EurActiv Logo
 
4 December 2009
Breaking News:
News

Commission seeks advice on ICT sector shake-up[fr] 

Published: Thursday 8 June 2006   

A task force representing all sectors of the industry, academics, consumer advocates and trade unionists will draft a report on how to foster the growth of Europe's Information and Communication Technology industry.

Background:

ICT is a key technology in the EU's Jobs and Growth agenda, for two main reasons: 

  • The ICT industry itself is one of the most dynamic, with expected growth rates of an average 6% over the next four years. 
  • Due to the growing penetration with ICT innovation has important spin-off effects on the productivity of all other sectors, accounting for 20% of EU-wide labour productivity growth, with a growing tendency. 

But the industry is also under big pressure from its offshore competitors in North America and South-East Asia.  Since protectionism is not a choice, the Commission is looking into ways of fostering the industry's growth. DG Information Society and DG Enterprise have taken the lead. They have decided to set up a task force which should, within the next six months:

  • Identify major obstacles to the sector's competitiveness and the uptake of ICTs
  • Help mobilise the sector and draw the attention of Member States to the obstacles identified
  • Recommend possible policy responses

The task force is part of DG Enterprise's New Industry Policy external initiative and compliments DG Information Society's i2010external initiative. 

Other related news:

Prior to setting up the task force and laying down its mandate, the Commission consulted a number of ICT sector trade and industry associations, namely BSA, ECTA, EICTA, ESA, ESIA, ETNO and ObjectWeb. Jointly, they have identified the following topics as central for the ICT sector's growth: 

  1. ICT uptake
  2. IPR for competitiveness and innovation
  3. Innovation in R&D, manufacturing and services
  4. SMEs and entrepreneurship
  5. Skills and employability
  6. Achieving a single market

Positions:

Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "The ICT industry is crucial to Europe's economic recovery, and a strategic, market-oriented co-operation of the EU institutions with the private sector is the key to its successful development. With the ICT Task Force, we want to ensure that Europe’s ICT industry keeps its leading role in the world. Jointly, we will focus our work on facilitating cross-border competition in Europe, on removing barriers for a true internal market for online content services, and on combining more effectively public and private research efforts to spur ICT investment."

Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen said: "Industrial policy should not disturb well-functioning markets, pick winners, be protectionist or take over industry's role. The Commission’s new industrial policy is about improving framework conditions across industrial sectors in different policy areas: for example research and innovation, trade, environment, public procurement, education and training. Targeted sectoral actions complement our framework policy approach, working with the markets and stakeholders via high-level groups and task-forces, such as this ICT task force."

Next steps:

  • A first meeting of the so-called 'sherpas' (task force members' representatives) took place on 17 May 2006
  • The inaugural meeting of the task Force was on 6 June 2006
  • It will meet a second time on 20 September 2006 to review the draft topic papers produced by its six working-groups
  • A final meeting late November / early December 2006 will validate the report of the task force

Links

Advertising
Agenda
  1. 7 - 9 December 2009
    ECTA's 10th Anniversary Regulatory Conference
  2. 9 December 2009
    “Turkey and the EU: a female perspective”
  3. 9 December 2009
    ETNO Cool Connections event and its 2009 Annual Reception
  4. 3 - 5 March 2010
    Cable Congress
Communicate your event
Advertising