Draft resolution to close the debate on the oral question concerning the information society pursuant art. 40 of Rules of Procedures

tabled by Olivier Dupuis, Gianfranco Dell'Alba on behalf of ARE group

The European Parliament,

a. whereas the European Union shows a considerable delay in the use and development of the new informatics and telematic technologies, notably as far as Internet is concerned, which is used only by 20 millions europeans compared with 70 millions north-americans;

b. whereas the attempt to apply to the Internet the same rules as for other mass communication instruments does not take into account its interactive nature and its characteristic as an of instrument of interpersonal communication, thus risking to further delay the development of this technology which is essential to the growth of the information society;

c. whereas it is necessary in Europe to make it a priority to develop an information society which favours the reinforcement of democracy and Rule of Law through a strengthened participation and control by the citizens;

d. whereas it is necessary that private investments are put in a framework of objective and clear rules;

e. whereas the publicity of the activities and acts of the organs of the European Union, of the Memeber States and of the local public agencies is a component element of democracy;

f. whereas the regulations as far as the telematic sector is concerned must be limited to grant the possibility of identifying the user by creating an european register of the internet providers and to oblige them, in turn, to keep a register of their clients and users;

g. whereas if direct access to information concerning the decision-making process is not granted to every citizen by all the available means one could no longer speak of real democracy and of achievement of the Rule of Law;

h. whereas it is important to channel public resources and stimulate private investments in the new technologies sector, abandoning at the same time the sterile policies of subsidies to sectors now unproductive or simply granted, in order to favour the creation of employment;

i. whereas the Member States of the EU are the most important source funding for most international organisations;

j. whereas the global challenge on this front risks the EU losin out in comparison with the greater american and asian dynamism;

1. calls upon the EU and the Member States to work for the rationalisation and stregthening of their budgets and of their initiatives, including through fiscal incentives or any other form, in order to boost the development of a digital society at the service of the citizen and of the consumer;

2. requests notably that at least 10% of the Budget of the EU is devoted to this goal;

3. demands that proposals be prepared, including in in the legislative field, before December 31, 1998, in order:

a) to ensure the liberalization and, if necessary, the privatization of the services and of the public data bases;

b) to grant, as from the next european elections in June 1999, the electronic vote in all Member States, and asking them to extend this system to all kinds of electoral consultation, including referendums;

c) to give, at a European level, legal value to the digital signature and to stipulate the formalities of its use in the framework of the internal market;

d) to encourage the mass electronic alphabetization all over the EU;

e) to make sure that all the legislative acts of the organs of the EU are integrally available on the audio-visual network and to promote those of the national and regional governments as well es ensuring the telematic audio-visual broadcasting of the Sittings of the European Parliament and public sittings of the other institutions;

f) to grant to the schools and universities full access to the telematic instruments promoting special community programmes with this objective;

g) to encourage, through specific community programmes, the development of several networks of public access to the telematic services thus granting the universality of the service;

h) to ensure, to those whose sensory and/or motor capabilities are reduced, a full access to the services through textual form;

4. insists on the reinforcement of the control of the respect of the rules of competition of the internal market of telecommunications and, in so doing, the strengthening the competent services of the Commission;

5. calls upon the EU, in order to favour a worldwide process of regulation and auto-regulation of electronic commerce and of other telematic services, to promote an international convention on the Internet and to verify the opportunity to establish a european agency for the development telematic and of digital technologies;

6. asks (to the Commission) to drow up a directive promulgate a directive in order to define the legal nature of the Internet confirming its characteristic as an interpersonal instrument of communication, avoiding therefore the application of the norms concerning mass communication instruments;

7. calls for demands the creation of a european register of 'internet providers' and the adoption of regulatory measures obliging them to have a register of their users and clients in order to allow the magistracy, in case of infringement or offence, to identify the responsible;

8. calls upon the EU and the Member States to invite the UN, its agencies and the main international organisations to provide as soon as possible their citizens with audio-visual access to their activities and decisions via internet;

9. instructs its President of forward the present resolution to the Council, to the Commission, to the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Candidate States, to the Committee of Regions and to the General Secretary of UN.