Translation of "société de l'information multilingue " (French → English) :

The rapporteur considers it necessary for both Council and Commission to propose further initiatives leading towards a genuinely multilingual European Community.

Hence the creation of a genuinely multilingual European Community in which each citizen has a practical grasp of at least two languages in addition to his own is of major importance in achieving a People's Europe and, in particular, increasing mobility.

This overall goal is supported by i2010 — the policy framework for the information society — one of the objectives of which is to create a Single European Information Space by ensuring seamless access to ICT-based services and improving conditions for the development of rich, multilingual content.

(18) Information society services span a wide range of economic activities which take place on-line; these activities can, in particular, consist of selling goods on-line; activities such as the delivery of goods as such or the provision of services off-line are not covered; information society services are not solely restricted to services giving rise to on-line contracting but also, in so far as they represent an economic activity, extend to services which are not remunerated by those who receive them, such as those offering on-line information or commercial communications, or those providing tools allowing for search, access and retrieval of data; inf ...[+++]ormation society services also include services consisting of the transmission of information via a communication network, in providing access to a communication network or in hosting information provided by a recipient of the service; television broadcasting within the meaning of Directive EEC/89/552 and radio broadcasting are not information society services because they are not provided at individual request; by contrast, services which are transmitted point to point, such as video-on-demand or the provision of commercial communications by electronic mail are information society services; the use of electronic mail or equivalent individual communications for instance by natural persons acting outside their trade, business or profession including their use for the conclusion of contracts between such persons is not an information society service; the contractual relationship between an employee and his employer is not an information society service; activities which by their very nature cannot be carried out at a distance and by electronic means, such as the statutory auditing of company accounts or medical advice requiring the physical examination of a patient are not information society services.

The European sector of a global information society must be multilingual in nature: databases, for instance, should be designed to be multilingual.

The European sector of a global information society, including its databases, must be multilingual.