Information Society and Economic, Social and Territorial
Cohesion 2000-2006: a new opportunity
Conclusions and Recommendations -
Director-General Guy Crauser
DG Regional Policy, European Commission
19th December 2000
Conference in Lyon
The information society: a means to the end of realising
the competitiveness of regions and the creation and maintenance of stable
jobs.
eEurope will contribute to this through its objectives of providing all
Europeans with cheaper, faster and secure Internet access, and by giving
Europeans the skills they need to exploit the Internet's potential. But
need to work hard to achieve goals of information society for all as defined
in the eEurope Action Plan.
Digital Divide runs through Europe, through regions, through society.
Our role is to help close it, one tool at our disposal - the Structural
Funds. Are an important catalyst in financing the process towards knowledge-based
society. All depends on how we use funds - their impact can be disproportionate
to the size of the investment.
As Commissioner Barnier said: 2000-2006 opportunity to do more and do
better in this respect.
Now, general commitments need to be translated into concrete investment
decisions, need to ensure efficiency in selecting and implementing projects.
This conference has helped to provide some input and ideas.
Discussions have resulted in a number of recommendations for all actors
involved - the regions, the Member States, the Commission, the business
community, the citizens.
Summarise main points:
1. The Regions should:
Key message is: information society measures financed under the regional
development plans need to be result of integrated and single strategy.
RISI (Regional Information Society Initiatives) model for information
society strategies based on the principles of partnership, collaboration
and consensus big success. Regions successful where regional authorities
show leadership in a broad public-private partnership. Thus contribute
to creating and strengthening regional identity.
These strategies ensure that regional IS investments reflect regional
needs of enterprises and people and are basis for solutions that stimulate
demand. Call on regions who have not yet developed such a strategy to
do so in co-operation with the different stakeholders.
2. Member States and Regions should:
Use Structural Funds to stimulate demand and capacity to effectively
use ICT - few key elements
Regional Administrations should keep up efforts to modernise as well
as re-engineer their processes on the basis of IT. In addition a great
effort should be directed in staff training and awareness raising for
public employees, especially for educational institutions.
Work should be intensified on eDemocracy and on making administration
processes more transparent, taking into account the "democratic divide",
personal autonomy, social inclusiveness and security.
As concerns enterprise development bringing seed capital to less developed
regions is still a major concern. Commission fully supports this, encourages
regions to use such alternative methods of financing with help of Structural
Funds.
Create better links to the universities, polytechnics and research institutes
in their regions which remains a problem especially in Southern regions
of Europe. With innovation key to business and regional competitiveness
research knowledge for both IT and traditional sectors.
As regards education and training - apart from addressing key bottleneck
of training teachers - there is also need for validation of IT skills.
Member States in collaboration with Commission to agree fast on an IT-skills
certification system.
Assess very carefully under which conditions co-finance infrastructure
through Structural Funds
Public support from Structural Funds should be made available only to
tackle specific problems such as the absence of commercial incentives
to invest in infrastructures and networks or a lack of private initiative
in particular areas to fulfil specific social objectives (e.g. in rural,
deprived urban areas). More work to be done on identifying specific criteria
- to be done by Commission together with regions.
Public support has a major role to play to stimulate demand, particularly
in the area of public services (education, healthcare), thereby leading
to infrastructure improvements (without adequate infrastructure, it is
not possible to deliver those services).
Use of Structural Funds on telecommunications infrastructure should be
determined within an IS development strategy of the regions, and not financed
as isolated projects with the sole objective of upgrading infrastructure.
Use the opportunities for co-operation between regions, trying out
innovative approaches, networking and benchmarking foreseen by Structural
Funds
Use possibilities of transborder, transnational and interregional co-operation
in the framework of INTERREG.
Regions to invite candidate countries and businesses to participate in
joint activities, exchange of experience, in particular, see how they
can develop common projects using Interreg and Phare CBC (Cross-Border-Co-operation)
funds.
Encourage regions to present regional programmes for innovative actions
incorporating either one or more of the three strands:
- eEurope Regio
- helping less-favoured regions raise their technological level
- regional identity and sustainable development
Regional Information Society Initiatives (RISI) financed under innovative
actions 1994-1999: a great success. Basis for mainstreaming of IS measures
in new regional development plans in many regions.
New programmes of innovative actions possibility to further develop strategies,
experiment and test new projects. Decided on change of approach vis à
vis last programming period: now ask regions to submit regional programmes.
Main aim is to ensure better links between innovative actions and mainstream
funds, to convince regional decision makers of validity and necessity
of SF spending on more innovative areas such as, technology transfer,
the Information Society, and education and training.
Also Commission recognises the need and value-added of interregional
exchange of experience delivered by networks and tools as presented in
workshop 6 (Erisa and Locregis). Therefore opportunity for regions to
present proposals for co-financing of networks and tools for the exchange
of experience, identification of good practice and benchmarking with specific
indicators relevant to measure progress achieved in the regions as part
of accompanying measures of regional programmes for innovative actions.
Use it.
One crucial element of successful networks is trust between partners,
takes a long time to build, therefore continuity is an important element
for the success of networks and similar initiatives.
Another crucial element of initiatives to exchange best practice, especially
when using web-based tools is visibility. Could be useful to link such
webpages to Inforegio, the European portal for information related to
regional development.
3. The Commission will:
Help to ensure efficient implementation of IS earmarked funds
Some MS have set themselves ambitious targets for 2000-2006 for developing
the IS. Necessary because less favoured regions have to catch up.
Organise seminars
In 2001 at the initiative of Commission together with national and regional
authorities organise targeted technical seminars in a number of Objective
1 areas to guide them in the development of regional IS strategies and
ensure that funds earmarked for the IS are translated into projects that
meet regions' needs. Use especially experiences from RISI regions. Seminars
addressed to national and regional authorities - Structural Funds managers
and Monitoring Committee members.
Setting up a monitoring mechanism
The Structural Funds Regulation foresees that each year Member States
submit implementation reports which are then reviewed by Commission and
the managing authority in regular meetings.
Will make progress in achieving objectives with regard to the Information
Society and knowledge-based economy a fixed agenda point of these meetings.
Indicators defined in the Community Support Frameworks and Single Programming
Documents will be important point of reference.
Improve synergies between the Community Research Programme and the
Structural Funds
Well-known fact that scope exists to improve take-up and widespread deployment
of ICT-applications developed with the help of EU research funds in regions.
(Information Society Technologies or IST-Programme, TEN-Telecom).
Therefore next year's IST work programme will contain a cross-programme
action line calling for the development of regional pilots and demonstrators
of ICT applications in the area of supporting access of SMEs to the digital
economy and public service applications. These pilots should reflect the
needs of regions and enjoy the support of key regional players. If results
are successful then could use also Structural Funds for funding of full
deployment. Encourage regions to participate in this call for proposals.
When regions submit regional programmes for innovative actions make
use of applications developed under IST-Programme or TEN Telecom Programme.
Reinforce collaboration between the RTD and SF communities by promoting
cross participation in RTD and SF actions, by inviting RTD participants
at SF seminars and by organising a workshop on IST-Regional Development
in 2002, at the end of the IST programme (results available) and one year
before the SF mid-term review.
Prepare for the future - prepare for the mid-term review
Although negotiations for 2000-2006 period not finished need to plan
ahead - i.e. for mid-term review. Regions use this opportunity to re-orient
funding towards the IS.
To prepare for this process: Commission will launch next year an evaluation
of Information Society interventions for both programming periods (1994-1999
and 2000-2006).
In addition, launch evaluation of RISI programme.
Results of this evaluation together with results from other assistance
and accompanying measures will be presented at the next European conference
on information society and cohesion in 2002 as a preparation for mid-term
review negotiations.
Finally, stress that help from the structural funds for regions is a
window of opportunity that will not be open forever. Enlargement will
mean that not all regions eligible today will be eligible in the future.
Bear in mind that success of regions increasingly determined by ability
to innovate, to generate a vibrant enterprise culture and to embrace opportunities
offered by ICTs. |