Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-22-Speech-3-163"
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"en.20050622.18.3-163"2
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"Mr President, I hope you will not think me a kill-joy at this late hour, but I would like to touch on something negative relating to the report, which I otherwise support and believe to be good. This negative thing is a phenomenon that can be described using the increasingly familiar expression ‘e-apathy’. The Trautmann report is undoubtedly correct when it asserts that ICT development must serve to strengthen democracy and citizens’ interests, so as to make people participants and not simply consumers in the information society. This really is our only possible goal, but we must see the obstacles too.
E-apathy is one of these obstacles. In Hungary today, for example, only one in every four adults uses the Internet regularly. Meanwhile, the vast majority of non-users insist that they do not need it, or are simply not interested. This example is not unique. The ratio is similar in the majority of the new Member States. To a significant share of the population the advantages and opportunities provided by the Internet appear ambivalent. In these Member States, development of the services sector and infrastructure could easily become asymmetrical as a result, since a significant portion of society, lacking the appropriate motivation, is passive or dismissive towards the implementation of costly systems.
All of this of course could also bring about asymmetry in the relationship between the old and new Member States. It is in our common interest to avoid this and strengthen cohesion in this area too. We must therefore do everything we can to reinforce
inclusion by ensuring more vigorous, clearer and more intelligible communication than hitherto. And we must also give priority to dispelling engrained negative attitudes and misconceptions surrounding the new medium, alongside emphasising its positive attributes. I am confident that the report has taken a step in this direction and so I support it, and of course I too congratulate Mrs Trautmann and thank her for her work."@en1
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