Article 1
Decision No 2256/2003/EC is hereby amended as follows:
1. the following Article shall be inserted:
Article 1a
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, eGovernment, eBusiness, eHealth and eLearning, 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.
;
2. the following Article shall be inserted:
Article 2a
In order to attain the objectives referred to in Article 1a, the following categories of actions shall be undertaken:
  1. Action 1
Monitoring and comparison of performance:
    - data collection and analysis on the basis of the benchmarking indicators as defined in the Council resolution of 18 February 2003 on the implementation of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan, including regional indicators, where appropriate, and Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 concerning Community statistics on the information society .
  2. Action 2
Dissemination of good practices:
    - studies to identify good practices, at national, regional and local level, contributing to successful take up of ICTs across the economy,
    - support for targeted conferences, seminars or workshops, dissemination, information and communication activities in support of 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 the Commission Communication of 1 June 2005, entitled “i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment”;, promoting an open and competitive digital economy, in order to promote cooperation and exchange of experiences and good practices as defined in Article 1a(1)(b).
  3. Action 3
Analysis and strategic discussion:
    - support the work of social and economic experts with a view to providing the Commission with input as regards prospective policy analysis.
3. in Article 4, the first paragraph shall be replaced by the following:
The programme shall cover the period from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2006.
The financial framework for the implementation of this programme is hereby set at EUR 30 160 000.
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4. the Annex shall be replaced by the text in the Annex to this Decision.
OJ L 143, 30.4.2004, p. 49.’