Information Security Agency: EP Committee wants more public involvement 

• ensure that network security solutions are easily accessible to small and medium-sized companies
• provide advice to the Commission as well as to the Parliament, the competent European and national bodies and the business community
• invite tenders for research in the area of network and information security
• be run by a management board to be approved before 31 January each year by both the Commission and the Parliament
• have a nine-member advisory board representing the industry, the consumer associations as well as the science and research sector
• be operational for a limited period only (from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008).

Welcoming the planned establishment of the agency, the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU (AmCham EU) has urged close cooperation between the new body and the private sector, and has called for representatives of the industry and the consumer organisations to be included in the agency's management board.