RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL AND OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBER STATES MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL

of 17 December 1999

on the employment and social dimension of the information society

(2000/C 8/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBERS STATES MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL,

(1) RECALLING that the Community has among its tasks the promotion of a high level of employment;

(2) RECALLING that the extraordinary European Council meeting on employment of 20 and 21 November 1997, which launched the Luxembourg process, requested the Commission to report back to it before the end of 1998 on the results obtained and on the prospects for electronic commerce, the development of open networks and the use of multimedia for education and training;

(3) RECALLING that the Vienna European Council of 11 and 12 December 1998 paid particular attention to fully exploiting the potential of the service sector and industry-related services, in particular information technology and the environmental sector;

(4) RECALLING that the Cologne European Council of 3 and 4 June 1999 noted that the jobs of the future would be created by innovation and the information society, that Europe has to take a leading role in the information society, and particularly that all schools must be given access to the Internet as soon as possible;

(5) RECALLING that the Commission communication "Job opportunities in the information society" called for concerted action at all levels to address this challenge, proposed a timetable for monitoring and benchmarking progress made to ensure that the EU derives the full potential of the information age and established a forum of high-level representatives of the Member States;

(6) RECOGNISING that these representatives have exchanged national strategies on the information society within this forum, and received contributions from social partners, information society industries and the disability forum, thereby providing the basis for a fruitful dialogue which has allowed for the clarification of important actions to be undertaken in a timely manner;

(7) RECALLING also that the Member States, in drawing up their national action plans for employment for 1999, included exploitation of the new possibilities opened up by information and communication technologies for job creation, employability, more flexible and adaptable forms of work organisation and progress on equal opportunities;

(8) CONSIDERING that the Member States are responsible for the content of teaching and the organisation of their educational systems;

(9) RECOGNISING that economic competitiveness is based on innovative use of human skills and on environmentally and socially sustainable development and that technology can be an excellent tool for making this happen;

(10) CONSIDERING that organisational change and new work organisation methods need to accompany technological innovation in order to generate employment and economic growth, and that knowledge is a major factor of performance,

CALL ON MEMBER STATES:

I. To maximise the job potential of the information society, in particular:

(a) Learning and research in the information society

1. To promote "learning to learn" with technology and learning to use information, to communicate and to innovate by facilitating student access to the Internet by the end of 2002, and where this is consistent with national priorities and practices to:

(i) provide possibilities for teachers to gain an insight into the new ways of working and learning that are being created by information technology; and

(ii) broaden the integration of information technologies in educational curricula.

2. In the field of education, training and research, to increase collaboration between educational institutions and research institutes, and the linkages between them and the world of work, social partners and governments.

3. To exploit fully the potential of information technology in promoting life-long learning at work including "learning by doing" by encouraging together with the social partners the emergence of "learning organisations" with human resource development at their centre.

(b) Work in the information society

In collaboration with the social partners, to make an effort:

4. To set up new human resources policies, including the necessary research work, which better prepare current and future workers and management to meet the challenges of the information society so as to secure and create employment and which utilise new technologies to enable disabled people to participate to the fullest extent in working life.

5. To provide basic readiness concerning information and telecommunications technology, such as computer literacy, for as many workers (both employed and unemployed) as possible; and to update training and qualifications to close the existing skills gap so as to take account of new job opportunities in the information society.

6. To develop, within an appropriate framework which guarantees rights and obligations for workers and their employers, new, flexible working arrangements suited for the information society, which promote innovation and productivity whilst securing employment and a high level of social protection.

7. To help organisations and their workers, especially micro and small enterprises facing major changes in their business environment, to enter the information society including e-commerce, and gain full and socially sustainable advantage from the technology available in the information society.

(c) Public services in the information society

8. To develop the use of information society tools in everyday relations with citizens, in order to increase the efficiency and quality of public services, to deliver public information and services when and where citizens want and need them and set-up as a matter of urgency, citizen-friendly Internet pages with clear site maps providing information about entitlements, social, employment and cultural services and offering links to the relevant public services.

9. To support entrepreneurship and job creation through administrative and procedural efficiency by using information and communication technologies, prioritising access to public information, on-line transactions and payments with administrations, and digital procurement procedures whilst ensuring the necessary data protection.

10. To make all public services electronically available, wherever possible, while reinforcing the human interface and ensuring the availability of public Internet access points supported by on-site information society literacy training in all local communities.

(d) Sustainability in the information society

11. To take advantage of information technologies in developing production and consumption methods which protect the environment and strengthen sustainable ecological development while generating related services and employment.

II. To confirm and further strengthen social cohesion in the information society, in particular:

12. In order that all citizens can benefit equally from opportunities offered by the information society, to raise the awareness and capability of all groups in society, in particular long-term unemployed, low-skilled workers, the illiterate, the elderly, the disabled, and vulnerable minorities and other disadvantaged groups.

13. To promote an equal opportunities approach between men and women in the use of information society tools in schools and in all levels of training and education.

14. To support the economy, especially micro and SMEs, as well as non-profit and voluntary organisations, to benefit from the information society, whilst also gaining from the modernisation of work organisation so as to maximise the job potential and quality of working life.

15. To release the innovative capacity in Europe, through education, entrepreneurship, economic and environmental sustainability and through the promotion of creative skills, particularly in peripheral and less favoured regions. Releasing the human innovative capacity is a key element for job creation and a base for social cohesion.

CALL ON THE COMMISSION:

1. To favour the social and labour market dimension of the information society across all priorities of the European Social Fund.

2. Using information and communication technologies, to increase transparency in services such as European employment services (EURES) and information at the European level.

3. To support innovation through the fifth framework programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities particularly in the application of new technologies and innovative forms of work organisation in the creation of new products and services thus leading to new jobs.

4. In collaboration with the forum of high-level representatives of Members States, and working together with social partners, information society industries and other groups, to report on strategies for maximising jobs in the information society, in advance of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Lisbon, which will focus on this subject by putting high on the European agenda the goal "Employment, economic reforms and social cohesion - for a Europe of innovation and knowledge".

5. To inform the Council on the consultations with the social partners at European level concerning telework.