PURPOSE: to establish, for the period 2010-2015, a programme on interoperability solutions for European public administrations, including Community institutions and bodies, providing common and shared solutions facilitating interoperability (ISA programme).
PROPOSED ACT: Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council.
BACKGROUND: in today’s Europe, citizens are free to work in and re-locate to any EU Member State and companies carry out business across the EU. When doing so, they need to communicate with administrations of other Member States. Member States in turn need to communicate with each other to serve the citizens and businesses in the best possible way. To avoid the creation of electronic barriers (e-barriers) between European administrations, the Member States and the Commission need to strengthen their efforts to ensure barrier-free communication within the internal market.
The programme on interoperable delivery of pan-European eGovernment services to administrations, businesses and citizens(IDABC programme) has, as its predecessor programme on interchange of data between administrations(IDA programme), been instrumental to achieve a steady progress in the co-operation between the Commission and Member States administrations. The IDA and IDABC programmes have provided a forum for exchange of ideas and experience, and have lent support to the execution of Community policies through sectoral projects leading to the establishment of a wide
portfolio of operational trans-European networks and services in traditional policy areas such as agriculture, fisheries, employment, as well as in newer policy areas such as home and justice affairs, communicable diseases and health and consumer protection.
Finally, the IDA and IDABC programmes have been providing administrative sectors and Member States with infrastructure services, i.e. frameworks, common services and generic tools, such as a communication platform known as sTESTA and characterised by a high level of security and availability, and several complementary tools aiming at achieving interoperability between the back-office administrative systems and processes, as well as between back- and front-office services. In doing so, the IDA and IDABC programmes have demonstrated that they have been able to add value to the exchange of information between administrative sectors compared to what could have been obtained from a separate and uncoordinated project approach. Capitalizing on the progress of existing initiatives, also in the Member States, the programmes have demonstrated that a co-ordinated approach can contribute to delivering results faster, with higher quality and meeting business requirements, by means of first and foremost frameworks, generic services and common tools developed as infrastructure services in cooperation with the Member States.
The IDABC programme comes to an end on 31 December 2009. The Commission now proposes a follow-on programme on interoperability solutions for European public administrations (ISA programme) focusing on back-office solutions supporting the interaction between European public administrations and the implementation of Community policies and activities. The ISA programme will contribute to meeting the challenges and ensuring continuity while providing a forum for exchange of ideas and experience.
CONTENT: the overall objective of the ISA programme is to facilitate the efficient and effective electronic cross-border and cross-sector interaction between European public administrations enabling the delivery of electronic public services supporting the implementation of Community policies and activities. As such its objective links in basically with all Community policies and contributes to their implementation. More specifically it supports the single market by contributing to preventing the emergence of e-barriers, while at the same time supporting the principles and needs underlying the Lisbon Strategy.
The programme will support the provision of common and shared solutions, i.e. common frameworks, generic tools and common services, to be applied, whenever appropriate, by European public administrations for the exchange of information across borders and sectors. Unless otherwise foreseen, the application of such solutions is basically subject to Member States' decision.
The establishment and improvement of common frameworks and generic tools will be financed via the programme, while the use of such frameworks and tools is to be financed by the users at any administrative level. The establishment, industrialisation, i.e. bringing solutions to a state of operational maturity, and improvement of common services will be financed via the programme whereas the operation of such services will only be financed via the programme to the extent that their use may serve Community interests. In other cases, the use of the services, including their operation on a decentralised basis, will be financed by the users. The solutions established by the programme will basically reduce the financial and administrative burden falling upon European public administrations interacting with each other.
General principles: actions launched or continued under the ISA programme shall, whenever appropriate, be based on the following principles:
- the principle of technological neutrality and adaptability;
- the principle of privacy and protection of personal data;
- the principle of security.
The ISA programme shall support and promote:
- the establishment and improvement of common frameworks in support of interoperability across borders and sectors;
- the assessment of ICT implications of proposed or adopted Community legislation as well as the planning of the implementation of ICT systems in support of the implementation of such legislation;
- the operation and improvement of existing common services as well as the establishment, industrialisation, operation and improvement of new common services;
- the improvement of existing reusable generic tools as well as the establishment, provision and improvement of new reusable generic tools.
Actions: the Community shall, in cooperation with the Member States, undertake the actions specified in the rolling work programme. Such actions shall be implemented by the Commission. A study shall have one phase and be concluded by the final report.
A project shall, whenever appropriate, have three phases:
- the inception phase that shall lead to the establishment of the project charter;
- the execution phase, the end of which shall be marked by the execution report;
- the operational phase starting when a solution is made available for use.
The relevant project phases shall be defined when the action is included in the rolling work programme.
The implementation of the ISA programme shall be supported by accompanying measures.
Budgetary implication: the financial envelope for the implementation of the ISA programme for the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2015 is set at EUR 164.1 million, of which 103.5 million is for the period until 31 December 2013 as foreseen in the financial programming 2007-1013.