[F1Article 1a U.K.

1. The programme for 2006 shall continue the monitoring of the take-up and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) across the economy and the dissemination of good practices, and shall have the following objectives:

(a) to monitor performance of and within Member States and to compare it with the best in the world by using, where possible, official statistics;

(b) to support efforts by Member States to stimulate the use of ICTs at national, regional or local level, by analysis of good practices and by the complementary interaction of developing mechanisms of exchange of experiences;

(c) to analyse the economic and societal consequences of the information society with a view to facilitating policy discussions particularly in terms of competitiveness, growth and employment as well as in terms of social inclusion.

2. The activities of the programme shall be actions of a cross-sectorial nature, complementing Community actions in other fields. None of these actions shall duplicate the work being carried out in these fields under other Community programmes. The actions taken under the programme on benchmarking, good practices and policy coordination shall work to achieve the objectives of the Commission Communication of 2 February 2005 to the Spring European Council, entitled ‘Working together for growth and jobs – A new start for the Lisbon Strategy’, aiming at stimulating the take-up of ICTs as a continuation of the eEurope agenda and in particular promoting broadband, e Government, e Business, e Health and e Learning, and the objectives of the Commission Communication of 1 June 2005 , entitled ‘i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment’, promoting an open and competitive digital economy.

3. The programme shall also provide a common framework for complementary interaction at European level of the various national, regional and local levels.]

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