EDUC commission working to suppress e-barriers and promotion the cultural heritage of Europe

Last June the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new programme designed to help EU Member States to modernise their administrations and provide interoperable digital services at national and European level. This is essential as more and more citizens work and relocate, and more businesses trade and operate across the Union, meaning that they often need to interact electronically with the Member State's administrations. The new programme - ISA 2 - will take over from its predecessor, ISA (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations), to ensure smooth electronic cross-border or cross-sector interaction between European public administrations.

The rapporteur on the issue, Odeta Žerlauskienė (LT/ALDE), member of Skuodas District Municipal Council, presented her draft opinion to EDUC members during a meeting in Brussels on Friday 21 November. During this she welcomed the scope of the proposed ISA 2 Programme, which will cover all levels of administration - European, local, regional and national - and committed to taking into account their respective needs. She called for the Programme to be more open to non-governmental sectors, such as private individuals and businesses, to pay adequate attention to the development of multilingual solutions and that security of usage be explicitly mentioned as one of the general principles applying to all actions financed under the Programme.

EDUC members also debated the proposed EU strategy to promote an "integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe", on the basis of a draft opinion presented by György Gémesi (HU/EPP), Mayor of Gödöllő. The rapporteur welcomed the emphasis placed on the importance of cultural heritage, not only as a factor in economic development and social integration, but also as a cornerstone of local, regional, national and European identity. While commending the fact that more resources are being made available to cultural and creative sectors under the EU's new structural funds and dedicated framework programmes, he recommended maximum synergy between them so as to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in implementing local and regional strategies for creative and innovative goals. Mr Gémesi further calls for better integration of the cultural heritage sector into the revised Europe 2020 strategy and stressed the need to make cultural services accessible to all, also through promoting the digitisation of Europe's cultural heritage.

The Committee of the Regions' EDUC commission:

The EDUC commission is competent for issues including education, youth policy, culture, sport, multilingualism, information society, research and innovation, audio-visual industry and media. It gathers about 100 regional and local elected representatives from the 28 EU member states, and is chaired by Anton Rombouts (NL/EPP), Mayor of the City of 's Hertogenbosch.