Information society, eEurope 2005: action plan, Seville European Council, 21-22 June 2002

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on its own-initiative report drafted by Reino PAASILINNA (PES, Finland) on the information society. (Please refer to the summary of 23/01/03.) In addition, Parliament wanted the Commission to investigate the possibilities of developing adult education dealing with the skills required in the information society, as well as a common European diploma to measure these skills, when moving to the next stages of the new technology. It went on to encourage the development of the European health card (subject to the consent of citizens concerned) which will replace the various documents for medical and pharmaceutical care in another Member State. This should reduce the obstacles to mobility within the Union. The European Parliament also emphasised the need for: - additional support to SME's in "going digital"; - investigating opportunities for establishing national funds to help marginalised groups and socially excluded citizens, to become integrated into the information society; - investigating the ways in which the development of innovative broadband services can be promoted through tax concessions, or demand stimulated; - promoting the development of European-specific operating systems and software both of which should fully take into account the needs of vulnerable groups including disabled and elderly users; - supporting state-of-the-art encrypting, confidentiality and data security projects as well as developing associated software and programmes.�