A special very low telecommunications charge for schools and schoolchildren should be a defining characteristic of the European "information society", the director-general of the European Institute for the Media has said.
Speaking at Dublin City University last night, Dr Bernd-Peter Lange said a specifically European concept of the information society should feature special support for information offered in the public interest and cheap access for children to a European education web.
Europe should also offer all its people opportunities for education, training and vocational education with the aim of narrowing the "knowledge gap".
Dr Lange said the focus of the information society strategy had shifted over the past five years from technology and economy to how people would survive in a rapidly changing environment.
The people of Europe were becoming more culturally divergent, even within the same country. However, youth culture, music, film, sport, computer games and new media technology formed a "meeting point" where a European, and even global, identity could emerge.
He said public service broadcasting was specifically European in concept and should be developed through the use of new technology as it fostered identity-building in society and served as a forum for controversial political and social debate.
An example of a very positive expression of "national belonging" was the celebration in France of its win in last year's World Cup. "Many of the heroes of the French team were from immigrant backgrounds, and their success has hopefully widened the perception of French identity, and provided a good example for a wider, more inclusive, European identity".