According to Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén, implementation of the EU's digital strategy should be seen as a challenge that cuts across the administration both in the Commission and nationally.
Ms Lindén considers that all sectors of the administration should make plans to use information and communications technology to improve productivity and support economic growth.
Ms Lindén discussed the issue with the European Commission's Vice-President Neelie Kroes on 30th August in Helsinki. Ms Kroes is responsible for issues related to digital content and services in the Commission.
The EU's new Digital Agenda was the main topic of the meeting between Ms Lindén and Ms Kroes. The digital agenda outlines the policies, legislative actions and programmes of the communications and information society that will ensure economic growth in the EU based on information and communications technologies.
In its Digital Agenda, Finland is placing particular emphasis on developing and strengthening the internal market for online content and services.
Cross border electronic trade and payments should be promoted. Information produced by the public sector should be open and it should be possible to exploit it effectively. This in turn requires everyone to have access to fast communications links. The consumer's interest must also be kept strongly in mind when developing services.
- The development of the information society must be considered in all new EU legislation. Legislation must not, for example, make the adoption of new technologies difficult. We must also be prepared to change existing legislation if it is a barrier to exploiting new technologies, said Ms Lindén.
At the moment the development of the internal market for online content is also being held back by the fragmentation of national intellectual property rights systems. There is no common legislation on copyright and licensing in the EU, rather each Member State has its own rules.
- In the era of the Internet, this no longer works. The geographic barriers that are currently tied to the national administration of intellectual property rights are not recognised in a networked environment. Within the EU we have to get to the principle of a single window, says Ms Lindén.
Ms Lindén considers that one way would be a separate Directive on intellectual property rights for electronic communications which would only apply to digital intellectual property rights in the internal market.
Further information:
Special Adviser Anna Anttinen, tel. +358 9 160 28324
