Information Society News

The aim of this special edition of "The European Files" is to help take stock of the development of telemedicine, in all its diverse forms, and in a range of different environments. It is a collection of accounts and analyses by political and industrial decision-makers, patients and professional healthcare representatives, who seem to be best-placed to communicate messages that are both brief and easily understandable to all audiences. It also aims to clarify the problems which are still holding back the development of telemedicine, and to outline a sketch of what the medicine of tomorrow might look like. Lastly, it demonstrates that only an effort on the part of all actors in medical care will be necessary in order for telemedicine to be accepted by all, and that it will be the role of the political decision-makers to ensure that interministerial mechanisms are developed in such a way as to take into account its multidisciplinary nature.

EPoSS, the European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration, is an industry-driven policy initiative, defining R&D and innovation needs as well as policy requirements related to Smart Systems Integration and integrated Micro- and Nanosystems. This event will offer the opportunity to build a consolidated picture of future challenges and trends in Smart Systems Integration. Participants will be able to contribute, discuss opportunities and network with key representatives from industry, research and the European Commission. The Annual Forum also offers a good platform for dissemination of information on recently started FP7 projects.

The event is part of several activities undertaken by the VPH NoE in order to contribute to the consolidation of the VPH community. This event will take place prior to the VPH Industry day that will also take place at UPF from the 8th - 9th September. The toolKit workshop will focus on the identification of ‘gaps’ in existing tools used by the VPH Community, will promote the use and re-use of these tools in problem-solving activities, and will ultimately encourage the collaborative improvement of such tools. The workshop organisers invite interested researchers and practitioners to submit problems identified in their current research projects which require specific tool support. Proposed problems will be evaluated against the available tools in order to establish the feasibility of a solution emerging within the scope of the workshop. Initial deadline for proposal: 09/07/2010

The main objective of this European study is to clearly describe the scope of the required infrastructure for cooperative systems. The study needs to include a clear definition of Intelligent Infrastructures as well as the ICT requirements imposed by co-operative systems and services. The different possible deployment strategies need to be identified and assessed, taking into account deployment scenarios of existing or planned systems such as eTolling or eCall.

In the near future, your car will have an electronic safety system that can automatically call emergency services if you have an accident. Even if you are unconscious, the system informs rescue workers of your exact whereabouts, and the ambulance and the fire brigade will be on their way in minutes. This system will work anywhere in Europe, even if you cannot speak the local language. All this thanks to "eCall", a system now being rolled out across the European Union.

This conference and exhibition is organised by the NEM Initiative,the European Technology Platform on Networked and Electronic Media, and is held under the aegis of the European Commission. It addresses ICT at large and more precisely topics related to networked and electronic media derived from the 7th NEM Strategic Research Agenda updated in September 2009: Media-related applications and business models ; Content creation ; Networking and delivery infrastructure ; Content search and media presentation ; Technology drivers and enabling technologies. These topics will be addressed in four focused workshops : New content services, User centric content, Content delivery and Green NEM.

Europe's most visible forum for ICT research and innovation has become a unique gathering point for researchers, business people, investors, and high level policy makers in the field of digital innovation. ICT 2010 will focus on policy priorities such as Europe's Digital Agenda and the next financial programme of the European Union for funding research and innovation in ICT. If you register before 9 July for the event, an "early bird" special reduced fee will save you 100 €.

Keynote address at the Media Lounge event of ACT, EGTA, WFA, AER, ENPA, EPC, FAEP, Brussels, 30th June 2010, European Parliament

Meeting with representatives from European ICT Industry organised by Spanish Presidency, Madrid, 30th June 2010

A consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality has been launched by the European Commission today. It covers such issues as whether internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritising one kind of internet traffic over another, whether such traffic management practices may create problems and have unfair effects for users, whether the level of competition between different internet service providers and the transparency requirements of the new telecom framework may be sufficient to avoid potential problems by allowing consumers' choice and whether the EU needs to act further to ensure fairness in the internet market, or whether industry should take the lead. European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, announced in April 2010 her intention to launch this consultation in order to take forward Europe's net neutrality debate (see SPEECH/10/153). The consultation will feed into a Commission report on net neutrality, which should be presented by the end of this year. All interested parties – service and content providers, consumers, businesses and researchers – are invited to respond to the consultation by 30 September 2010. An open and neutral internet underpins many of the targets set out in the Digital Agenda for Europe (IP/10/581).

The EHR IMPACT study, commissioned by the Information Society and Media Directorate General of the European Commission, comprises nine quantitative and two qualitative independent evaluations of good practice cases of interoperable electronic health record (EHR) and ePrescribing systems in Europe and beyond. The goal of the study is to inform and support ongoing initiatives and implementation work by the European Commission, Member State governments, private investors, and other actors. The study aims to improve awareness of the benefits and provide new empirical evidence on the socio-economic impact and lessons learnt from successfully implemented systems.

EU mobile operators have reduced their roaming charges in line with the maximum price caps established by EU rules, first introduced in 2007 and amended last July, according to the European Commission's interim report on roaming published today. Price transparency has improved. The cost for roaming calls has decreased by more than 70% since 2005 and sending a text message between EU Member States costs 60% less. However, consumers still do not enjoy significantly lower tariffs than those imposed by EU rules. The Commission's report therefore concludes that competition on the EU's roaming market is not yet strong enough to provide better choice and even better rates to consumers.

This video explores the key conceptual areas in which the project has operated, the movie goes on to describe the project’s outputs and its continuing exploitation activities, and also examines how the technology of medical device design and assessment can benefit from simulated deployment in real patient geometries.

This study is aimed at developing guidelines for decision makers and procurers within public healthcare authorities and care delivery organisations on how to conduct consistent and systematic planning processes when strategic considerations point to the adoption of eHealth solutions and how to transfer the planning to the procurement specifications and process.

From 1 July 2010 consumers no longer need to worry about accidentally running up huge bills when they connect to the internet using mobile networks via a phone or computer when abroad in the EU. Thanks to the EU's roaming rules, from 1st July travellers' data-roaming limit will be automatically set at €50 excluding VAT (unless they have chosen another limit - higher or lower). Operators will have to send users a warning when they reach 80% of their data-roaming bill limit. The operator will have to cut off the mobile internet connection once the limit has been reached, unless the customer has indicated they want to continue data roaming that particular month. In addition, maximum wholesale prices for data roaming will fall from €1 to 80 cents per MegaByte. The maximum price for making a roaming call will be cut to 39 cents per minute (excluding VAT), instead of the current 43 cents, while receiving a call will cost a maximum of 15 cents per minute (excluding VAT), instead of 19 cents. The cost of making and receiving calls when abroad in the EU will now be 73% cheaper than in 2005, when the EU first started to tackle excessive roaming charges (IP/05/901).

This Summer School brings together international experts on software and services and graduate students, young researchers and professionals from academic, research and industrial organizations across Europe and around the world. In addition to training, the Summer School fosters the free exchange of ideas and helps the participants to network and start new cooperative research projects.

The conference brings together varied groups of people with different perspectives, experiences and knowledge in the field of e-Government. It aims to help practitioners find ways of putting research into practice and researchers to gain an understanding of real-world problems, needs and aspirations.

La Commission européenne a présenté le 19 mai dernier une stratégie numérique pour l'Europe. Afin d'informer et de mieux connaître les parties prenantes intéressées, la Représentation en France de la Commission et la Direction Générale Société de l'Information (DG INFSO) vous invitent à une conférence-débat le lundi 28 juin 2010 de 14h à 17h à Paris.

The Commission has closed an infringement case against Poland concerning compliance with EU rules on telephone subscribers' rights in Poland. Poland has now complied with a January 2009 judgement of the EU's Court of Justice (see C-492/07) and aligned the definition of a subscriber of telecoms services in its national law with the requirements of the EU's Telecommunications Framework Directive (2002/21/EC). This means that all subscribers, including those who have not signed a contract (for example pre-paid SIM card users, who represent almost half of Polish mobile users), can now enjoy their full rights under EU telecoms rules (for example, an entry in public directories).

The European Commission has requested 12 Member States (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia) to urgently update their national broadcasting rules in order to comply with their obligations under the Audiovisual Media Service (AVMS) Directive. The AVMS Directive updates EU rules on broadcasting to face the challenges of the digital age and creates rules on the use of services like TV over the internet, video on demand and mobile TV to ensure better legal protection for European TV viewers. Member States should have implemented the Directive by amending their national laws by the end of 2009. To date, the 12 Member States have either not implemented all the rules or have not yet officially informed the Commission that the rules are in place, as required. Therefore the Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to these Member States. If they fail to inform the Commission of measures to implement the Directive in full within two months, the Commission may refer them to the EU's Court of Justice.