EU Presidency Statement - UN ECE 57th Session on 'World Summit on the Information Society'

Mr. Chairman,

We thank the Ambassador of Romania for the just presented briefing on the preparation for the European Ministerial Meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society. We would like to express our thanks to the Government of Romania for hosting this Meeting and to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Dan Nica, for the very complete document he introduced last week during the European Regional Expert Meeting. The document contains clear proposals on the agenda and the organization of the Meeting in Bucharest. We welcome the commitments of Romania and look forward to participating in the Meeting that we are sure will be a great success and will greatly contribute to the World Summit. As the Ambassador of the European Commission in Geneva informed us during the European Regional Expert Meeting, the European Community is already engaged in an extensive programme of activities related to the issues of the World Summit and to the promotion of strategies in the information technology field.

The proposals made last week for the meeting in Bucharest need to be clarified and firmed up. The agenda in particular should be well balanced, prepared in cooperation with member countries and reflect the breadth of issues expected to be tackled in the World Summit. We look forward to continue working with the Secretariat in this endeavor. We encourage the Secretariat to find the resources needed for it.

The European Union is of the opinion, that, at this stage at least we do not need to create new structures or groups. The present organization seems well suited to accomplish this mission.

Finally, we would appreciate it if the Secretariat could inform ECE member countries by the next regular monthly briefing on the preparation engaged or envisaged now that the first European Regional Expert Meeting has already taken place.

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