EEurope initiative

Overview
The European Commission launched the eEurope initiative in 2000 to accelerate Europe's transition towards a knowledge-based economy and to realize the potential benefits of higher growth, more jobs and better access for all citizens to the new services of the information age. eEurope was not a public expenditure programme and did not make new funds available. Instead, it provided a policy framework within which existing expenditure could be better focused.

The first phase of the eEurope initiative was the eEurope 2002 Action Plan, which focused on exploiting the advantages offered by the Internet to increase connectivity. It comprised a total of 64 targets to be achieved by the end of 2002. The majority of those were successfully completed.

In June 2002 the European Council launched a second phase, eEurope 2005 Action Plan, which focused on exploiting broadband technologies to deliver online services in both the public and private sector.