EPRI Watch (1995- 1999)

EPRI-WATCH developed an information and communication service to European Parliamentarians, national MPs, regional policy makers and the ACTS community. The service at that time comprised 900 users from 21 countries in the EU and the CEECs. The user friendly on-line service contained information about legislation, research projects and initiatives of the European Union concerning the Information Society, and provided a set of practical communication features, such as video conferen¬cing, mail, etc. The service also contained information of regional initiatives in the Information Society, electronic commerce, networks and applications, information city highways, sustainable development, etc. Thus EPRI-WATCH tested and stimulated the use of advanced communications services by European, national and regional policy makers and those supporting their initiatives through con¬tinuously evolving state-of-the-art services relevant to their needs.

Additionally the EPRI-WATCH project focused on the objectives to:

• demonstrate the potential of advanced communications applications and services as a tool to foster economic and social development in countries and regions which are concerned with remedying the handicap of remoteness and the deficit of basic infra¬structure;
• provide additional validation of the information and communications services developed in EPRI-WATCH through the extension of the trial component of the project;
• facilitate direct communications between Eastern and Western Parliamenta¬rians and po¬licy makers, by exploiting and adapting the information and communication services offered by EPRI-WATCH;
• strengthen the relationship between eastern European Parliamentarians and policy makers and their EU interlocutors, in order to motivate them to act as door openers to joint RTD projects in the field of advanced communications technologies and services to cross-fertilise and strengthen the Communitíe’s scientific and technological base.