HC Deb 25 February 2002 vol 380 cc723-4W
Mr. Spring

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proposals the Government will be making to the European Council at Barcelona on the furthering of the e-Europe initiative; and if he will make a statement. [35851]

Mr. Alexander

I have been asked to reply.

There has been encouraging progress since the Lisbon summit of March 2000 towards its goal of making Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. As the Commission has stated in its report to Heads of State and Government for the Barcelona Spring European Council on Economic Reform, telephone calls are cheaper and there is a greater choice of operators everywhere. The number of homes connected to the internet has doubled. In all but one member state, over 90 per cent. of schools have access to the internet. These results show that the eEurope Action Plan 2002 is well on track towards its objective of bringing the internet within reach of all European consumers, businesses, schools, and Governments by the end of this year. The next stage must be to maintain this momentum by encouraging the conditions for it to be used as fully as possible. A key step will be encouraging widespread broadband technology. Higher-speed, "always on" connections will make using the internet more attractive and will stimulate the development of new interactive services.

I attended an Informal Council of Information Society Ministers on 22 February. We discussed the progress of eEurope and how it should be followed up. I expect that the results of these discussions will be forwarded to the forthcoming Barcelona summit.

Mr. Spring

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proposals the Government will be making to the European Council at Barcelona on the liberalisation of the European energy market; and if he will make a statement. [35854]

Mr. Wilson

I have been asked to reply.

We will continue to press for early adoption of the Commission's proposals, which require full liberalisation of EU electricity and gas markets by 2005.