The European Commission (EC) has expressed concerns that half of the European labour force does not have sufficient ICT skills and has warned that this could lead to an ICT job surplus in the future.
The findings were a result of the EC’s annual Digital Agenda scoreboard, which assessed the progress made on 78 digital agenda actions at European Union and 23 at national level.
Digital Agenda: Annual scoreboard confirms need for structural economic reform across Europe and surplus of ICT jobs; big trend towards mobile services and technology
Europe's citizens, businesses and innovato r s are generating enough digital demand to put Europe into sustainable economic growth, but failure to supply enough fast internet, online content, research and relevant skills is undermining this potential. Greater data consumption and a shift to mobile technologies (such as smartphones) and mobile services (such as 3G internet, music streaming and webmail) are the most significant trends in the information & communications technologies (ICT) sector, which now accounts for 8 million jobs and 6% of EU GDP.
eHealth is a broad definition for a variety of technologies and services, from electronic health records to telecare systems that enable patients to be treated remotely while staying in the comfort of their own homes. But while the implementation and application of eHealth systems may vary, the overriding goal is fundamentally the same: using ICT to provide better care more efficiently at lower cost.
Read more: eHealth offers Europe solutions that can help avoid healthcare crisis
The Digital Agenda Annual scoreboard published by the European Commission confirms some areas of concern regarding its assessment of the progress at EU and national level in achieving a regulatory and business climate, as measured against the 78 Digital Agenda actions for the Commission and 23 actions for Member States. Among these concerns, half of European labour force does not have sufficient ICT skills to help them change or find a new job. Almost 25% of the EU population have no ICT skills. In addition, online shopping is still a national activity, the majority of SMEs neither shop nor sell online, limiting their export and revenue potential, and research investments are falling further behind our competitors. Moreover, the scoreboard also highlighted that telecoms companies continue to rip-off consumers with mobile roaming prices. The new roaming rules were formally adopted by the Council on May 2012.
In his request, Staes writes that he "expects a full report on the parliament's free software projects". The MEP also wants the EP's IT department to check if its software choices reflect the Parliament's obligation to conduct its activities with the utmost transparency.
Read more: European Parliament wants a report on its use of open source