Information Society News

The European Commission today welcomed the launch of a €500 million initiative which boosts European supercomputer capacities and opens them up to scientists across Europe. The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) unites the European Commission and 20 countries across Europe in a unique initiative which will enable researchers to use super fast computers located in other countries to make up to 1000 trillion calculations per second for their research projects. This could be used for example to speed up the development of more efficient solar cells or help us understand how drugs interact with the human body. Europe's fastest computer, JUGENE in Germany, will be the first machine available to European scientists under the PRACE initiative. By 2015 more supercomputers in Germany, France, Italy and Spain will be available across the EU. The initiative remains open to other countries that can host such supercomputers. The Commission is contributing more than €70 million to PRACE, which strengthens European research and competitiveness, in line with the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe, a flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy.

Some of the most innovative and exciting transport research projects funded by the EU are being showcased at the Transport Research Arena (TRA) in Brussels this week. This is part of the Commission's initiative to communicate more proactively on the practical benefits EU research is bringing to the EU's Europe 2020 Strategy, in terms of improved quality of life and as a key driver of economic growth and high quality jobs. The Transport Research Arena is a biannual conference and exhibition on the future of surface transport. It brings together researchers, businesses and policy makers in the field of road transport and urban mobility to show the latest developments and discuss the future of green, smart and safe transportation.

The European Commission welcomes the European Court of Justice ruling today (Case C-58/08) confirming the legal validity of the Roaming Regulation (Nr. 717/2007). The Court has confirmed that the Regulation, which sets price caps on the costs of using a mobile phone while in another EU Member State, has a correct legal basis (the Treaty's rules to ensure the correct functioning of the EU's Internal Market), is proportionate essentially to the objective of protecting consumers against high charges and is justified on grounds of subsidiarity (the same objective could not have been reached without a common approach at EU level). Today's Court ruling is significant because it confirms the Commission's view that legislation of this type was necessary and that the EU was entitled to impose limits on the prices charged by mobile operators for roaming calls in the interest of the EU's Single Market. The Commission will take account of the Court's ruling in its review of the Roaming Regulation that must be completed by 30 June 2011.

The Fifth International Conference on Digital Society continues a series of international events covering a large spectrum of topics related to advanced networking, applications, and systems technologies in a digital society. ICDS 2011 comprises a series of independent tracks that complement various facets of digital society. A call for papers and workshop proposals has been launched.

Tender procedure in the field of Media policy. Short description: 1. Describing in detail the challenges that film heritage institutions are facing in relation to digital production or distribution of cinematographic works (in cinemas or via new channels of distribution). 2. Establishing which kind of legal/organisational/technical changes have to be introduced to ensure that film archives will continue to perform their role in the digital era. 3. Analysing the situation in the 27 Member States: are film archives and national administrations aware of the challenge? Are they already introducing changes or have they planned to do so? Identify problems and best practices. 4. Analysing the situation in film heritage institutions in USA and compare it with EU-27. 5. Describing the strategies of American majors and large European production companies for preservation of their digital films. 6. Providing feasible recommendations and a calendar to Member States and film heritage institutions on how to prepare for the digital era. 7. Providing policy options for EU action.

(Deadline : 19/07/2010) The objective of this European study is to identify and analyse the needs of both public and private sectors for the services enabled by the paradigm shift of the connected car to all road users.

The study should clearly describe the scope of required vehicles and infrastructure systems, including a clear definition of ICT requirements imposed by automated driving. Furthermore, the study should recommend a realistic step-by-step approach to cope with such new requirements. Existing gaps in knowledge and future research needs should also be identified.

In order to create a European market and to mobilize industry and service providers to invest money into Research and Development to deliver cost effective services with assured quality levels, it is necessary to agree on a primary care standard that covers all basic aspects of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The Workshop aims to contribute to the EU Action Plan "Ageing Well in the Information Society", bringing together experts from user organizations, governmental institutions, insurances, industry and service providers (health, care, ICT).

Building on the electronic signature directive 1999/93/EC, the objective of the study is to investigate for the elements needed for an electronic identification, authentication and signature legal framework. In addition, the contractor will support the Commission in its interactions with stakeholders.

The focus of this year's European eAccessibility Forum was eAccessibility of public services in Europe.

A consultation inviting citizens, businesses and researchers to share ideas on how best to use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to help older Europeans live more independently, and more generally to establish new ways to put ICTs at the service of the most vulnerable members of society, has been launched by a high-level panel established to advise the European Commission on the functioning of the Ambient Assisted Living joint programme (AAL JP). The panel is chaired by former European Commissioner Meglena Kuneva. The public consultation is the first step towards meeting the target of doubling the take-up of independent living arrangements for the elderly by 2015 set by the Digital Agenda. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: "Information and communications technologies have immense potential to improve the quality of life and health of older people and other vulnerable members of society in very practical ways. Such applications are an important part of the Digital Agenda for Europe. I therefore encourage users, researchers and businesses to let us know how we can best improve the Ambient Assisted Living joint programme." The consultation runs until 1 July 2010.

EURid dinner, European Parliament, Brussels, 2 June 2010

The CIPS 2010 Calls for proposals have been published in the frame of the EU programme on "Prevention, Preparedness and Consequence Management of Terrorism and other Security Related Risks" for the period 2007-2013 which proposes accompanying financial measures for the implementation of EPCIP, the European Programme on Critical Infrastructure Protection, that is managed and coordinated by DG Freedom, Security and Justice. One of the priority lines of the calls aims to support the policy initiative and the action plan on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) - COM(2009) 149 – adopted in March 2009, in particular through: a) further developing pan-European exercises on network security incidents with a view to support the European participation in global exercises, b) strengthening the cooperation between National/Governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams and, c) advancing the development and deployment of a European Information Sharing and Alert System reaching out to citizens and SMEs providing to them tailored information on threats, risks and alerts affecting electronic networks; Any questions concerning these calls for proposals may be sent by e-mail to: JLS-CIPS@ec.europa.eu. Questions concerning the scope and background of the three sub-mentioned priority lines may be sent directly to valerie.andrianavaly (at) ec.europa.eu Please note that the deadline for the CIPS 2010 II call is 15 November 2010.

The European Commission has decided to accept, in view of the specific circumstances of the case, the proposal of UK telecoms regulator Ofcom to oblige telecoms operator BT to provide 'virtual' access to its optical fibre infrastructure to alternative operators. Ofcom’s proposal will allow product differentiation and innovation similar to that possible through physical local loop unbundling. Ofcom’s plans will maintain competition on UK broadband markets following the roll-out of next generation access (NGA) networks by allowing alternative operators to offer competitive broadband services on these networks. However, the Commission underlined that this should only be a transitional measure and that full fibre unbundling should be imposed as soon as technically and economically possible.

The purpose is the delivery of e-learning courses covering DG Information Society and Media specific topics. The contract is for a specific period of 1 year, with a maximum total value up to EUR 15 000. The delivery of e-learning courses must be published on the European Commission's Learning Management System by November 2010.

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2nd Annual Internet of Things Conference, Brussels, 1st June 2010

A European Commission report released today shows that EU telecoms markets have become more competitive thanks to the Commission's guidance in the consultation and review process known as the 'Article 7 procedure', whereby national telecoms regulators inform the Commission in advance of their plans to regulate parts of their national telecoms markets. As a result, citizens and businesses enjoy greater choice of services and cheaper prices. However, the report also indicates that a single EU telecoms market is still far from reality, which is why the Commission's Digital Agenda for Europe (IP/10/581) calls for swift and consistent enforcement of existing telecoms rules and indicates that the Commission intends to propose appropriate steps to reduce the cost of the absence of a Single Market in telecoms services. Problems include different national regulatory approaches to tackling competition issues, such as regulating access to fibre networks. Today's report also warns that regulatory uncertainty could hamper the roll out of investment-intensive infrastructure projects like Next Generation Access (NGA) networks, one of the flagships of the Digital Agenda for Europe.

Ministers welcomed the "Digital Agenda", endorsing the seven main areas for action identified in it and emphasizing the importance of digital technologies for employment and economic growth. Several delegations highlighted support for the development of a digital single market with fast internet and interoperable applications, as well as the environmental added value of the agenda. The digital agenda for Europe is the first of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth. Concrete proposals still have to follow as the Commission will report annually on the implementation of the agenda. The conclusions acknowledge the importance of the "digital agenda" in economic, social and cultural contexts. They endorse the establishment of an ambitious action agenda for instance to create a fully functioning digital Single Market to the benefit of European businesses -in particular SMEs- and European consumers and to take coordinated measures on network and information security in order to increase trust and confidence in cyberspace.

This symposium will deal with the complementarities between satellite and ground based communications, and will focus on the challenges and growth opportunities for satellites in the future digital economy. It also aims to identify what is at stake for the various players in the added value chain (equipment and satellite manufacturers, satellite operators, telecommunication operators, Internet giants, service providers, ...) and will look into their positioning on tomorrow's markets. This event is organised during the Toulouse Space Show by IDATE and CNES, the French Space Agency.