Information society: new Member States catching up but still long way off 

The e-Europe+ final progress report is encouraging to new Member States, which are praised for the restructuring of their regulatory environment towards more liberalisation. Ownership and regulation of the networks and services is now complete in all countries and National Regulatory Authorities have been created on the same model as with current Member States. The report notes that most directives concerned with Information Society are currently "at least at the stage of initial drafts".

New Member States are now taking up the challenge of joining the e-Europe 2005 Action Plan halfway through the process, setting out on a testing path for the years to come with the following core objectives:

• Regulation: The Commission insists on the full implementation of the new regulatory framework by the new Member States to stimulate competition and push prices down. This should take place on the day of accession (1 May 2004).
• Broadband: Penetration in the new Member States is still low, moving broadband deployment to the top of their agendas for the years to come. As for existing Member States, this will require efforts on both the supply side (network deployment) and demand side of the equation (providing quality content and services online).

However, the digital divide remains wide. A survey conducted in June 2003 in acceding countries' households shows quite startling results in this respect. On average, 11 per cent said they had no idea what the Internet actually was and 23 per cent confessed they did not know how to use a computer. Figures for the worst performer (Bulgaria) show how deep the digital divide can get. Twenty three per cent of respondents there did not to know what the Internet was and almost half could not use a computer. In this regard, the Commission emphasises the basic skills required to drive the demand for information society services in new Member States.

For Businesses, the results are far more encouraging. According to a survey conducted in November last year by e-business watch, the gap between the EU 15 and the new Member States in terms of Internet connections or even broadband access is much smaller than expected. Estonian businesses for instance, have the same rate of connection to very high-speed networks (2Mbps - two megabits per second) as France, Germany and the UK. The only significant differences noted in the report are for more sophisticated e-business applications such as online procurement and supply chain integration that require back-office re-organisation.

Speaking to the ministers at the conference in Budapest, Dermot Ahern, the Irish Minister for Communications, said Europe should be aiming for 10 per cent broadband penetration in the near future. "I believe ther e should be free broadband for schools and libraries. [...] If you have broadband at school you will want it in your home".

At the conference, Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erikki Liikanen said he expected the regulatory framework for electronic communications to bring significant growth to acceding countries. He insisted that they should "do every effort to complete the process of adaptation of national laws and ensure transposition of the framework by the accession date".