The decision was widely expected following an agreement on a common position between the Parliament and Council in November. The common position meant that the decision could be adopted by the Environment Council without discussion.
The previous eTEN 2006 call for proposals was the last for the eTEN Programme. From 2007 onwards, support to electronic services in areas of public interest will be provided by the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP), a component of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which will run until 2013. "Education and research are important sources of inspiration for social development in Europe - and the source of future prosperity," said German Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan. Germany will hold the EU Presidency for the first half of 2007, before handing over to Portugal.
To do so requires working together to solve the European paradox, whereby Europe has the necessary knowledge and research, but then fails to take this knowledge to market, said the Commission President.
HealthService24 Project validation pilots showed that the introduction of a mobile health monitoring service is not disruptive with current work practices. It can easily co-exist with other formats of service delivery, in some cases supplementing them or, in other cases, replacing previous practices. This facilitated the integration, putting the end-users in command to decide on the most adequate pace.