Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-10-Speech-2-454"
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"− Information and communication technologies have a huge potential for helping older people. Well, that is easily said and not so easily done because we do have a real digital divide here. It is those people who badly need ICT tools who, because they have never used those tools in their lives before, are not used to utilising them. For instance, only 15% of older people use the Internet. That is why we have to develop a whole policy in order to bring this barrier down, because we will need ICT to enable older people to stay active and productive for longer, to continue to engage in society with more accessible online services, and to enjoy a healthier and higher quality of life for longer.
So you see we really take that very seriously and we believe that we have possibilities here to improve life in an ageing society.
On the problem of low income users, I would refer first of all to the second package of the roaming regulation which Parliament adopted in the ITRA committee yesterday night. One element of this package is to bring down the prices of using mobile phones, landlines, the Internet, etc.
The Commission has also set up a consumer market scoreboard that permits monitoring of market outcomes for consumers. The evidence on the scoreboard helps us to better take account of consumer interests.
The new proposals which are before Parliament in the review of the telecom market also aim to strengthen consumers’ and users’ rights with a view to improving accessibility and promoting an inclusive society.
It has been proposed, for instance, to amend some provisions in order to take better account of the needs of the elderly and those with special needs, and those should be general objectives guiding the activity of the national regulatory authorities.
That was exactly why the Commission presented in 2007 an action plan for ageing well in the information society with very concrete measures.
The first measure is on research and innovation in order to develop and test technologies for social care and independent living for older persons. I must pay tribute to our industries because, through these research programmes, the industries have developed a whole series of mechanisms, services and products which help older people to stay longer in their own homes.
The second measure is to raise awareness of the benefits among users and public authorities through the establishment of a best practice Internet portal and European award schemes for smart homes – independent living applications for instance.
The third is to reduce the fragmentation of approaches in deploying these technologies in Europe.
In 2008, the Commission adopted two other initiatives.
The first was a new joint programme to support joint research with Member States in the area of ambient-assisted living: those are the technologies for home applications and for mobility, assisting older users in their daily lives and providing social care applications.
The second was the new communication on e-accessibility, fostering the use of ICT goods and services by older people and by people with disabilities, and inviting Member States to take all necessary steps to improve the accessibility of public websites.
In line with those measures, between now and 2013, the EU, together with Member States and the private sector, will invest more than EUR 1 billion in research and innovation for the ageing society."@en1
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