PURPOSE : to present a proposal for a Decision on interoperable delivery of pan-European eGovernment Services to Public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens (IDABC).
CONTENT : following on from the IDA II Programme (which expires on 31 December 2004), this present proposal establishes a follow-on Programme called IDABC (Interoperable Delivery of pan-European eGovernment Services to Public Administration, Businesses and Citizens).
The challenges facing Europe today, such as enlargement, sustainable economic growth, social development, safeguarding security and overcoming the distance between the European Union and its citizens, require joint policy responses at EU level. They also require governments to join forces as far as the implementation of common policies is concerned. The implementation of a broad range of legislative acts is in fact the shared responsibility of the Member States and the European Commission and requires the development of news ways of working together, based on Information Technology (IT) and telematic networks. Moreover, the Action Plan for eEurope 2005, endorsed by the European Council meeting in Seville in June 2002, underlines the importance of eGovernment and in particular the establishment of pan-European eGovernment services to businesses and citizens in support of cross border activities thus complementing and providing a framework for initiatives regarding eGovernment at national, regional and local levels.
The new programme will comprise 2 strands, namely projects of Common Interest in support of sectoral policies and horizontal measures in support of interoperability, mainly infrastructure services.
The objectives of the proposed Decision are:
- to enable the efficient, effective and secure interchange of information between public administrations, whether national, regional or local, as well as between such administrations and the Community institutions or other entities as appropriate, in order for the Member States and the Community to implement, within their respective areas of competence, the Community policies and activities of the Treaty;
- to extend the benefits of the interchange of information to businesses and citizens;
- to facilitate communication between the Community institutions and support the Community decision-making process and develop the related strategic framework at the pan-European level;
- to promote citizens' and businesses' participation in the construction of the European Union;
- to achieve interoperability, both within and across different administrative sectors and, where appropriate, with businesses and citizens;
- to converge networks towards a common telematic interface;
- to achieve substantial benefits for Member State public administrations and the Community in terms of streamlined operations, speeded-up implementations, security, efficiency, transparency, service culture and responsiveness;
- to promote the spread of good practice and encourage the development of
innovative telematic solutions in public administrations.
The horizontal measures consist of infrastructure services and strategic and support services.
The main objective of the infrastructure support services is to facilitate interoperability between systems, information and processes at the pan-European level, as this is a fundamental requirement from both the technical and the economic perspectives. The interoperability of the information systems, the sharing and re-use of the information, and joining-up of the administrative processes are essential for the provision of high quality seamless and interactive, user-centric eGovernment services.
As regards the financial reference amount for the implementation of the Community action under this Decision for the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006, the proposed amount is set at EUR 59.1 million, out of which:
- EUR 30.5 million for projects of common interest;
- EUR 28.6 million for horizontal measures.
For the period from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2009 this amount shall be increased to EUR 89.6 million out of which:
- EUR 44.2 million for projects of common interest;
- EUR 45.4 million for horizontal measures.
In comparison with the IDA II Programme, the annual budget of the follow-on Programme has been increased by about 20% to cover expenditures relating to the full integration of the new Member States. Furthermore, in support of the eEurope initiatives, the scope of the IDABC Programme is broader in as far as it encompasses networks as well as services extending the benefits of the interaction between administrations to businesses and citizens. Likewise, increased funding should be available to ensure efficient, effective and secure interchange of information.�