THE EUROPEAN UNION'S RESPONSE TO THE DIGITAL DIVIDE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY: An early study on EU's policymaking towards an all-inclusive Information Society

This chapter is part of my MPhil dissertation, firstly, takes a look at the international context of the digital divide and then turns to EU policies at the time of the field research (1990-2004). The chapter then presents an overview of regulation of the telecommunications, audio-visual and digital broadcasting sectors. It introduces to the reader the key organising concepts behind the stimulation and regulation of the digital sector. Then a short historical overview is given. Finally the initiatives of the Information Society DG and e-Europe are examined; special attention is devoted to European policies, which aim to bridge the digital divide in the sectors of e-Economy, e-Education and e- Government in the early 2000.