News - European Commission adopts refocused e-action

European Commission adopts refocused e-action plan

August 2002

The European Commission has adopted a comprehensive action plan to provide an information society for the ECs 377 million citizens by 2005. The eEurope 2005 plan builds on the eEurope initiative launched in December 1999 and the earlier eEurope2002 plan.

The plan proposes far-reaching commitments for member states in a number of arenas, including e-government. In a two-pronged approach the EC proposes to stimulate the development of services, applications and content on the one hand, while fostering the need for secure broadband infrastructure on the other.

The plan outlines a strategy to develop services that can be accessed using a variety of different devices, so that people who choose not to use a PC are not excluded.

The exchange of experience to quickly determine best practice, benchmarking of progress and co-ordination of policies to bring out synergies between proposed activities are all highlighted in the plan.