Ministers consider Delors' (pounds)100bn hi-tech proposals

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Here is an article from today's copy of The Independent.




Ministers consider Delors' (pounds)100bn hi-tech proposals


Andrew Marshall in Brussels


Jacques Delors wants Europe to spend another 150bn ecus ((pounds)112bn) on
telecommunications over the next 10 years. The European Union's finance
ministers yesterday said that they might agree to help.


So might you if, like thousands in Brussels yesterday, you could not get a
phone line that worked. A software fault threw national and international
lines out of kilter, sending business and personal users alike into a
screaming frenzy. The quality and quantity of the telecommunications
infrastructure in Europe is simply not up to the task.


Telecommunications and information technology are among the main priorities
in Mr Delors' White Paper, which was agreed at the summit of European Union
leaders on Saturday. Yesterday, finance ministers set up a working group to
study the ideas in the Commission President's paper, including how to
finance them. A group of "eminent persons" has been detailed to report to
the next meeting of EU leaders.


High technology is one of the key ways, the paper argues, of boosting
competitiveness and creating jobs. Building what Mr Delors calls a "common
information area" will buttress the advantages of the single market, it
says, in a sector that is rapidly changing and where Europe faces stiff
competition from the US and Japan.


The most obvious references to information technology in the report concern
big, headline-grabbing, money-eating projects. The paper says that 150bn
ecus will be needed over the next ten years.


It lists eight initiatives. They include a high-speed communication
network, electronic mail, video services, links to allow office workers to
communicate, and building an integrated services digital network, links
that allow voices, images or data to be sent down the same line.


The idea is to connect people working at home, doctors, training
facilities, manufacturing plants and even consumers. The main cancer
research centres would be linked up so would 100 universities and
schools-and tax authorities.


Research and development is another major element. The EU will spend 12bn
ecus between 1994 and 1998, less than the Commission originally wanted but
more than some states said they could stand.


It all costs a lot of money. The EU itself is unlikely to put up more than
a fraction of the cash, with most coming from national governments and the
private sector. They are already gearing up to invest. In the US, their
competitors are doing the same as part of President Bill Clinton's project
for "information superhighways" - one of the inspirations for the Delors
project. But more will be needed, and there is still disagreement about
how, and whether, the EU should raise it.


But parallel to the big task of creating the physical links is something
even more important, in the view of most large companies and some
governments: deregulating the telephone service. This is an important part
of the White Paper, one that the Government backs - because Britain has
already gone most of the way down the line.


The importance of these new industries to Europe helps to explain why the
audiovisual sector has become such an element in the Gatt talks. It
includes a range of new products and technologies in preparation, many
using precisely the links that the Delors White Paper proposes to
construct. It is hardly surprising that the EU is fighting hard to protect
its interests, when so much cash is on the line.