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EU Presidency Statement - The role of Information Technology

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), the other associated countries (Cyprus, Malta and Turkey) and also the EFTA countries that are members of the European Economic Area (Liechtenstein, Iceland) endorse this statement.

This year the Economic and Social Council has chosen for its high-level segment a particularly important theme, which from the EU viewpoint may be put as follows: how to ensure that the spectacular development of information and communication technologies helps developing countries get off the ground? And what could be the role of the United Nations Organisation in this?

Here, we would like to pay tribute to the quality of the reports of the Secretary-General and the high-level panel of experts, which provide an excellent basis for our work.

No one disputes that information and communication technologies are one of the motors driving a phenomenon often mentioned within these walls, namely globalization. Their development represents a veritable revolution that has profoundly changed not only the functioning of the world economy, but also, in many countries, people's way of living.

The emergence of the information society is the emergence of a new world - non-material, decentralised, immediate, interactive and global.

These transformations have mainly positive aspects. In education and training they permit direct access to remote resources. In trade they open up market potential all over the world. In cultural terms they offer huge potential for exchanges between civilisations, and in general they create new areas of freedom and dialogue.

But they also present the international community with challenges of extraordinary complexity: applicability of territorial regulations, emergence of new forms of crime, protecting privacy.

The developing countries may find information technologies to be a formidable tool in combating poverty. They hold vast potential, whether it be in the fields of education, training, culture and health, or as regards access to financial markets, economic growth and employment. The right mix of old and new technologies seems crucial for tapping that potential.

It is also a well-known fact, however, that the benefits of information technologies are unequally divided between the countries of the North and the South and within States themselves. This has come to be referred to as the "digital divide". Only by fostering awareness within those countries and on the part of the international community will it be possible to adopt and implement the policies that are essential for creating truly equal opportunities for access to information technologies.

This advance will be possible once the current restraints are lifted. I see three categories of obstacle here:

• the need for infrastructure and equipment in both quantitative and qualitative terms should not be underestimated: a computer is useless without electricity or access to a network;
• it is also of fundamental importance to give individuals access to literacy and training programmes, in order to permit a genuine dissemination of knowledge and make it possible for civil society to enrich and take over local content;
• the only way of addressing local requirements is to offer tailored services at an acceptable cost in relation to the average standard of living of the populations concerned; this involves making the cost of individual and collective access, and also hard- and software prices, more affordable.

This goes to show that there is no single key giving access to information, but rather that an approach which combines a set of interacting components is needed. Meeting these challenges means contributing to development, and access to information technologies is only one component of this. That is why suitable development policies need to be implemented at all levels by both financial backers and recipient countries.

At the same time, the new areas of freedom created by modern techniques of communication and information-dissemination are so many opportunities to foster participatory democracy and to help improve public and private conduct of business.

We must not let the magnitude of the obstacles complicating access to information technologies turn us into fatalists. The example of how certain developing countries have managed to take advantage of these technologies despite their scant financial resources proves that a proactive policy in all these areas can help overcome most handicaps. This is, in fact, aptly highlighted in the Secretary-General's recommendations under the heading "National action".

Also, some features of the digital revolution are potentially beneficial for the countries of the South. Indeed, the information society favours financial capital less than it does intellectual capital, which is more evenly spread.

Mr President,

Many initiatives to bridge the digital divide have already been launched both by donor countries and by multilateral development organisations. The World Bank, UNESCO, UNCTAD, the ITU, UNCITRAL, the UNDP, WIPO and the UNU - I'm sure I'm forgetting some here - have acquired acknowledged competence in certain aspects of the theme of this high-level segment. The European Union has launched an ambitious initiative christened "e-Europe". The "digital divide" issue was recently raised in the context of the OECD and the Commonwealth and will be once of the key themes at the G8 Summit in Okinawa. Last month, an international conference was held in Paris on cyber crime.

Within the United Nations, and expressing myself in the same vein as the Secretary-General in his Millennium Report, I can only welcome initiatives to set up on-line networks, such as those on public administration and gender issues, which ensure a direct link between regional, sub-regional and national institutions.

Much progress has been made with the means of meeting these challenges, especially thanks to the quality of the work done by the Economic and Social Council's subordinate bodies. Here, there is an increasingly obvious need to improve the sharing of acquired know-how and to promote global partnerships, particularly among the countries of the South. Each institution ought to be able to deal with the matters for which it is competent, and do so bearing in mind related questions addressed in other fora. The multidisciplinarity requirement and the specialisation principle must apply.

In this connection, how can the Economic and Social Council contribute to the effort undertaken? I would like to detail the European Union's position on this point.

First of all, the Economic and Social Council has a role in raising the awareness of the general public and decision-makers. This high-level segment could boost general awareness of the importance of reducing this much-publicised "digital divide". The UN is up to this task: by way of proof, I would refer to the successful outcome of the two meetings which the UN organised in New York in 1999 on the Y2K problem, whose usefulness was acknowledged by many participants.

Secondly, this session allows us to exchange information and compare experience. Although one country's situation obviously cannot always be projected onto that of another, we have much to learn from such a debate: there are doubtless errors we could avoid repeating, and also successes we ought to try and draw inspiration from.

Thirdly, this session demonstrates ECOSOC's capacity to involve the private sector in its efforts to build further partnerships. Here I would congratulate you, Mr President, and also the UN Secretary-General on having been able, through your innovatory thinking, to secure the widespread involvement of the business world and other representatives of civil society, which is enriching our discussions and underscoring the operational nature of our decisions. This partnership with businesses and non-governmental organisations certainly provides one of the most interesting pools of experience and input.

Lastly, the Economic and Social Council must be able to fulfil its key coordinating role.

The programmes of the various bodies of the UN system designed to ensure better dissemination of information and communication technologies currently seem to be insufficiently coordinated.

Coordination and consistency are essential. The creation of superfluous and costly new administrative machinery should however be avoided. That is why the possibility of giving the Administrative Committee on Coordination the role of following up our decisions merits examination.

The Senior Management Group which meets weekly under the chairmanship of the Secretary-General could also play a useful role in this context.

In the near future, on the basis of a proposal from the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council could adopt a global strategy which would lay down the main principles of the United Nations' action in the field of information and communication technologies. That global strategy should be based on a list of objectives which are clear and comprehensible to citizens and should define the role of each participant in relation to those objectives. Such a strategy would also promote the mobilisation of private funds which could finance the development of those technologies in developing countries, through foundations in particular.

The European Union very much wants this high-level segment to act as a catalyst for launching specific projects, in particular in the field of education, training and aid for the development of local content.

The European Union is prepared to play an active role to combat the digital divide both in international discussions and in its relations with development partners at national and regional level and in multilateral institutions.

Over the last few years, we have done a great deal of work on the challenges raised by the emergence of the Information Society.

The efforts made have led us to set up a flexible and innovatory regulatory framework. The European policy of liberalising telecommunications implemented since 1 January 1998 has enabled the sector to develop rapidly and creatively. Favourable standardisation of mobile telephony - the GSM standard - has resulted in the exceptional development of that appliance, to the extent that it has become a social phenomenon in Europe. That legal framework is being re-examined with a view to developing competition for the benefit of consumers.

That context will also facilitate mobile access to the Internet and to secure transmissions, in particular by means of a memory card.

We are moreover intent on defining a balance between encouragement of private initiative and respect for public policies. An original method (called co-regulation) which takes account of different legal models has been adopted with a view to establishing a close dialogue with those involved.

Finally, the European Union is currently concentrating on the concept of usage. Its objective is to make the Information Society accessible to everyone.

In the programme called the e-Europe initiative, we intend to develop an international chapter focused on combating info-exclusion. It could make use of Community projects already under way, in particular the EUMEDIS programme with our Mediterranean partners.

We will pursue our efforts to promote international cooperation in the fight against cybercrime.

Mr President,

I should like to point out that, in his recommendation-filled report, the United Nations Secretary-General proposed some guidelines for encouraging the emergence of the Information Society, in particular:

• strengthening mutualised access, i.e. used jointly by population groups with similar concerns in order to overcome the lack of individual connectivity;
• support for the emergence of local projects in some targeted areas (such as education and training) with a view to better mobilisation of resources;
• encouragement of on-line access to local content for various uses, in particular with a view to preserving heritage and encouraging creativity.

We would like to examine them in detail with our partners, with a view to arriving at recommendations which take account of three approaches in methodological terms:

• acknowledgement of the disparity in situations between our different countries, which makes it difficult to establish precise categories but encourages fine analysis in order subsequently to draw general lessons if appropriate;
• the need to involve many partners in these efforts: States and multilateral organisations of course, but also undertakings and non-governmental organisations, which are frequently behind initiatives and financing in the Information Society;
• the need to progress pragmatically, without dwelling excessively on questions of principle or doctrine but endeavouring primarily to work out good practice (which the Internet world knows how to do) that will lead to the strategies with the greatest chance of success.

Mr President,

The topic of this high-level segment is of capital importance to the European Union and it merits regular follow-up by ECOSOC and the other relevant organs of the United Nations system. Our meeting will not be of much use if it yields no results, and the European Union will ensure that it leads to specific projects.

In conclusion, Mr President, I should like to assure you of the European Union's determination to work with you in a constructive spirit in order to contribute to the success of the Economic and Social Council's proceedings at this substantive session.

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