# Decision no 456/2005/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2005 establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable (Text with EEA relevance), Introduction: Introductory text

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Decision no 456/2005/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 9 March 2005
establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 157(3) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,
After consulting the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty,
Whereas:
(1)
The evolution of the information society and the emergence of broadband will influence the life of every citizen in the European Union by, inter alia, stimulating access to knowledge and new ways of acquiring knowledge, thus increasing the demand for new content, applications and services.
(2)
Internet penetration in the Community is still growing considerably. The opportunities offered by the Internet should be exploited in order to enable every individual and organisation in the Community to enjoy the social and economic benefits of sharing information and knowledge. The stage has now been set in Europe to exploit the potential of digital content.
(3)
The conclusions of the European Council held in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000 stressed that the shift to a digital, knowledge-based economy, prompted by new goods and services, will be a powerful engine for growth, competitiveness and jobs. On that occasion the role of the content industries in creating added value by exploiting and networking European cultural diversity was specifically recognised.
(4)
The eEurope 2005 Action Plan, developing the Lisbon strategy, calls for actions to stimulate the emergence of secure services, applications and content over broadband networks and thus to provide a favourable environment for private investment, for the creation of new jobs, to boost productivity, to modernise public services and to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the global information society.
(5)
The demand for quality digital content in Europe, with balanced access and user rights, by a broad community, be they citizens in society, students, researchers, SMEs and other business users, or people with special needs wishing to augment their knowledge, or ‘re‐users’ wishing to exploit digital content resources to create services, is increasingly apparent.
(6)
Digital content stakeholders are content providers (including public and private organisations and institutions that create, collect or own digital content) and content users (including organisations and enterprises that are end-users that reuse and/or add value to digital content). Particular attention should be given to the participation of SMEs.
(7)
The eContent Programme (2001 to 2004) adopted by Council Decision 2001/48/EC, favoured the development and use of European digital content on the Internet and the linguistic diversity of European websites in the information society. The Commission Communication of 10 October 2003 concerning the mid-term evaluation of the eContent Programme reaffirms the importance of acting in this field.
(8)
Technological advances offer the potential to add value to content in the form of embedded knowledge and to improve interoperability at the service level, which is fundamental to accessing and using and distributing digital content. This is particularly relevant to those areas of public interest to be addressed by this programme.
(9)
Fostering of solid business models will enhance the continuity of the projects initiated under this programme, and will thus improve the conditions for greater economic return from services based on access to, and reuse of, digital content.
(10)
A legislative framework has been defined to deal with the challenges of digital content in the information society .
(11)
Different practices among Member States continue to pose technical obstacles impeding wide access, use, reuse and exploitation of public sector information in the Community.
(12)
Where the digital content involves personal data, Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC should be respected and the technologies used should respect and, where possible, enhance privacy.
(13)
Community actions undertaken concerning the content of information should promote the Community's multilingual and multicultural specificity.
(14)
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission.
(15)
The Commission should ensure complementarity and synergy with related Community initiatives and programmes, in particular those related to education and culture and to the European interoperability framework.
(16)
This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial framework constituting the prime reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure, for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure.
(17)
Since the objectives of the proposed action, namely aiming at making digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States due to the transnational character of the issues at stake and can therefore, by reason of the European scope and effects of the actions, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,
HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2005/456/introduction (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2005-456/introduction
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.