Industry and Policy Issues

EU Policy Handbook

The 2000 Lisbon European Council provided an overarchingstrategy for realising Europe?s vast potential. Its centerpiece isthe goal of making the EU the most competitive knowledge-basedsociety in the world by 2010.

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector isperhaps uniquely placed to help advance the Lisbon goals, andMicrosoft is eager to contribute to this process. It has been ourgreat privilege to have been present in the EU since 1982. Today,we do business in every Member State, employ over 10,000 people inthe EU, and maintain leading research facilities in Denmark,France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Some 95,000 Europeanbusinesses develop software on the Microsoft platform, and over 1.6million Europeans work for distributors and developers of Microsoftproducts. In addition, we are focused on supporting small andmedium sized enterprises, which in turn, contribute to Europe?seconomic growth, productivity, and competitiveness.

We are committed to contributing positively to the many Europeancommunities that we are fortunate to call home. This policyhandbook is intended as one small step in that direction. Itprovides a brief overview of some of the most important pending EUpolicy initiatives affecting the ICT sector that will help shapeimplementation of the Lisbon Agenda and determine the measure ofits success.

To download the complete Handbook as well as summaries of eachof the policy areas listed below, please click here.

• Commercial Software
• Common Criteria
• Competition Policy
• Competition Case (Microsoft)
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Data Protection/Privacy
• Digital Rights Management
• Economic Growth and Competitiveness
• Education and Life-long Learning
• eEurope 2005 Action Plan
• eInclusion and Accessibility
• Intellectual Property
• International Trade
• Interoperability and Open Standards
• Network Security/Cybercrime
• Online Child Safety
• Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions
• Public Procurement
• Services
• Software Piracy
• Spam