Europe's way to the information society: an action plan

The Council listened with great interest to a statement by Mr BANGEMANN on the progress made with action to encourage development of the information society and on the measures taken by the Commission to ensure a follow-up to the G7 Ministerial meeting on 25 and 26 February 1995 and, in particular, implementation of the pilot projects decided on. The Council stressed the importance of applications of general interest and those concerning SMEs for establishing the information society and for industry in Europe, which should be given development incentives as quickly as possible. The Council therefore welcomed the fact that the Commission would be forwarding a communication defining the approach to be adopted for developing applications of the information society that are fully in line with the policy of making the Union industrially competitive, together with a draft Decision on implementation of trans-European telecommunications networks. (COD0498)