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PRESS RELEASE
Telecoms: European Commission calls on Czech telecoms watchdog to strengthen regulatory control on mobile termination
(14 September 2009) In a letter sent today, the European Commission has, for a second time, asked the Czech telecoms regulator, Cesky telekomunikacni urad (CTU) to further reduce mobile termination rates (MTRs) in the Czech Republic. MTRs are the wholesale charges which mobile operators charge other operators for connecting calls on their networks. Despite the Commission’s recent call on CTU, in a letter sent end of last year , to bring MTRs closer to efficient cost as soon as possible, the Czech regulator intends to maintain the MTR levels set in its previous decision. A new glide path aimed at approximating efficient costs in a swifter manner would, however, provide for a smoother transition to the approach set out in the Commission’s Recommendation on Termination Rates ( IP/09/710 ), which asks all Member States to set MTRs at the level of the cost of an efficient operator by 31 December 2012. The Commission also regrets that less stringent obligations are imposed on the smallest operator, MobilKom. This may lead to market failures or disputes between operators if MobilKom decides to raise its own MTRs or to not terminate calls from other operators’ networks.
PRESS RELEASE
Saving more lives on Europe’s roads: mobile phone operators sign up for eCall roll-out
(9 September 2009) Today, eCall, Europe’s in-car automatic emergency call system, received the full backing of Europe’s mobile phone industry. Representatives of the industry’s GSM Association underlined their commitment to this life-saving technology by signing the EU’s Memorandum of Understanding to implement eCall across Europe. eCall automatically dials 112, Europe’s single emergency number , when a car has a serious accident and sends its location to the nearest emergency service – even when passengers do not know or cannot say where they are. Rolling out eCall requires close cooperation between public authorities, car companies and mobile phone operators and could save up to 2,500 lives each year in the EU when fully deployed and reduce the severity of injuries by 10 to 15%.
PRESS RELEASE
«It is time for Europe to turn over a new e-leaf on digital books and copyright». Joint Statement of EU Commissioners Reding and McCreevy on the occasion of this week’s Google Books meetings in Brussels
(7 September 2009) Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, today made a joint statement setting out the important cultural and economic stakes of book digitisation in Europe. To face the daunting task of digitising Europe’s books, of which there are tens of millions in Europe’s national libraries alone, the two Commissioners stressed the need for fully respecting copyright rules to ensure fair remuneration for authors, but also welcomed public-private partnerships as a means to boost digitisation of books. They highlighted the need to adapt Europe’s still very fragmented copyright legislation to the digital age, in particular with regard to orphan and out-of-print works. The statement of the two Commissioners comes ahead of a series of workshops and meetings between the Commission, cultural institutions, right holders, IT companies and consumer organisations, which start today with an information hearing on the US class action settlement on Google Book Search. Under this settlement, agreed between Google, authors and publishers in the United States (which still requires validation by a US court), authors could receive 63% of the online revenue generated by Google with digitised books. As of today, no equivalent solution is available in the EU. This week’s hearings and meetings at the Commission will help develop a European response to the challenges of books digitisation. Both Commissioners believe that the challenge for EU policymakers is to ensure a regulatory framework which paves the way for a rapid roll-out of services, similar to those made possible in the United Sates by the recent settlement, to European consumers and to the European library and research communities.
PRESS RELEASE
Telecoms: European Commission urges Slovakian telecoms regulator to take stronger action on mobile termination rates
(7 September 2009) In a letter sent today, the European Commission has repeated its calls for the Slovakian telecoms regulator, Telekomunikacny urad Slovenskej republiky (TUSR), to bring mobile termination rates (MTRs) to more competitive levels in Slovakia. MTRs are the wholesale charges which mobile operators charge other operators for connecting calls on their networks. Already in a letter sent to the regulator earlier this year , the Commission highlighted the importance of moving to efficient MTRs as soon as possible and called on TUSR to make sure that its transitional price control measures allow for important progress towards such an efficient cost level. This would in turn help a swift transition to the approach set out in the Commission’s Recommendation on Termination Rates ( IP/09/710 ), which says that MTRs should be set at the level of the cost of an efficient operator in all Member States by 31 December 2012.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Breaking the Barriers between Stakeholders
21 September 2009 – 22 September 2009 Nottingham, United Kingdom
This conference will bring together Service Users and Service Providers,Academics, Policy Makers and Suppliers of ICT for People with Disabilities. It is supported by the ImPaCT in Europe project which aims to raise awareness of the benefits of Person Centred Technology (PCT). PCT can substantially improve the quality of life and open up potential employment opportunities for the individual.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Cracow ’09 Grid Workshop
12 October 2009 – 14 October 2009 Cracow, Poland
The main objective of this workshop is to support the community of researchers, developers, and practitioners who work in the field of e-Science, grid systems, and their applications. The event will provide an overview of research in the main European and national grid projects.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
AmI-09: Roots for the Future of Ambient Intelligence
18 November 2009 – 21 November 2009 Salzburg, Austria
The conference aims to bring together researchers from academia and industry from various disciplines to present the latest results, discuss the state of art and think about the future.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Digital Libraries and Digital Preservation: ICT Call 6 Information Day
9 October 2009 Luxembourg
The next call for proposals of digital libraries and digital preservation research projects is ICT Call 6, expected to be published by the end of November 2009. The European Commission is organising an information day specifically dedicated to these research fields. The event aims at helping participants to better understand the work programme and criteria for the evaluation of proposals, to facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences, and to meet potential partners for project consortia. Participation is free of charge. Registration is open until 4 October 2009.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Virtual Physiological Human Initiative Day
9 September 2009 Brussels, Belgium
The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) Network of Excellence organises this first VPH-Initiative working day. It will bring together the VPH Network of Excellence participants and key representatives from the 14 FP7 research projects currently active in the VPH programme.
Virtual physiological human website:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/research/fp7vph/index_en.htm
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Public procurement of innovation – a driver for future health in Europe
13 October 2009 Stockholm, Sweden
The conference will be a platform to discuss and illustrate Public Procurement of Innovations, PPI, within the Life Science sector. The aim of the Conference is to mobilise Europe for a public procurement of innovation policy in the life science area in order to increase the competitiveness in EU and thereby also increase the industrial development.
Contact: VINNOVA@VINNOVA.se
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
IST-Africa 2010 Conference – Call for Papers: Deadline 06 November
19 May 2010 – 21 May 2010 Durban, South Africa
IST-Africa 2010 is the fifth in an Annual Conference Series which brings together senior representatives from leading commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice and discussing policy related issues.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Roadmap for Research on Ambient Assisted Living – Evaluation Workshop
22 September 2009 – 23 September 2009 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
This workshop is organised by the AALIANCE project – «The European Ambient Assisted Living Innovation Alliance». This project aims to coordinate the European Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) community and to develop a common strategic vision for R&D approaches in the AAL context. An important steps towards this aim is the release of the AAL Roadmap, providing an in-depth look into the future of application areas, concepts and technologies until 2025. During 2 parallel sessions, the content of the roadmap will be discussed.
Full Roadmap document: http://www.aaliance.eu/public/documents/aaliance-roadmap/
NEWS ARTICLE
Help us to improve the accessibility of Commission websites – deadline extended to 15 September
(30 July 2009) You can help us to improve the accessibility and user experience of European Commission websites by filling in a short questionnaire. At the European Commission we need to know how you, the user, experience our websites. Are they accessible and easy to use? We need to know what it is like for you when you look for information on our websites. We would like you to answer some questions about European Commission websites that you have used. The questionnaire is available as an online form. The deadline to contribute is 15 September 2009.
Contact: eInclusion@ec.europa.eu
the online questionnaire:
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=access
Reminders
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Intelligence in Assisted Homes
24 September 2009 – 25 September 2009 Bruges, Belgium
On the first day of the event the focus will be on assistive technologies: products on the market, view into the future. On the second day, a closer look will be taken telehealth and telecare. The target group of this international workshop consists of construction industry professionals (engineers, architects, builders, …) and the health care industry as well as health and social care organisations.
Contact: yv@bbri.be
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
‘Innovation for Demographic Change’ Conference
5 October 2009 – 7 October 2009 ‘s-Hertogenbosch, NL
By bringing together good practices, this AER (Assembly of European Regions) conference aims at exchanging knowledge and inspiration. Based on the outcomes of previous discussions a ‘Roadmap for demographic change’, the guidelines for future work within the AER and in the regions, will be drafted. Prior to the Conference, the AER e-he@lth network will meet on 5th October 2009 within the framework of a seminar dedicated to smart care solutions and ICT for independent living, based on a demand-driven approach. Social Policy and Public Health Committee (2) will hold its autumn plenary session on 7th October 2009, an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in health and social policy and about the member regions’ activities within the AER networks. For more details, visit the AER e-he@lth website.
Contact: st.com21@aer.eu
Assembly of European Regions – eHealth: http://www.aer.eu/en/main-issues/health/e-health.html
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Open Days 2009: registration now open
5 October 2009 – 8 October 2009 Brussels
The Open Days are designed to bring together political representatives, decision-makers, experts and practitioners of regional policy as well as stakeholders from the banking and business sectors, civil society organisations, academia, EU institutions and the media to discuss the common challenges facing European regions and cities, and to discuss possible solutions. The event also provides a platform for capacity-building for those involved in implementing EU cohesion policy and in managing EU funds, as well as facilitating cooperation and networking among regions and cities on best practice in regional development. This year the general motto is ‘Global Challenges, European Responses’.
Open Days website: http://www.opendays.europa.eu/
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Workshop «Towards a New Ageing Vision: The Contribution of ICT Industry and Businesses»
6 October 2009 European Parliament, Brussels
What is needed to reinvigorate the European Ageing agenda? What are the visions of ICT industry and businesses in the coming decades? How do older people, care organisations and policymakers react to business visions? We live in a world of technology communications, products and services, a world where our work, quality of life, health, and environment are all being transformed by technology. With progressive ageing of the European and worldwide population a new strategic thinking is required in business and beyond. Tackling the needs of an older population means new ways of thinking, social innovation and taking a holistic approach to ageing: at work, at home and in the community. The aim of the workshop is to identify how ICT Industry and businesses are or will be creating a new ageing vision within their own companies, with their products and services.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Workshop «More women, better jobs and boosting growth»
8 October 2009 Brussels, Belgium
This gender workshop aims to take stock of the progress made and present new initiatives and actions. Brainstorming sessions are also organised to work on a new agenda for Women in ICT. Commissioner Reding will launch the Directory of Women in ICT, an interactive platform bringing together relevant initiatives and information. The Commissioner will also present the new signatories of The Code of Best Practices for women in ICT. Participation in the Workshop is free of charge but there is a limited number of places.
Contact: INFSO-IT-GIRLS@ec.europa.eu
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Blog de Octavio Islas 