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IP: Cohesion and the Information Society
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 09:58:50 -0500
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 14:49:14 +0000 To: farber () cis upenn edu From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk> Subject: Cohesion and the Information Society Dave: There is an official EU document now on the Web at http://www.ispo.cec.be/infosoc/legreg/docs/cohes1.html that might be of interest to you, though it is written in Euro-speak. It addresses the problem of ensuring equality of access to telecomms and data networks in Europe, which heretofore had been (officially) assumed would be an almost automatic by-product of deregulation. I've copied the Foreword below. Cheers Brian ======= Cohesion and the Information Society COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE COMMITTEE OF REGIONS AND THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE Foreword The Commission has recently adopted its first Report on economic and social cohesion, under Art. 130b of the Treaty. This Communication forms part of the follow-up to the recommendations and analysis of the Report in the area of the information society. It complements the Green Paper "Living and Working in the information society - People first", (which undertook an analysis of the issues related to social cohesion), notably by highlighting the regional aspects of the problem. In the context of the globalisation process and of the need to become more competitive at the world level, the opportunities offered by the emerging information society are huge: in terms of competitive gains to be grasped by firms and territories; more efficient organisational forms; new trading opportunities; new educational and new employment possibilities. Making these opportunities available throughout Europe is one of the central objectives of the gradual liberalisation of telecommunication markets. However, not all European regions, citizens or firms are equally well equipped to enjoy these benefits because of geographical, social and economic reasons, yet in a globalising environment, it is clear that they have to compete not just at EU level, but at a global level as well. Though the opening of telecommunications market and the harmonisation measures should in principle reach out to the whole territory of the Union, the principal risk is that investments in some regions will be delayed. Thus, the development of the information society needs to be complemented, where necessary, by policy action in order to close the existing gaps and ensure that the information society develops at the desired rate throughout the Union. This calls for the participation and co-ordination of regions, national governments and the European Institutions so as to avert a polarisation between "information haves" and "information have-nots" as the new technologies spread. This document, having identified the need for action, indicates the issues, the context and the way forward in the areas of regulatory, investment and demand support policies. Coherent progress in these three areas will be important for harmonious regional development. Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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- IP: Cohesion and the Information Society Dave Farber (Mar 21)