The European Commission has launched a new task force to make the IT sector more competitive. The group is composed of senior executives from leading IT firms, trade unions and trade associations.

The ICT Task Force will address several key topics, including reasons for slow IT uptake; the link between intellectual property, R&D and innovation; and ways to attract younger people into the industry.

Information Society and Media commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement, "We will focus our work on facilitating cross-border competition in Europe, on removing barriers to a true internal market for online services, and on combining more effectively public and private research efforts to spur ICT investment."

High-level members of the IT industry on board include Crawford Beveridge, European chair of Sun Microsystems, Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, and Kai-Uwe Ricke, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom.

"This is an extremely timely initiative for our industry, which Alcatel hopes will be an important milestone in addressing both the competitiveness of European industry and the new challenges faced by the global environment for ICT," said Alcatel CTO Olivier Baujard. "We are ready to actively contribute to...ensure that Europe is in a leadership position to shape future digital convergence of the telecoms, content and IT&Services sectors in Europe and worldwide."

The task force will report to the European Commission by the end of the year.