Jörgen Samuelsson is chair of the Council Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society. The most important issue during the autumn is the formulation of future IT policy, and here Jörgen is hoping to get help from those who are most familiar with the network, namely the users.

Which issues are you working on during the Presidency?

A major and essential part of the work concerns the formulation of future IT policy, as we are currently working in accordance with a five-year programme that expires in 2010. We want a broad debate on these issues in order to be able to arrive at a relevant and updated strategy for the next few years. Of all the technology areas – which are developing at a fast pace generally – the IT sector is developing fastest. Hence, part of the debate concerns how the strategy should be formulated to be reasonably up-to-date throughout the period.

Can’t changes be made along the way in that case?

What we are talking about is really a comprehensive strategy with visionary content. Somewhat tougher measures – in the form of distribution of funds or legislation – will always take place in parallel, with this programme as a guiding principle.

How have you generated debate on these issues?

On the one hand we are using the usual channels where all interested parties can submit their views and, on the other, we are using new technologies to identify other perspectives and views. We initiated a major independent consultant study which resulted in the report ‘A Green Knowledge Society’. It recommends the issues that should be included in a joint European agenda for IT policy and will be used as a basis for discussions at the conference ‘Visby Agenda – creating impact for an eUnion 2015’ in November. The report is already posted on the Internet and we have asked people to tag their comments, related articles and blog contributions, etc. to #visbyagenda so that we can follow the discussion along the way. Parallel tracks have also been formed where alternative documents emerge through cooperation between visitors to the website. We think all this is very interesting and we will make sure that heed is paid to all viewpoints.

What will the discussions lead to?

The results of the conference in Visby will be used as input to the telecommuncations ministers’ Council meeting in December and will be an important contribution to the Commission’s work on producing a new IT policy agenda for the EU.