Commission reassesses Europe’s ICT policy priorities

At the IST2004 event in Den Haag, the Commission has unveiled its
new work programme for information technologies and set out the
priorities for the 7th Framework Programme.

Europe’s biggest event on information society
technologies,  IST 2004, is well underway in Den Haag. For three days, around
3,000 information and communication technology professionals are
meeting to network and exchange information (see EURACTIV 11 November 2004).

In his opening keynote address, Fabio Colasanti, Director
General for Information Society, pointed to 2004 as a turning point
in the EU’s ICT policy.”2004 is a year of particular importance for
ICT policy in Europe. It is the year for defining the political
priorities and actions to be undertaken at EU level beyond 2006 and
the year of the mid-term review of the implementation of current
policies.”

With reference to the recent findings of the Kok report
(see EURACTIV 3 November 2004), Colasanti
emphasised that ICT are and will remain the key tools to address
the policy priorities of the EU. “ICT are the main drivers to
improving productivity and economic growth. In Europe for instance,
almost 40 per cent of the productivity growth in the last ten years
was due to ICT,” said Colasanti.

ICT are seen to be key in particular in improving products and
services, modernising public services and meeting growing societal
demands. This is well reflected in the projects showcast at the
IST2004 event. With around 130 stands, the exhibition shows how ICT
enables new ways of living and working together, communicating,
entertaining and ensuring that every citizen benefits from the
knowledge-based economy.

After 420 proposals were selected for funding under the 6th Research
Framework Programme  (FP6), receiving a total funding of
1.7bn euro, the Commission is now reassessing its research
priorities in this area. The new IST Work Programme
2005-2006 (WP2005-2006) was unveiled during the conference. It
aims to achieve three main goals: completing EU investment in
the FP6 research objectives, integrating ICT research in an
enlarged Europe and using WP2005-2006 as a bridge to the
upcoming Framework Programme (FP7).

Turning to the Commission’s priorities for FP7, Colasanti announced
that a more thematic approach will be needed in order to make
Community support more visible and more easily identifiable by
citizens, business and decision-makers.

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The 2004 edition of Europe's biggest information technologies event brings together industry, policy-makers and the research community for three days of networking. It is also a good place to learn about communicating research results.