Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-374"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070926.23.3-374"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, this is a great report and Ms Descamps has done excellent work, together with her colleagues in the Committee.
The digital libraries initiative is an example of how Europe can contribute, through concrete projects, not only to economic growth but also to quality of life. By bringing Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage online, we can disseminate it through into different cultures. By using modern technologies, we can break down the walls which exist today.
I am very happy that this initiative, taken by the national libraries of our Member States and developed by the European Commission for so many years, has been highlighted and supported by EU political forces at the highest level. They are right to do so; our Heads of State and Government are right to support this initiative, because there is real wealth in our libraries, our archives and our museums. It is not only books, but also newspapers, archive records and films. This is a multilingual wealth, a multicultural wealth. Knowing that less than 1% of this wealth is digitalised, we know what is in front of us and what kind of work we have to do.
That work is necessary for two reasons. The first is to overcome barriers and to get people to study, work and enjoy these works from their own culture and works from our common European history, and then to allow these elements of our cultural institutions to be reused for added-value services and products. That is where industry comes in. That is the reason why the goal of the Commission’s initiative is to achieve a common, multilingual access point to Europe’s digitalised cultural heritage.
We cannot do this alone. It requires collaboration between different types of cultural institutions, from all European countries. I am very glad to see that this is taking shape and is being formalised through the creation of a legal body that will increase the capacity of the European digital library to act. This common access point will be launched in 2008. In the years thereafter the content will be gradually expanded as more libraries, more archives and more audiovisual archives and museums contribute their digitalised collections.
I am very glad, also, that the report by Parliament tackles not only the outcome but also the prerequisites for achieving that outcome. This means improving the general conditions for getting our cultural heritage online as an integral part of the digital libraries initiatives, and the need for Member States to intensify their digitalisation efforts. I would say very clearly that it is not enough to have a big cultural event where all the Heads of Government make beautiful speeches and then go back to their countries and cut budgets. That cannot be! We need words to be followed by deeds. I want Parliament to move ahead and help us make this very beautiful project a reality.
We have the high level group on digital libraries, which I chair and which is forging ahead on this matter. We are also very conscious that the preservation of digital material will be one of the essential questions of the future, and I am therefore glad that the Council has endorsed the Commission approach to the European digital library and that Parliament is now helping us move in the same direction and is putting its political weight behind this objective."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples