The 4th Press Release: Mayors join the e-cities initiative (Published on: 24.05.2002) During the conference, significant emphasis will be placed on the development of e-government on the local level. For this purpose, some examples of best practice among local initiatives will be presented and European mayors will demonstrate their commitment to the enhancement of e-government by signing a declaration within the initiative Global Cities Dialogue. The invited mayors of local and European cities will express their commitment to promoting the development of e-services on the local level by formally signing the Helsinki Declaration entitled: “Mayors of the World for a Global Cities Dialogue on the Information Society”, which will take place on Monday, 3 June 2002 at Ljubljana Castle. By signing the declaration, the mayors will be making a personal commitment to actively participating in the development of projects and policy from the Global Cities Dialogue initiative, which is a world-wide initiative to enhance the information society and to strengthen the role of cities in developing local democracy and improving local government services in order to accelerate local level development. For more information on the items listed below go to the conference web pages at http://emcis.gov.si: the conference programme; the three plenary and three thematic sections; the exhibition of applications from candidate countries; the key speakers of the European Commission, European Parliament, national parliaments, ministers of EU Member States and candidate countries, representatives of financial and scientific institutions, and ICT industry; the catalogue, to be published next week, and two key elements that will be published after the conference in the “Progress Report of the candidate countries on the implementation of eEurope+2003” and “Conclusions from Ljubljana”. The European Ministerial Conference on Information Society will be held in Ljubljana on 3 and 4 June. The conference is organised by the Ministry of the Information Society of the Republic of Slovenia and the European Commission (Information Society DG and Enlargement DG). The conference will witness the 13 candidate countries presenting and publishing the first report on progress achieved in the implementation of eEurope+ Action Plan, a programme for the development of information society in candidate countries. For the first time the candidate countries will report on the progress they have made in developing knowledge based economy, modernising public (electronic) services and bridging the digital divide. For more info please contact: Nina Novinec, public relations Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Information Society in co-operation with the European Commission, DG Information Society and DG Enlargement Contact info: gp.mid@gov.si Web: http://emcis.gov.si, http://www.europa.eu.int/eeuropeplus