.
The challenge is therefore to ensure that all Europe’s regions benefit from these new opportunities, that no region is left behind, and that the Information Society helps revitalise Europe's poorer areas.
While the EU's regulation of the electronic communications market has stimulated competition and investment in the sector and driven down prices, however, normal market competition does not always result in sufficient investment in areas with below average economic wealth and/or population density.
These regions will not reap the benefits of the Information Society without Internet access, so rolling out infrastructure - particularly broadband internet access - to these areas is vital. Europe is pooling its resources to make it happen, from reorienting its Structural Funds to regulating the sector and the Internal Market, from promoting research into new broadband technologies to helping Europe's regions learn from each others' experiences in bringing broadband to all.
Further Details and Quicklinks
- Policies
- Activities
- See Also
- Relevant Policies
-
-
i2010: the
Inclusion, better public services and quality of life
pillar promotes an inclusive European Information Society.
Hence:
- "Bridging the Broadband Gap": a Communication of March 2006, aiming to ensure Europe's less developed and remote regions benefit from broadband internet access;
- This will be followed by a Conference and Exhibition in May 2007;
- See also: i2010 > Digital divide
- Wider Context: more on the EU's overall Regional Policies
-
i2010: the
Inclusion, better public services and quality of life
pillar promotes an inclusive European Information Society.
Hence:
- Relevant Activities
-
Browse some relevant
Example Projects or jump straight to the following sites:
-
The Structural Funds have been reinforced to stimulate the
Information Society and innovation in general in Europe's
regions - the new
Strategic Guidelines
for spending the €308 billion over 2007-2013 include
"encouraging innovation ... including new information and
communication technologies". More:
- Structural actions supporting the information society
- Structural actions supporting research and innovation
- Regional Programmes of Innovative Actions - e-EuropeRegio: allowing regions to experiment in regional development, including a new Regional Innovation Award in 2007;
- Research: see the
IS Research theme
for an introduction, or visit:
- Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures - one of the main Challenges under the EU's new ICT research programme (FP7, 2007-2013) - will focus on "ubiquitous and unlimited extremely high capacity infrastructures"
- Under FP6 (2002-2006), Strategic Objectives addressed technologies that can offer Broadband for all and Mobile/Wireless communications.
-
The Structural Funds have been reinforced to stimulate the
Information Society and innovation in general in Europe's
regions - the new
Strategic Guidelines
for spending the €308 billion over 2007-2013 include
"encouraging innovation ... including new information and
communication technologies". More:
- See Also
-
Other sites and documents of interest include:
-
From the Regions
Newsroom and
Library:
- Case Studies: Examples of regional innovation projects: summaries of 40 experiences of regional innovation projects in different domains, including delivering information and communications technology (ICT) service for citizens.
- eTwinning Portal: The eTwinning initiative promotes the creation of international 'virtual' school partnerships over the internet, and is available for free for schools across the continent. At the beginning of 2007, more than 8% of European schools were participating.
- Brochure: Information Society and the Regions (October 2006)
- Speech: Research and Innovation – How to take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by the Structural Funds (Commissioner Danuta Hübner)
- For the latest relevant news, publications and more from the Newsroom & Library, see right hand column, or select Regions/World when you subscribe to the Portal Newsroom Update.
- From around this Portal:
- Many Information Society services are of particular benefit to remote regions: see the eGovernment, Health and Enhancing learning with technology themes;
- Other EU Policies and Activities aim to overcome other obstacles (age, wealth, education) to accessing the Information Society: see the eInclusion and Digital Literacy themes;
- EU policies and activities focusing on improving general broadband availability are set out in the Broadband theme
- Factsheets:
59: Cutting the cost of using your mobile abroad – the new Roaming regulation
-
From the Regions
Newsroom and
Library:
Last Updated March 2007