BRUSSELS -- The European Commission has accused most of the European Union's 25 member nations of failing to live up to promises they made a year ago to upgrade their information and communications technology market sectors.

In the EC's first annual report on i2010, the digital economy portion of its so-called Lisbon strategy to spur growth in the region, the commission called on European countries to step up their efforts to improve access to broadband Internet connections.

The report, issued last week, also said that most EU members haven't sufficiently improved the circulation of digital content or freed up radio spectrum to support new wireless applications.

"Europe's policies for the digital economy have made some progress, but I do not think that this is good enough," said Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for information society and media. The report showed that IT is contributing less to productivity improvements in Europe today than it did 10 years ago, she said.

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