Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-341"
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"en.20080312.23.3-341"2
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"Thank you, Mr President. Demographic, economic and social factors in Europe demand solutions that will turn the professional and cultural experience of older people to good account, ensuring that their living conditions are of as high a quality as possible and minimising the expenditure arising from this demographic trend.
The programme put forward by the Commission is a response to the need and, in parts, also to the quest for ways to advance technological progress in this sector. In fact, the digital divide – namely, barriers to the use of information and communication technologies, at times even very trivial ones – excludes a significant section of the older population from an active socio-economic life and restricts their opportunities to use the new technology services and assistance provided.
While I support the Commission proposal in every respect, it has to be acknowledged that new development of information and communication technologies in segments where there is commercial demand is taking place at intoxicating speeds. Similarly, while also agreeing with the Commission’s argument that the purchasing power of older people is increasing, we must, however, acknowledge that significant differences remain in income levels between Member States. Significant regional differences also remain in the opportunities available to those in the older age group to use information and communication technologies within different countries.
I would like to stress that the achievements of the Commission’s proposals will consist not only in the existence of the technologies themselves, but also in opportunities to access them and opportunities and incentives for older people to learn, in those parts of Europe where this is of particular importance in reducing disparities in income levels and regional disparities. The most difficult task, however, will be to overcome the digital divide in information content. On this point, where the digital divide between small and large nations and between small and large economies remains, overcoming it between generations is the most economically difficult task.
Mr President, although the Ministerial Declaration on e-inclusion, which served as a basis for the document under discussion today, was adopted in 2006 in Latvia’s capital, Riga, Latvia has not joined the programme. In this connection I have a question, which the rapporteur also referred to, concerning the extent to which it is in the interests of the states involved in the programme for other Member States to be covered by the funding of the Seventh Framework Programme, when this funding remains unchanged."@en1
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