§ Mr. David AtkinsonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the outcome of the EU industry council on 8 October. [874]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe UK deputy permanent representative to the European Union represented the UK at the Industry Council held in Luxembourg on 8 October.
The Council reached unanimous political agreement on a resolution on new political priorities for the information society. The Council also reached unanimous political agreement on a decision to promote linguistic diversity in the information society.
The Commission made presentations on recent Commission communications in the information society field—"The Information Society: From Corfu to Dublin/The new emerging priorities", "The implication of the Information Society for European Union policies: Preparing the next steps", "Standardisation and the global information society: The European approach" and "Living 18W and working in the information society: People first"—and on a proposal for a directive concerning regulatory transparency in the field of information society services.
As part of the arrangements for a structured dialogue with applicants for membership of the EU, representatives of the 10 associate member countries of central and eastern Europe were invited to participate in an exchange of views of the information society.