EC puts IT at heart of Europe

The European Commission has launched E-Europe - an initiative that aims to put the continent on a fast-track towards a true information society.

Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, has called for governments to speed up all IT policy, in partnership with local business and consumers. He said Europe can't wait three years for governments to implement the various directives passing through Brussels.

The ecommerce directive has now been ratified, and telco liberalisation is underway, but Liikanen said Europe will never compete with the US unless it sets up universal Web access for schools and unbundles the local loop by this time next year.

The Commission yesterday agreed on ten action points, which will form the basis of E-Europe. It will focus on education, competitive access rates, ecommerce, university research, smart card specifications, entrepreneurship, social inclusion, healthcare, smart transport and electronic government.

Although some of these goals have been mentioned before, Liikanen's main innovation lies in the advanced time-frame for unbundling the local loop and significantly reducing the tariffs on leased lines - including cross-border leased lines.

Liikanen also said yesterday that Europe's GSM standard for mobile phones could push it to the forefront of Internet innovations. But at the moment, European Internet access was being held up by high costs and low bandwidth.

"We propose that member countries take a strict commitment that by the end of next year, we have completed our plan on the local loop unbundling and also on the recommendations of the leased lines," he told Silicon.com.

The EC is hosting a Special European Council meeting in Lisbon this March to kick off a pan-European action plan.