Sociedade Civil Europa: Reunião em Tallin, Estonia

Carlos Pereira Martins participou, em Tallin, na Estonia, no passado dia 1 de Junho,
na Audição Publica promovida pelo Comité Económico e Social Europeu sobre o
Mercado Único Europeu.

No mesmo dia, o grupo de Conselheiros que está encarregue de elaborar o Parecer
sobre "Inclusive digital internal market", reuniu em Tallin para a continuação dos
trabalhos.

Inclusive digital internal market

Citizen in the heart of an Inclusive Digital Internal Market: an action plan for success

The Citizen at the heart of the Internal Digital Market: the citizen as economic, social and political actor in line with the four basic freedoms of the Internal Market.

Empowering the citizen as an economic actor: Definitely the digital revolution has got rid of a lot of jobs. However, as McKinsey states, it created 2.6 jobs for every job lost. Society has to adjust to this and therefore what we currently have is the potential. Certain jobs will disappear and the younger generations have a different perspective: they need to embark on the digital revolution as a job provider. Such initiatives as the MIT Scratch programme create an added value that reflects one's own value. "Skunk labs" by NASA, setting the right environment for creativity after the Shuttle programme came to a stop, are another example.

Empowering the citizen as a political actor: People have to be free to move their ideas, which the internet greatly facilitates although the younger generations travel more despite being hooked to the internet. The internet develops a taste for engaging with people. Digital technology has created a new freedom of movement;

ACTA is a clear example of how citizens mobilized to express their views and exert a democratic change on an issue policy-makers where working on. It is clear that the citizens' voice should be better heard in the political arena. Furthermore, the democratic process also needs to adapt to digitization.

The citizen as a social actor: e-Skills are not only about learning to use the net; it is about exploiting the net for the benefits of a social community and one's personal advancement. For this reason, communities need to garner more the potential of the net.

General Considerations and Actions to be taken to enhance the citizen's digital usage

Guarantee equal access capability to every EU Citizen

Being included as a digital European citizen means capability to be connected to the internet, which means owning proper hardware and software allowing being online.

Hardware is understood to be a desktop PC, a laptop, a netbook, a Smartphone, a tablet device or any electronic device capable of network connection.

The software should be open-source, avoiding additional costs and allowing common, standard, non-proprietary tools for documents editing and sharing. Furthermore, such software should be made accessible for persons suffering from disabilities.

Every EU citizen shall be able to have the same access capability to the network
. Furthermore, it is essential that the cost per Mbps, for both fixed and mobile access, shall be harmonised all over the member States.

According to BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications), the majority of National Regulation Authorities received complaints from consumers concerning the discrepancy between advertised and actual access speeds for an internet connection. A real Digital Internal Market can be triggered only if all the EU network operators are under strict public control in order to guarantee the nominal bandwidth in accordance with the DAE broadband-related pillar.

The actual heterogeneous mobile internet access is one of the strongest barriers against a real Digital Internal Market, especially because the rapid spread of Smart phones and tablet devices is more and more raising the economical importance of mobile, internet-based citizen's activities (e-commerce, e-health, etc.). In this sense, DAE Action 101 clearly indicates that the difference between roaming and national tariffs should approach zero by 2015.

Guarantee training on e-skills

In order for EU Citizens to be at the real heart of the Digital Internal Market, they absolutely need enhanced digital competences and advanced media literacy in order to effectively minimise the digital divide and maximise their Digital Inclusion.

Digital Schools

The process of European digitalisation must involve schools – both professors and students. It is necessary to provide the means for a real digital school, which could move toward a more digitalised administration and teaching, contributing at the same time to the environment improvement.

While students are usually more accustomed to new technologies and need help and guide to develop their skills, older generations present a high percentage of ITC illiteracy. The creation of a digital school and a digital society stresses the necessity to train professors in ITC skills in order to allow the elderly to better engage with younger generations.

European Computer Driving License

The European Computer Driving License (ECDL) should be officially extended to all the Member States and constantly updated to the state-of-the art software and hardware tools available.

Given the means, it is necessary to implement the contents. In its effort to digitalise Europe, the EU should increment the availability of resources in digital format, such as e-books. In this sense, the EESC welcomes the will of the Commission to further develop the Europeana Library

Free urban wifi hot-spots

The territorial coverage should not be a stringent requirement, but it is essential that every single municipality would guarantee at least one wifi hot spot. A rational approach would be of guaranteeing a minimum number of free hot spots proportional to the population; each National Regulation Authority could specify local rules in line with EU directives.