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National/EU policy
10 May 2007  I  Paul Gerhard
EU Annual report on digital economy highlights benefits of ICT investments
‘ICT drives 50 per cent of EU growth’, was one of the conclusion of the recently published annual progress report i2010, the Commission’s five-year strategy to boost the digital economy. The reports reviews the Commission’s and EU Member States progress towards to goals set out in the i2010 agenda.

The report points out the successes of the newly launched 7th Framework Research Programme, set up to fund and promote European research and technological development which is devoting over €9 billion for ICT research. The report however also warns of the need to increase efforts to bring research spending up to 3% of GDP by 2010, as it is currently at 2.6 per cent rate.

Also among the achievements is the growth in new broadband connections with almost one in four EU households now connected to the internet via high-speed “broadband” links.

The ICT sector continues to grow faster than Europe's overall economy, according to the i2010 second annual report. ICT contributed nearly 50% of EU productivity growth between 2000 and 2004, with software and IT services currently the most dynamic growth area.

Along with the report, 29 country factsheets are published which highlight the progress towards the i2010 targets in the 27 EU Member States as well as in Iceland and Norway.

These reports allow seeing at the national level how countries compare to each others in areas such as broadband development, infrastructure, access to 3G networks, digital TV and other key priorities set out in the i2010 initiative. The report points out for instance that six countries – Denmark, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, the UK and Belgium – all have higher broadband penetration rates than the US and Japan.

As far as ICT in education is concerned, the report takes three indicators: number of internet-connected computers per 100 students, percentage of schools with broadband access, and percentage of teachers having used the computer in class during the previous twelve months. ICT-deployment in Danish schools is the highest in Europe with 26.3 computers connected per 100 (for an EU average of 9.9).

The i2010 initiative, which was launched in 2005, includes actions such as the creation of a Single European Information Space, the promotion of European innovation in ICT, and the fight against the digital divide by supporting actions to foster digital literacy.

The initiative is part of the Commission’s renewed Lisbon Agenda to boost research and development in ICT and foster growth and jobs in the digital economy.

The annual reports draws on a series of reports and surveys including EUN’s ICT impact study produced last year within the framework of the European Commission’s ICT Cluster to identify key findings, ICT enablers and barriers.

The three i2010 priorities are:

  • to create a Single European Information Space, which promotes an open and competitive internal market for information society and media services
  • to strengthen investment in innovation and research in ICT
  • to foster inclusion, better public services and quality of life through the use of ICT.

The first priority has set out targets to the following issues (selection): convergence, mobile TV, audiovisual media services, film/content online, media literacy, electronic signature, safer internet…

The second action include: ICT research in 7th Framework Programme, European Technology Platforms, Joint Technology Initiatives; innovation; take up of ICT by EU citizens, ICT Policy Support Programme in the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, ICT Task Force, eSkills….

The third action line includes issues such as eInclusion, e-Accessibility, broadband/digital divide, e-Government, eHealth, digital literacy, digital libraries…

The Commission has also set a i2010 High Level Group made up of EU Member States representatives to advises the Commission on the implementation and development of the i2010 Strategy.

Key documents:
29 Country factsheets:

Annual report:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/annual_report/index_en.htm

List of i2010 actions implemented since the launch of this initiative (June 2005–March 2007): http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/
annual_report/2007/sec_2007_395_en_documentdetravail2_p.pdf

Telecom survey: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference
=IP/06/1122&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Benchmarking Access and Use of ICT in European Schools 2006 - Results from Head Teacher and Classroom Teacher Surveys in 27 European Countries:
http://www.empirica.biz/empirica/publikationen/documents/
Learnind_paper_Korte_Huesing_Code_427_final.pdf

Web Editor: Paul Gerhard
Last changed: Thursday, 10 May 2007
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