Europe's way to the information society: an action plan
Given the convergence of the telecommunications, audiovisual
and publishing sectors, the question of media concentration should be
regulated before there was any further move in the direction of
liberalisation. Adoption of the Commission’s proposal for a programme
to liberalise services and infrastructure should depend on certain
pre-conditions first being fulfilled in such fields as: * the establishment
of a stable and legal regulatory framework, particularly with regard to: -
media concentration and ownership; - the definition and preservation of the concept
of universal service; - privacy; - intellectual property rights; - legal
protection and security; - the audiovisual sector: ethical considerations;
information; culture; - standardisation, interoperability; - tariffs
(equalisation, cross-subsidisation); * the harmonisation and development of
EURO-ISDN, an integrated broadband network, and IDA so as not to compromise
the development of public interest and other applications. The ESC believed
that an immediate start should be made on analyses of the social and economic
risks and challenges involved in the transition to the information society
and on measures to obviate and limit such risks. In particular, it called
for: - the immediate establishment of a Group of Experts, which would include
all social and economic interests; - studies to evaluate the investment
needed to set up and operate information highways and new services, and to
assess the effect on employment; - studies of the structural impact and
effect on employment of new information and communication services, with
particular regard to possible new applications in banks, commercial
enterprises, mail-order firms, travel agents, transport firms and enterprises
in the media industry; - the development and testing of rules governing
layout and security in connection with the regional pilot projects. The
findings of the studies, and the lessons learnt from the projects, should be
made public and applied when further measures were drawn up to ease the
transition to the information society. The findings and experiences should
also be submitted to the European institutions and to all social and economic
interests for their opinions, before final decisions were taken on
appropriate measures. At the same time as getting to grips with the social
consequences of the new technologies, there was also a case for studying
needs so that the information society could satisfy the real demands of
European society and not merely supply services that offered immediate
financial gain. A detailed timetable should be fixed for debating these
crucial questions in advance of the proposed deadlines for the liberalisation
of all services whilst the deadlines in question should be adjusted in the
light of the studies that needed to be carried out into the social
implications. In view of the uncertainties surrounding current changes,
governments and civil society should be allowed a reasonable length of time
for reflection and the possible endorsement of a democratic regulatory body
at Community level. The ESC emphasised that it might itself have a democratic
role to play in such a body. It stressed that it was necessary for Member
States to ensure that the decisions adopted by collective agreement at EU
level were implemented at national level. The way in which the transition to
the information society was organised was of great importance to the further
economic and social modernisation of