Framework Paper on IDA DG III B/6, March 1997 (environ 60 pages)

Présentation:
Ce document a été établi par la DG3/B6 et présenté aux administrations participant au Programme européen IDA.
Il s'agit d'un document de travail et non d'une position définitive de la Commission. Il n'est pas confidentiel.
Admiroutes le publie pour donner à ses correspondants une idée plus précise des objectifs et des méthodes de travail de la Commission dans le domaine des Réseaux transeuropéens opérationnels.
Admiroutes

1 Summary

The key motivation behind the current IDA programme has been to provide practical support for the functioning of the Internal Market by connecting administrations throughout Europe to each other through telematic networks, establishing a means for the rapid, effective, and secure exchange of information. This primary objective will continue to be valid. However, it is recognised that the market circumstances and technical environment which influenced the formulation of the original programme have altered dramatically during the past few years. Thus far, IDA has coped ably with such changes, adopting a flexible stance which has allowed it to incorporate recent developments such as the Internet and the widespread availability of telecommunication services from service providers.

Nevertheless, a new programme must seek to accommodate future unknowns. This is why the strategy and activities proposed to be carried out by IDA in a second phase, which build upon the existing wealth of knowledge and experience already acquired and take advantage of the sectoral network systems presently in place, differ in emphasis from their predecessors. To date, IDA has acted primarily as an implementor of networks between administrations in major sectors. In the future, IDA will continue to foster the establishment of sectoral telematic networks, but will become a more market-driven, service-oriented programme, concentrating on horizontal activities which directly benefit many different sectors by satisfying collective needs and expanding its role as facilitator for administrations implementing telematic networks.

IDA has recently introduced “generic” telematic services for European administrations. Such services are purchased from the marketplace to meet basic, common user requirements such as data collection, data dissemination, data exchange, and security, thus providing interoperability between solutions, reducing costs by achieving economies of scale, and eliminating dependencies on specific suppliers and products. IDA defines the particular services which are required by administrations and negotiates the terms and conditions for their provision on behalf of all administrative users.

In future, these services cannot remain static or they will rapidly become obsolete. Instead, the next phase of IDA will ensure that these generic services continually evolve and improve, also instituting a certification scheme to increase the number of service providers, hence encouraging more competition and better quality offerings. Furthermore, the horizontal activities of the new IDA will also define requirements and identify solutions for other demands in addition to basic telematic services. IDA must provide a framework which addresses administrative legal and security obligations. It must also look at ways of harmonising and structuring the information which is exchanged over networks, and examine the opportunities for improving the administrative processes which are supported through telematics.

IDA will exploit the accumulated knowledge and experience which it has gained to better advantage by acting as a central coordinator and source of information for administrative telematic requirements at all levels, international, national, regional and local, communicating these needs to the marketplace, providing technical expertise and support relating to network implementation and information exchange, and matching needs with existing solutions or developing new common answers to problems. In order to maintain this role, IDA must initiate an important technology monitoring activity to ensure that the impact of new research and market developments on administrative telematics is regularly reviewed and analysed. It should be noted that IDA will not only be of benefit to administrations but also to the ICT Industry. By collecting user requirements and providing specifications for products and services which are of interest to a potentially vast market, IDA will give industry the confidence to invest in new products for which they can anticipate having a large, solid customer base.

The emphasis on profiting from previous investments will also apply to future sectoral projects. Activities envisaged in this domain include building additional functionality into existing systems, developing telematic networks for entirely new sectors which are needed to support the Internal Market, preparing for enlargement by extending the participation in key networks to CEECs, and connecting regional and local systems to international infrastructures where appropriate. The decision as to which specific projects are to be supported by the new programme will be based upon a rigorous evaluation which will take into account factors such as the user demand, the likelihood of providing tangible results, the added value, and the value for money.

Until now, IDA has concentrated on supplying networks which satisfy administrative requirements, effectively ignoring the ultimate customer, which is invariably the private sector or the citizen. IDA activities have therefore tended to have a low public visibility. Priority will need to be given in the future to projects which reduce the administrative burden on the private sector or are of direct benefit to citizens.

Future activities in the IDA programme will therefore focus on spreading the concepts of IDA, reducing the cost of European administrative telematics, and taking best advantage of the rapid development of new tools and technologies to provide new and better services to all administrative customers, including other administrations, the private sector and the individual citizen.

Based upon the assumption that the future legal basis for IDA will be Article 129d, the activities which are proposed to be carried out by the new programme will therefore fall naturally into two categories: guidelines and projects of common interest and interoperability measures. Projects which relate to sectoral requirements will be considered to be projects of common interest, requiring a co-decision procedure. Those activities which are of value to many sectors, such as the development of generic services and legal and security frameworks, have the ultimate goal of facilitating interoperability between telematic network systems and can be classified as being interoperability measures, involving a cooperation procedure. Thus it is our intention to submit two Council Decisions, each relating to a particular category of activities.

Finally, the issue of the future financing of projects under IDA is addressed. For certain projects, it may be appropriate to enter into public/private partnerships. It is also anticipated that the Member States will contribute to projects, based upon the principle of cui bono. In any case, there is a strong need to ensure that each project which is supported by IDA funds has clearly defined the point at which IDA funding will cease before IDA funding is initially provided.

2 The need for Interchange of Data between Administrations in the Internal Market

The IDA programme, Interchange of Data between Administrations, was conceived in response to a need for mechanisms to ensure a more efficient exchange of information between European administrations to support the functioning of the Internal Market.

The elimination of internal borders and the implementation of the four freedoms of movement has created a demand for European administrations to improve, expand, co-ordinate and, in certain instances, integrate much of their information exchange and administrative processes. Trans-European data communication systems between administrations were therefore the basis through which the resulting flows of information could be handled in a more cooperative and effective manner - and sometimes the only practical solution for transfer of large volumes within short timescales.

The Council decision adopting the three year IDA programme determined the precise actions which would be pursued by the Community to support the telematic interchange of data between administrations in Europe.

The IDA programme has carried out the significant first steps to encourage administrations to interchange information electronically. IDA has opened up new possibilities for administrations to improve, at a European level, their overall transparency, efficiency and capacity to adjust more easily and rapidly to future change.

the EMU

Each step taken towards European integration, every new action carried out to fulfil the objectives of the Community, requires of European administrations and the European Institutions further cooperation, better coordination, increased access to information. These demands are particularly relevant in the perspective of European Monetary Union. At the same time as obligations to process Euro-based information will multiply enormously, the demand for new information flows and supporting data networks to satisfy further requirements generated by the introduction and administration of the Euro will also arise.

electronic commerce

Reinforcing the ability of European administrations to respond swiftly to new challenges is particularly critical at a time when the private sector and European citizens are involved in assessing the impact which the advent of the Information Society, and in particular, the arrival of Electronic Commerce, is likely to have upon all sectors, individual companies, and everyday life. It would be short-sighted to examine these challenges from a purely administrative perspective, basing a response upon issues such as the need to cope with an ever-increasing workload and the growing demand for better public service within severe budgetary restrictions.

Trans-European telematic networks for administrations should instead be considered within a broader context, where the exchange of information takes place not only between administrations, but also between enterprises and citizens and administrations.

In effect, the benefits of the Information Society in the private sector are expected to reduce organisational complexity, improve management and productivity, develop new markets and services, and create better links between suppliers and customers. The use of more efficient mechanisms to exchange information between enterprises and administrations, particularly in domains such as customs, taxation and environmental protection, influences an organisation's capacity, responsiveness and costs, and therefore has a positive impact on the overall competitiveness of European industry as a whole.

New services to citizens

Similarly, every European citizen must communicate regularly with public administrations. The simplification and enhancement of this interface benefits both parties, making it easier for an administration to collect the information which it requires and for the citizen to provide it. However, the wealth of new ideas and tools arising from the Information Society will also enable administrations to offer new services to citizens, many based upon improving access to information.

Enlargement of the Union

The European Union is expecting to open its doors to new members in Central and Eastern Europe in the near future. There is a need to prepare their integration, both by stimulating the implementation of interoperable telematic services and solutions in these countries and improving information flows. The co-ordination of activities in areas ranging from trade and immigration control, to crime detection, fraud prevention, health care, and environmental protection, acts to improve the economic and social environments of other countries outside the Union as well inside.

Globalisation

Administrations are obliged to exchange information not only within the European Union but also globally. Many of the sectors currently addressed by IDA process data internationally and do not limit themselves to Community boundaries, and certain IDA developments are already being applied in G7 projects. The EU represents the largest consumer market in the world, with a requirement for massive and frequent exchanges of data with other countries between the public and private sectors. The globalisation of IDA is therefore an important trend which must be encouraged and supported.

Innovation cycle is short in telematics

It is important to recognise that, as is true for other information technology-related domains, telematics is a rapidly evolving technology, with an equally rapidly evolving product and services marketplace. The cycle of innovation is incredibly short. Witness, for example, the exponential growth in the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web during the previous few years and the explosive proliferation of private intranets for private and public organisations. Consider the huge investment that large software manufacturers are currently pouring into the creation of new tools and products, including network browsers and application development software such as Java, to take best advantage of these new technologies. Few of these recent developments could have been predicted only two years ago, and it is clear that the situation remains equally volatile today .

Liberalisation of the telecom market

At the same time, the opening of the telecommunication market is having an enormous impact on the availability and price of market offerings. Yesterday's expensive, specialised feature supplied by only one particular company has become a standard component in universal supply within a few months. New business opportunities are being created, value-added network and service providers are becoming commonplace where they did not exist in the recent past.

Standards for interoperability

The unstable technology and marketplace has forced both the public and private sectors to become increasingly concerned with ensuring the interoperability of their investments although this very instability limits the possibility of carrying out the time-consuming exercise of over-all consensus-building which characterises traditional standards development.

All in all, the need for European Administrations to implement telematic networks with the highest degree of interoperability, and to integrate them into their business routine, is stronger than ever. The Community must thus continue and broaden its efforts to be able to meet this rapidly evolving and increasing demand.

IDA achievements to date.

IDA today supports a variety of Trans-European networks

The administration of the Internal Market is now supported through the IDA programme by a number of important Trans-European networks, in fields as diverse as industrial affairs, competition policy, health care, social security, agriculture, fisheries, public procurement, customs and indirect taxation, consumer policy, and statistics. Telematic systems have been implemented in order to facilitate the Community decision-making process, improve communication between Member States and between Member States and the Community Institutions, and to serve all European Agencies.

IDA offers services on top of networks

Each IDA network represents a comprehensive data communication system, comprising not only the physical connections, but also the service and application layers, enabling the electronic interchange of information between organisations and individuals, and meeting requirements ranging from simple electronic mail to interactive database access and formatted messaging.

Guideline principle: Buy services from the market

Throughout the three year IDA programme, a strong emphasis has been placed on the provision of a common Trans-European telematic infrastructure, initially within the National Servers Pilot Project and later through the “TESTA” project (Trans-European Services for Telematics between Administrations). TESTA provides so-called “generic services”, by which is meant those services which meet generic user requirements, such as data collection, data dissemination, data exchange, and security needs. Generic user requirements reflect the common needs of the various sectors of activity within IDA.

TESTA key principles

The key principles behind the TESTA services are to provide interoperability with existing national, regional, and local services, to avoid dependencies upon specific suppliers or solutions, to offer economies of scale, and they must keep pace with the short cycle of innovation in the telematics field. The guideline for TESTA is therefore to procure quality telematic services from the market, thereby allowing the users to concentrate on the applications development. Users need no longer be concerned with maintenance and operations of specific infrastructures and basic products.

Service level agreements and certification

TESTA provides a framework for the procurement of such services, based upon an enforceable service level agreement which specifies high quality, uniform service levels for specific services at agreed prices throughout Europe. Such an approach has only became feasible during the latter stages of the current IDA programme, due to the recent changes in the telecommunications sector and the increased availability of normative or pre-normative services from the market. To continue to be of value, the TESTA project must remain in touch with marketplace developments and new technologies, incorporating new products and services as they become available and certifying the providers.

Guidelines and definition of content

The importance of ensuring the interoperability of electronic information exchanges has also been recognised within IDA, where both horizontal and sectoral projects have concentrated on developing guidelines, recommendations, and standards to support communication across networks. These activities range from the specification of the IDA architecture guidelines to the provision of recommendations for document exchange, as well as the harmonisation of information content and flows, and the definition of EDI messages and applications.

IDA brings administrations closer together

Finally, IDA can be credited with going far beyond the establishment of physical networks. The role of the programme in leading to the creation of Trans-European people networks should not be underestimated. Having large numbers of people able to easily communicate with each other and share information can only serve to increase European integration.

3 Objectives

Treaties art. 129 d

A second phase of the IDA programme is thus proposed to carry out actions which contribute to the following goals:

· the definition of a framework for the Community contribution to the establishment and development of Trans-European telematic networks for administrations, and

· the promotion of the interoperability of national networks as well as access to such networks,

such that the citizens of the Union, the economic operators, and the regional and local communities can derive maximum benefit from the creation of an area without internal frontiers.

Community activities during the proposed second phase of the IDA programme will be focused on achieving, within a period of five years, these results:

TENs for administrations in the Internal Market

· the establishment of operational, interoperable, Trans-European data communication systems between Member State administrations and between administrations and the European Institutions as appropriate, enabling the efficient and cost-effective interchange of information in support of the administrative requirements of the Internal Market;

Management of European decisions

· the use of telematic solutions fully integrated into the day-to-day management of European Union policies and activities and the Community decision-making process;

Responsiveness to technology change

· the availability of Trans-European administrative network services, characterised by a high degree of interoperability, within and across different administrative sectors and with the private sector, and providing cost-efficiency, flexibility and adaptability to technological change and market evolution;

Source of knowledge and expertise

· ready access by all European administrations to an international, up-to-date repository of knowledge and experience concerning telematic networks.

4 Strategy

Market orientation

Constant change in technology

Although it is always dangerous to attempt to predict the future, particularly in a domain as volatile as that of information technology, there is one incontestable certainty: that of constant change. The tools and technologies which we see today will rapidly have become obsolete or have altered beyond recognition within a few years. The requirement to control and manage the vast volumes of information which are available, in such a way that people have easy access to only the information which they need when they most need it, will become overwhelming. Above all, it must be accepted that more traditional long term planning of hardware and software investments and reliance on in-house expertise may be of less benefit in this climate, and also administrations must develop an open approach in trying out new technologies and improving their services.

From private networks to procured services

In the past, IDA has pursued a strategy of developing and implementing private network infrastructures and applications for many different sectors, satisfying the specific requirements of administrations in different domains and ensuring the confidentiality and security which was critical for information exchanges between administrations. In the future, IDA must embrace a different approach, relying upon the provision of services rather than products, avoiding commitments to specific technologies and products, addressing common sectoral requirements, and assisting organisations to make informed decisions.

Administrations become users of telematic services

Following the progress which has taken place in the market throughout the last few years, it is clear that it is no longer sensible to connect organisations by installing physical network infrastructures with their inherent administrative and maintenance costs. Instead, the preferred solution must be to allow the telecom operators to assume all the costs, effort and risks associated with the technological uncertainty and to procure telematic services from them.

Generic telematics services

Administrations need to be able to select the best value-for-money services from the market, to have access to the latest developments as soon as they are available, to rationalise the management and control of their operational networks, and to benefit from the economies of scale which, as large organisations with many users, they have the right to expect. These requirements are best satisfied by providing a framework for generic telematic services, thus allowing administrations to purchase clearly defined, up-to-date technology of good quality at competitive prices in a coordinated manner.

Service-orientation

Services for administrations

Within the EU, the expansion of the Internal Market and the globalisation of Electronic Commerce will increase both the number of administrations exchanging information and the amount of information exchanged. New priorities will lead to new requirements for information. Above all, IDA activities must encourage administrations to take control of their information rather than being controlled by it, helping administrations to adopt solutions to exchange information which provide maximum functionality and flexibility at a reasonable cost, both in terms of financial and personnel investment.

Replicability is key

The main objective of IDA during a new programme will therefore remain constant: to support the better functioning of the Internal Market by improving information flow in European administrations through the use of telematics. The impact of this objective will be to continue to make those administrations using IDA networks more effectively and efficiently. Nevertheless, this objective in itself does not take full advantage of the knowledge and experience which has been accumulated by IDA throughout the programme. By limiting the scope of IDA to providing assistance only to those national administrations directly involved in IDA projects, much valuable information is lost to other administrations who might also benefit from it.

Clearer mission definition

To some extent, IDA has always acted as a provider of services to administrations. However, in the future, this aspect must be more clearly identified as one of the primary objectives for the programme. IDA must become a centre of information and expertise concerning all aspects of the use of telematics in administrations. IDA must monitor research developments and the marketplace on behalf of others. It should be capable of providing support and guidance to administrations throughout the entire process of implementing telematic solutions, from the initial definition of requirements, the decisions concerning the appropriate technical solutions, the procurement of telematic services and products, the re-engineering of existing organisational practices, and the harmonisation of information content, through to the final ongoing management of operational systems.

Coordination by IDA makes administrations more effective

Moreover, a related role for IDA in the future, which also represents an important source of added value to administrative telematics, is that of coordinator. This does not imply that IDA will seek to control the telematic activities of European administrations, but rather that IDA should act as a primary collection point for information concerning plans, developments, and experiences in regard to international, national, and regional actions in this domain, and endeavour to identify commonalities and existing products and services which could be of interest. IDA must become a common voice for administrations, collecting general administrative requirements and feeding them to industry to influence the development of suitable market offerings. The overall goal is thus to provide cohesion and interoperability, to spread best practice, to avoid duplication of effort, and to build upon common needs.

Promotion of telematics as such

At the same time, IDA can only be valuable as a coordinator and as an information and service provider if it is used as such. This implies that another key objective of the IDA programme must be to create and maintain within administrations an awareness not only of the existence and role of IDA, but of the potential benefits of using telematics in their organisations and of the impact of new developments in this domain. In the past, promotion and awareness activities in IDA were generally concerned with advertising the achievements of particular IDA projects. The new programme must instead concentrate on raising the profile of telematics within administrations and of the information and services which telematics and IDA can provide, at European, national, regional, and local levels.

Developments under IDA

Lead by example

The overall nature of the IDA programme will undergo a substantial change from that of system implementor to facilitator. However, this does not imply that IDA should have no involvement whatsoever in implementing telematic solutions. Insofar as the European Institutions are concerned, it is clear that the programme is ideally placed to drive the uptake of innovative, efficient telematic solutions, with the ultimate goal of having the Institutions lead by example, representing a source of inspiration to other administrations through their ability to demonstrate the opportunities and advantages associated with telematics.

Networks evolve continuously

IDA must also ensure, in accordance with its primary objective to support the Internal Market, that certain crucial networks are established, once a sound justification for their existence has been provided. Telematic networks are continually evolving systems not only with respect to the technology upon which they are based, but also in terms of the purposes for which they are used. Networks are generally implemented with specific goals in mind, usually involving the connection of certain existing users to exchange particular types of well established information. In many instances, the concept of the original network may undergo radical modification or expansion after its initial installation, and entirely new uses and directions may be conceived.

Modular approach

This implies a further need to ensure that for the future IDA networks are capable of being easily modified and developed in terms of functionality and accessibility, as well as technology. This can best be achieved by adopting as much as possible a modular approach to network and application development, integrating products and services from the marketplace and other sectors whenever possible.

Similar solutions based on similar requirements are cost effective

Similarly, opportunities may arise to develop solutions or services centrally which overcome unique problems experienced by administrations and which could be exploited by many different sectoral telematic systems. It is important that IDA should have a mandate to act in such circumstances. The key constraints for such activities will be their applicability in various areas, the ease with which they can be integrated into existing systems and infrastructure, the lack of appropriate market offerings, and the low cost associated with a centralised, customised development for administrations.

Take up of R&D results

Within this perspective, IDA must become the means through which European administrations can reap the benefits of the important efforts made by the Community in R&D in the field of telematics. Particular attention must be paid to the Telematics Applications Programme and its ENS initiative, where successful projects can provide innovative solutions and new opportunities to stimulate and improve the use of telematics in administrations, and to initiatives such as INFO2000, which are complementary to IDA and will identify opportunities which IDA can exploit inthe future.

Operation is done by the sectors

Nevertheless, IDA should concentrate on achieving interoperability and on activities reinforcing the use of market services, being no longer concerned with the normal operation of networks. Once operational, a telematic network must, just as any other tool, become the sole concern of the administrative sector whose processes it supports.

Coordinated management

Commitment from the users

This market-driven, service-oriented strategy will naturally facilitate the application of the subsidiarity principle to any action or decision taken within the IDA programme. However, if the guiding principles are to provide cohesion and interoperability, spread of best practice, and to avoid duplication of effort, the involvement and commitment of all participants in the programme is paramount.

Management committee

It is within this perspective that a management committee is proposed to assist the Commission throughout the implementation of the second phase of IDA. This must above all be an operational body, capable of effectively ensuring the essential coordination and exchange of views at two different levels:

1. Between Member States, and between the Member States and the Commission, and

2. Amongst the different policy areas and administrations concerned, balancing these requirements with the horizontal aspects of the programme.

Negative experience

Past experience in IDA has demonstrated that the involvement of such a committee in the detailed, day-to-day management routine, particularly in the procurement process, adds little value and indeed can become counterproductive by distracting attention from more critical matters.

Coordinating role of the Committee

The new IDA strategy will gradually terminate situations where the provision of telematic services to the Member State administrations is dependent on Community procurement. This will allow the new IDA committee to instead concentrate on strategy and coordination.

The committee must also have an effective and sufficiently flexible modus operandi. Situations where a disagreement with Commission proposals might lead to the virtual paralysis of key networks for months, while the matter is referred to the Council, must be avoided.

Relationship to sectoral committees

The new IDA committee will also have a distinctly defined area of competence with respect to the different existing committees which assist the Commission in the sectoral policy areas served by IDA networks. In any case, these sectors must have total autonomy to define their user requirements. However, activities relating to the implementation of telematic networks must incorporate the added-value results of IDA whenever they are totally or partially financed with Community funds. It is at this point that the IDA committee can play a key role, not only by monitoring the technological approach in the implementation of these networks, but also by opening an additional channel of communication between the sectors at a national level. The committee should thus concentrate on the overall programme strategy, supervising horizontal projects, and monitoring sectoral projects.

The committee type thus proposed is a management committee (variant 2a), which provides the appropriate balance between coordination and operational needs.

Information content interoperability

Stability of the information content

Telematic networks provide the means to an end, the end being the improved communication of large volumes of information. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by telematic networks, the content of the information which is exchanged between many different organisations must be harmonised and structured so as to permit maximum reuse and automation of information processing. Greater effort should be concentrated at this level, since the composition and flow of information is inherently much more stable than the underlying communication technology. The current lack of coherence in information content represents one of the largest stumbling blocks on the path to improved electronic communication and genuine interoperability of the data exchanged between organisations.

5 Legal Considerations

The context

Title XII art. 129 versus art. 235

The legal context has substantially changed since the original IDA proposals were submitted in 1993. The Council adopted the programme, for the years 1995 to 1997, on the basis of art. 235 of the EC Treaty. The European Parliament, with the support of the Commission, has challenged this choice of legal basis before the Court of Justice.

EDICOM judgement


In March 1995, the European Court of Justice issued its judgement on the EDICOM case, the first one concerning Trans-European telematic networks. The judgement sets an essential precedent for the understanding and future implementation of the legal framework governing Trans-European networks under the Treaty. Given that both cases largely coincide, the EDICOM judgement can be considered to apply to the IDA case, pending the resolution of the Court regarding the latter.

TEN-Telecom nearly adopted

Also relevant is the adoption of the so-called TEN financial regulation, which lays down the rules for the Community financial contribution to projects in the domain of Trans-European Networks. After considerable discussion, a Council and European Parliament decision on a series of guidelines for Trans-European telecommunication networks (hereinafter referred to as TEN-Telecom), is at present in the final phase of the adoption process.

IDA mid-term evaluation

The existing IDA decision invites the Commission to submit in 1996 to the Council and the European Parliament any appropriate proposals, subsequent to a mid-term evaluation of the programme. The following paragraphs provide an analysis of the legal issues to be taken into consideration when formulating such proposals.

The Legal Basis for IDA

Objective factors for legal basis

As a general principle derived from the jurisprudence of the Court, the choice of the legal basis has to be based on objective factors, amongst which are notably the aim and the content of the measure.

Inasmuch as:

- IDA represents a Community contribution to the establishment and development of Trans-European telematic networks for administrations, and

- aims to ensure the interoperability of and access to such networks,

then Title XII of the EC Treaty, and in particular Art. 129d, is considered to be the appropriate legal basis for the new IDA programme.

In considering the legal basis provided by the Treaties, several specific features of telematic networks between administrations must be examined.

The position of the Community

The nature of the telecommunications sector is entirely different from other TEN sectors. Occupation of a physical space (under the sovereignity of a Member State) that is so inherent, for instance, to a railway network, looses significance in the field of telematic networks while concepts such as provision of generic services, use of and access to the network become paramount.

The basic impediment in the field of telecommunications is not the "missing links" in the physical backbone of a network, but instead is primarily associated with the problem of achieving interoperability between generic services and the development of appropriate applications (cf. the Bangemann Report).

Furthermore, when Trans-European telematic networks concern administrations in particular, the Community acquires a double position. While continuing to be subject to the mandate of Title XII to contribute to the establishment and development of the networks, the Community can also be (will normally be), regarded as a potential user, in a position which is comparable to that of any other participant with respect to certain networks. The circle is closed when it is taken into account that the interest of the Community as a participant in a telematic network will be related to its activities and policies under the Treaties.

IDA will adopt specific measures

This distinctive feature of Trans-European telematic networks for administrations suggests the adoption of specific measures, distinguished from the general TEN-Telecom guidelines, for those networks that either serve or are very closely related to the aforesaid activities and policies. This action should be the IDA programme and the networks concerned will hereinafter be referred to as IDA networks.

The financial aspects

A second consequence of this double position of the Community with regard to trans-European networks for administrations is the need to accompany the different objectives and components of a Community action in this field with an equally well considered set of criteria determining the financial contribution.


In effect, due to their distinctive features - discussed in the preceding section - IDA networks do not fit into the concept of Member States projects of common interest, which proves inappropriate and cannot constitute the sole basis for a Community financial contribution. This is obvious when the Community is a user of a network, but it is also the case if Community merely acts as a coordinator or host to a network which directly supports a Community activity or policy: there is however a concrete benefit to the Community, regardless of whether it is involved as a user of the IDA network or not. It is therefore arguable whether an IDA network can ever be considered as being solely the concern of the Member States.

Cost categories

Equally important is the distinction between the investment and operational costs of networks. Since its inception the IDA programme has been responsible for financing all aspects of telematic networks for administrations. The increasing financial demands have created a need to define an appropriate financial strategy to the programme.

The Community contribution should be clearly targeted towards the objective of achieving interoperability between systems and networks, and should represent a tool to facilitate coordinated actions of the Community and the Member States. A network can be established by rendering interoperable systems that already exist in the Member States, or may instead necessitate the implementation of an entirely new system. Once the operational phase has been reached, the cost of using the network should be incorporated into the operational budgets of the European administrations. However, there is no intrinsic frontier between investment and operational cost, neither in terms of progress (a specific stage of a project or a point in time) nor in terms of content. A concept such as evolutive maintenance illustrates well the difficulty of making an objective distinction between the two cost types. The interest and participation of the community in each phase may greatly vary from case to case.

Cui bono principle for cost sharing

Consequently, the second phase of IDA must provide a number of specific financial provisions, separate from the general TEN financial regulation framework, such that an appropriate use of Community resources can be made, and costs can be shared between the Community and the Member States in accordance with the principle of Cui bono.

In order to maintain a maximum of flexibility, it would seem necessary to formulate such financial provisions based upon:

the definition of specific criteria for a Community contribution which would take full account of the aim of, and participants in, each action;

-the design of a clear but adaptable pattern of financial contribution between the Member States and the Communities, supporting the principle of subsidiarity;

-the allocation of resources for the provision of goods and services to the Community;

-the use of direct subventions to Member State Administrations where appropriate;

-the establishment of appropriate procedures for the control and participation of the users, notably Member State administrations, with the necessary degree of efficiency and flexibility.

The Guidelines

In accordance with the provisions of article 129c, it is the responsibility of the Community to define the overall framework for IDA networks by means of a series of guidelines. Taking into account the relevant social, legal, political and technological elements, these guidelines determine the basic strategy for the Community and the Member States to take full advantage of IDA networks.

Objectives

The objectives refer to the main political issues at stake: the enhancement of Community activities and policies, the efficient administration of the Internal Market, the strengthening of administrative cooperation in Europe, the transition towards the Information Society, the creation of a favourable environment for the competitiveness of European Industry, the realisation of more effective and cost-efficient public services, and the enforcement of economic and social cohesion in Europe.

Priorities

The priorities reflect a set of secondary objectives, defining the policy of IDA to achieve its objectives, and enabling a more focused Community action. The priorities summarise the basic strategic options in order to guide the formulation of a work programme and the allocation of financial contributions.

Priorities for Community actions

Seen from this perspective, the priorities are very closely connected with the interoperability measures adopted. They are highly concerned with the procurement of generic services from the market, migration to the use of these services, interfaces with industry/citizens, the selection and application of standards/PAS, the replicability of solutions, etc. These priorities attempt to define the field for Community action and the field for Member State action, respectively.

Flexibility for rational requirements

Finally, these priorities will permit a large degree of flexibility to accommodate national specificity's, as well as to adapt each response within an environment which is in constant change.

Broad lines of measures

This concerns actions which define a framework for activities in areas such as generic services, application development and supportive measures (excluding the implementation of specific network systems), taking into account the interoperability measures which have been adopted.

Projects of common interest

Conflicting interests between decision level and responsiveness

Projects of common interest must, in accordance with art. 129c, be identified in the guidelines.

The need to exchange information in a particular area may emerge and evolve very rapidly. The growing use of telematics in general is likely to result in a constant requirement to create and adapt telematic networks for the foreseeable future. Decision-making must thus be carried out in such a way that the level at which decisions are taken is consistent with the level of the measures concerned, and the degree of responsiveness required.

Interoperability Measures

A number of considerations prescribe the adoption of a body of measures to ensure the interoperability between and access to networks independently from the guidelines.

Past legislation is relevant

In effect,

· Due account must be taken of the basis and guidelines provided by extensive legislation which pre-dates the Treaty on European Union, and which determines the requirement for a number of telematic networks.

Interoperability beyond the Community institutions

· Interoperability measures form a complete body of measures aiming to facilitate interoperability between telematic networks for administrations. However such measures have a much wider applicability than the implementation of certain systems by the Community. For instance, these measures provide a useful basis to promote interoperability between existing systems within Member States, and to facilitate the access of industry or citizens to information provided by an existing network.


Interoperability needs special care

· Following the EDICOM judgement, it therefore seems more appropriate to adopt these measures independently from the overall guidelines and lists of projects of common interest.

Horizontal nature of interoperability

These measures are of a horizontal nature. They encompass, in particular, measures to promote the procurement of generic services from the market on a competitive basis and the harmonisation of data exchange procedures and formats. They also include supportive measures such as the dissemination of results, in order to encourage replication of successful solutions and spread of best practice, the investigation of legal issues and of protection of personal data, etc.

Participation of third countries

EEA and CEEC

The participation of third countries must necessarily be foreseen, in particular with regard to the EEA and associated countries, and to the enlargement of the Union. For this purpose an adequate financial framework with specific criteria for Community contribution shall be established.

Case by case

Given that the grounds for inclusion will vary considerably amongst the different groups of countries and in accordance with the needs of different networks, a case by case approach would seem most appropriate for specific projects. However, interoperability measures could be made available to all without restriction.

General clause needed

Thus the proposed decisions contain only a general clause referring the participation of these countries in projects of common interest to specific decisions to be adopted within the framework of the respective association agreements (not clear). Conversely, a general extension clause is included with regard to participation in interoperability measures.

6 Guidelines and projects of common interest

Identification of projects of common interest

Expansion is the theme of IDA II

The main theme behind projects of common interest during the second phase of the IDA programme will be expansion: expansion of the strategies, methods, and developments resulting from the initial IDA programme to new sectors, the expansion of existing network facilities to the interfaces with the private sector and the citizen, the expansion of network access to new organisations and countries; and the expansion of the use of telematic tools to handle the administrative working of the European Union Institutions with the Member States. The objectives for expanding the scope of the current programme to encompass a wider user community are clearly aligned with the horizontal focus of IDA in terms of building upon synergies and commonality, avoidance of duplication, encouragement of reusability, and spread of best practice.

In terms of sectoral projects, the programme should institute mechanisms which allow greater freedom to sectoral projects in carrying out their daily management activities, whilst at the same time enforce periodical audits to ensure conformity with agreed technical guidelines and standards, and the use of common infrastrutures and services. It is recommended that a global steering committee be established for each sector, not only for the individual sectoral projects.

A mechanism must also exist which allows new projects to be incorporated in the programme as it is running. Criteria which could be used to select and prioritise projects may include the following:

• The project has delivered promising results under an R&D programme and is easily extended to operational status;
• The project supports a legally mandated communication within the Internal Market;
• The project makes use of generic infrastructures/services;
• The project is supported by a thorough feasibility study;
• The project provides a clear plan indicating when it will reach a status where IDA funding is no longer required;
• The project provides an obvious direct benefit to citizens and/or private enterprises.
  

The decision to adopt any new project must always represent a careful balance between the need to foster new ideas and the importance of ensruing that what we already have works properly. Irregardless, any IDA project must provide tangible results and IDA should avoid at all costs supporting projects “from birth to grave”.

Specific objectives are described in each area, a general methodology which will be applied in achieving these objectives is suggested, certain actions are outlined, and an estimated financial contribution is provided. Where appropriate, priorities are assigned to particular activities.

Enhancement of Sectoral Networks

Telematic networks themselves, just as their underlying technology, tend to be evolving systems. As people using a network become more aware of the potential uses to which telematics can be applied, and the opportunities to utilise telematics to do new things arise, there is a strong drive to add more functionality and to perform existing tasks in a different way.

The enhancement of existing networks is therefore an activity of great importance, not least because it capitalises on existing investments where the cost of including new ideas may be relatively small in comparison to their impact, but also because the actual people network is already in place and thus in a better position to exploit the results. As such, a project for network improvement may represent the least risky and most beneficial investment of all.

The overall objective of the activities in this area is thus to profit from existing sectoral investments. It is impossible to be exhaustive in listing the possible actions which may arise in this domain, however the following ideas are provided as examples:

• Implementation of a telematic system for the communication and exchange of Customs Laboratory information (texts, images, spectra, results of chemical analyses);
• Enhancement of the SIMAP project to provide a comprehensive telematic service which covers those activities following the launch of the call for tender through to the stage where the actual delivery and payment of the contracted good or service is completed;
  

New Sectoral Requirements

The wide variety of distinct types of IDA network systems and the vastly differing uses to which they are put has established a number of important principles and directions for the use of telematics between administrations. It is critical to take advantage of this foundation for the benefit of those sectors which do not yet benefit from telematics.

Once again, it is not possible to be definitive about the actions which should be considered, but several opportunities have already been identified:

• Implement an electronic vigilance system for medical devices (reuse of the principles established during the pharmacovigilance part of the EMEA project);
• Implement a telematic network system to provide access to an EU Legislation database (initially for the public sector and EU Institutions, potential extension to the public);

Expansion to Industry and Citizens

Fuzzy boundaries

It has become increasingly difficult for IDA projects to clearly delimit the boundaries of their telematic systems in such a manner as to isolate the purely administrative components from the external environment of private companies and citizens. Indeed, for many IDA projects, it is imperative to consider the extension of administrative systems to encompass the private domain, since the private sector or the citizen remains the primary source and ultimate customer of much of the information processed by these systems. This particular area should therefore be considered to be a major focus for the new programme.

Partnerships with the private sector

The total cost burden to the private sector of providing the information required by administrations is recognised to be very high. Various approaches to reducing the overall burden are being taken in different countries, in some cases administrations are linking their own information systems more closely to the private sector, shifting the costs therefore from the private to the public sector, other countries are shifting the administrative costs to the private sector in the expectation that the private sector will act more efficiently to reduce them. The natural approach for IDA to adopt is one of partnership with the private sector, through projects involving shared financing, encouraging the exchange of best practice from the private sector, and instituting a more business-oriented approach to carrying out projects, including closer monitoring of costs and benefits.

Furthermore, the generic services provided by TESTA will rely upon private sector influences to develop new products and ideas, and may in turn themselves influence the services and products which are which are offered to the private sector by service providers. It is therefore natural for the public and private sectors to work in partnership, and this is clearly an approach which the IDA programme must encompass.

As far as the interface to the citizen is concerned, activities in this area would have a high visibility and potentially enormous impact. IDA could provide strong support to the Citizens First initiative, at the same time raising knowledge and awareness concerning the programme.

As previously, it is not possible to be definitive about precise activities to be carried out in this area, but several potential actions have been suggested:

For industry

Replication of existing concept

• Introduce the concepts of teledeclaration and telepayment for the private sector;
• Develop an extraction module for the administrative systems of the private sector, avoiding a centralised database approach, but allowing the private sector to use a generic application (would require all EU administrations to cooperate together);
• Replicate the concept already introduced by Eurostat networks for the collection of statistics, which embeds statistical reporting information into existing business information flows. A similar approach relating to the administration-to-business interface in Electronic Commerce could be to integrate financial and accounting information flows between businesses, to ease the delivery of needed information for the businesses to the administrations. This would reduce the overall burden of reporting administrative data for businesses whilst at the same time facilitating the electronic processing of information by administrations.

Establishing new concept

• Establish Euro-related requirements jointly with the private sector, including implementing networks between national central banking institutions.
• Provide a “unique wicket”, a centralised location where the public sector could deposit reporting information for distribution to the administrations which require it (this implies a need to harmonise the definition of the data which will be captured);
  

For citizens:

IDA should carry out projects that would derive direct benefits for the citizens such as

• Develop the use of a smart card containg health insurance information to encourage the easier transfer of benefits throughout the Union;
• Open EURES to direct access by citizens;
• Investigate the initiatives which are being carried out at national level, focusing on sharing experiences and increasing knowledge, looking for common solutions.

IDA should also be greatly concerned with the exploitation of technologies such as the Internet which facilitates the access of the citizens to the administrations.

Globalisation

Extend IDA beyond the EU


A telematic network supports the exchange of information. In many instances, existing IDA sectoral networks are already used to compile and exchange information which is of interest to countries outside the EU, and for which the additional contribution of external information would only serve to enhance the benefits of the network. The examples are numerous; the exchange of customs and taxation information, the provision of environmental data, the notification of communicable disease outbreaks and adverse drug reactions, the collection of statistical data, the transfer of pension information, etc. Not only is new information generally of benefit to all, but for those countries in Central and Eastern Europe who are expecting to join the EU in the near future, Community policies and procedures are often enforced through telematic networks, and the early participation of CEECs in such networks will assist with their integration into the Union, and therefore should be considered to be a priority.

It is therefore important that the new programme have a mechanism in place for extending participation to new countries or organisations in areas where high perceived benefits have been identified.

General basis for guidelines

The main aim of the activities proposed to be carried out in this area is to ensure that new countries and organisations wanting to participate in certain IDA projects or to exchange information with the EU are able to do so by taking advantage of the current IDA network facilities and/or the existing rules and guidelines concerning the interchange of data in different sectors.

Horizontal and specific activities needed

This will involve two distinct sets of activities, the first set at a horizontal level which will investigate the overall obstacles to expansion, define the additional value for IDA in certain cases, and identify or develop common requirements, standards, and rules and guidelines for new participants wanting to exchange information internationally with IDA networks. In particular, there is a need to study the current situation in regard to the use of ICT in the CEECs. A second set of actions will focus on assisting the connection of individual countries/organisations to certain networks.

Examples

Potential activities which have already been identified at a more horizontal level include the following:

· Examine the need for new multilingual interfaces and the definition of metadata;

· Improve the information exchange concerning old age pensions, particularly to Australia and Latin America, by extending the TESS architecture and EDI message standards;

· Support the international electronic exchange of pharmaceutical information by harmonisation of information content with the USA and Japan.

There are many candidates wishing to participate IDA networks and whose inclusion would be of great benefit, in particular:

· Open involvement in the EURES European Employment system to CEECs;

· Expand the use of the CARE health monitoring and statistical analysis system to incorporate the pilot EUPHIN East network developed by DG XIII, and to the WHO in Geneva;

· Provide CEECs with access to pharmaceutical marketing authorisation and safety systems (EudraNET and EudraWATCH services).


Modest budget requirements for globalisation

It should be emphasised that the extension of an existing network system to include new participants is generally an activity for which the costs are relatively low in comparison to the additional benefit. In many instances, it is sufficient for a new organisation to adopt the agreed guidelines and practices which are already in place. As such, the budget estimates for this activity are relatively modest, in the order of 500,000 ECU per annum.

Initiatives at Local and Regional Levels

IDA as a broker for these initiatives

Throughout the Union, a trend to increasing autonomy at local levels can be observed. This trend unfortunately leads to difficulties in connecting regional and local networks to national systems, as the same autonomy tends to increase the divergence between local implementations. In fact, IDA may itself be contributing to this phenomenon by bringing into question the need for the traditional, centralised approach of national administrations to international communication. The introduction of telematics and other technologies makes it much easier to devolve responsibility to local offices.

Many of the existing IDA sectors have responsibilities for providing information which is collected at local level. More and more, locals cross-border regions are encountering a demand to share information. Many of the R&D projects which are suitable candidates for exploitation by IDA in the future involve local administrations as participants, and it would be impossible to exclude them if IDA were to adopt such a project.

It is not expected that IDA would launch specific projects in this area, but rather that the scope of the programme would remain open to the inclusion of certain local or regional administrations if there was as strong European dimension involved. The role of IDA in such situations would essentially be to act as a broker between the different parties involved.

Inter-institutional Projects

Opportunities and challenges of Information Society

The 'Information Society' offers on one hand new opportunities for all individuals in private enterprises, administrations, educational institutions, and in the home. On the other hand, it also represents a challenge to all, and public administrations in particular, to take best advantage of new technologies as they become available in order to make more efficient and effective use of information. Public administrations are under constant pressure to provide better service to citizens and the private sector at minimal cost. The only option available to them is to adopt new means of processing and handling information, supported by new IT developments.

Specific needs stated by Council of Ministers

The European Council of Ministers for Industry on 8 October 1996 has stressed, with particular emphasis, the need for the European Union to accelerate its efforts to master this challenge. The following requirements were explicitly mentioned:

¨ the need for the Institutions of the Union to improve information and communication systems to facilitate better management of their business;

· the promotion of seamless communication between public authorities across the Union;

· the realisation of measures to ensure integrity and authenticity of electronically transmitted documents.

Commissioner Liikaanen has previously defined a similar direction for the development of the Commission's own working methods.

Working procedures create enormous demand for documents

Currently, administrative working procedures in European Union administrations create enormous demands for document production, handling, distribution, and archiving, most of which is paper-based. The distribution of documents is usually performed via normal courier, telex or fax. More than 1200 committees are associated with Commission work, as well as the EU Institutions and Member State Administrations.

EU Administrations are now beginning to integrate the use of emerging electronic messaging facilities to improve their efficiency and reduce administrative costs. Commonly-agreed specifications for the exchange of electronic documents are starting to appear.

Telematics supports document exchange and workflow management

The primary objective within this area is to ensure that the necessary telematic tools and techniques, particularly those providing facilities such as workflow management and document exchange, are made available to support the administrative flows of information within the Commission, between the Institutions, and between the Member State administrations. The ultimate goal is for the European Institutions to represent a leading example of the potential advantages of communicating and processing information electronically.

General IDA approach

Standardisation of interfaces

The general approach which should be taken is to procure suitable third-party software solutions or services from the marketplace, selecting products which address the typical problems and requirements of workflow management in all organisations, and then customising these applications to suit the detailed requirements of the specific administrations involved. Since reaching general agreement on a universal software-product to be used between the Institutions will be difficult, it is proposed instead to standardise the interfaces, creating an simple gateway for information following into and out of an Institution.

IDA will contribute by solving organisational and security issues, introducing document formats and document dissemination strategies (e-mail, WWW), and implementing directories, workflow management systems, etc.

The specific activities which are needed are:

· Address the interface between the Member State governments and the Institutions, such as providing connections to the offices of the Prime Ministers/Presidents, and linking key organisations/offices in the Member State which holds the EU Presidency to the Institutions;

· The identification of the general and specific workflow management and document exchange requirements within the Commission and between the Institutions;

· The definition of the Institutional interface requirements and exchange standards;

· The assessment, procurement, and customisation of application software to support the working procedures of the Commission, the Institutions and the Member States;

· The implementation of operational electronic processes which effectively support the internal working procedures of each Service and the Commission as a whole (generally to be realised by the Informatics Directorate in close co-operation with IDA);

· The implementation of operational electronic document exchange systems for the various Inter-Institutional information exchanges within the European Union, and between the European Union and Member State governments and administrations; generally at national level, but also at regional or local level where appropriate;

Budgetary needs for Inter-Institutional activities

· In addition to the above-mentioned items relating to Inter-Institutional co-operation, a further acceleration of efforts to address the problems associated with the plethora of different text-processing-software and to enhance the performance of the telecommunication systems used between the Institutions is required;

· In addition to the above-mentioned items relating to Member State authorities, a system to assist with translation work must be implemented, which addresses the problem of supporting the transmission of information containing different character sets.

The budgetary needs for these activities are likely to be relatively large, the investigation of administrative information flows and processes will require significant effort, many software-licences will be required (not necessarily to be purchased from the IDA budget) and the work of customising third-party products to meet specific Institutional procedural requirements will be rather complex. Thus, a minimal estimate of 10 Mio ECU for 5 years is indicated.

7 Interoperability measures

Generic services

In the rapidly evolving world of telematics, industry offers an ever-increasing portfolio of solutions, packaged to users as readily available services. In this context, the user is now able to concentrate his attention on non-technological issues, relying on the market place to worry about the technology.

Definition of generic services

For the moment, the technological push in this area has adopted a bottom-up approach. Although low-speed networks have been available for the past 20 years, the current offerings from the marketplace integrate many innovative concepts, providing them as commodities to customers. Such services are considered to be “generic services”.

While the palette of generic services is broadening rapidly, application-specific matters are reducing proportionally, resulting in a situation where the implementation of a telematic network system has become essentially a question of deciding upon which generic service best meets requirements, and adapting the local environment accordingly.

Procurement of generic services

Generic services in the marketplace must be constantly identified, specified, verified, and monitored. These activities will provide administrations with simple, generic service descriptions, classified by quality and selection criteria such as reliability, availability, performance, continuity, usability, and interoperability, in order to allow all users involved in the procurement of telematic services to obtain an acceptable and comparable quality of service throughout the Union. It should then be a straightforward process to select the best offer for the lowest price. This is the advantage of being able to purchase services from an existing market place in a coordinated manner.

Continuous cost savings for customers

The main objective of the IDA activities which are associated with generic services is to provide continuous cost savings for European administrative telematic systems by rationalising and globalising common solutions to common requirements. It is important to emphasise that the evolution of generic services must satisfy the requirements of their customers, those being the systems owners of IDA applications in the Member States, European Institutions, and European Agencies. It is the customers who should select the services which they require, based upon their willingness to pay for them.

Thus one of the key factors for the success of generic services will be the ability of these services to achieve widespread customer acceptance. In order to do so, an important aspect which must not be overlooked is the availability of professional management of these services, since many sectors are small and cannot afford to devote large resources to ensure that their services are administered properly.

A number of important principles will be applied to the development of generic services. These include the avoidance of developing and maintaining unique solutions, of reinventing what is already available, of becoming embroiled in contractual or security disputes, and of assuming excessive responsibilities.

There are a number of important benefits to be realised:

· for telecommunications needs:

-securing an acceptable minimum level of service quality in all Member States;

-supplying the missing links between market offers and user requirements;

-providing sectors with adequate communication services so that they can concentrate on application-level requirements;

· for applications development:

-rationalising the design of technical solutions,

-minimising risks by using proven solutions,

-reducing the delay between the definition of user requirements and the start of operations.

· for data exchanges:

- achieving a high degree of harmonisation and consistency in data format and data content.

Positive impact on marketplace

At a more general level, this strategy is expected to have a positive impact on the market place for telematic products and services, acting as an incentive for the harmonisation of services, encouraging interoperability between the various service providers, improving the overall quality of the services which are offered, and ensuring that pricing is competitive, thus providing “value for money”. Administrations are major users with great purchasing power, thus their ability to influence the ICT marketplace should not be underestimated.

Combining telematic applications with generic services offers both added-value through the use of state-of-the-art ways of communicating, increased choice for customers, and cost-savings through the consolidation of requirements and associated economies of scale.

Two types of action are envisaged in this area; the identification and selection of generic services from the marketplace, and the provision of support to system administrators and end-users. Both actions will build upon the basic TESTA foundation which was established during the current phase of IDA.

Generic services actions

The provision of generic services in the IDA context involves “technology watch” activities, which include:

· At telecommunication level: Implementing a methodology for telecommunication services certification in a multi-vendor environment.

· At application level: Identification of generic requirements and related solutions to be packaged as generic applications.

· At data level: Identification of generic requirements and their related solutions to be packaged as harmonised solutions to open EDI, including document exchange

The support activities relating to generic services will involve:

· Support for system administrators and end-users:

- The provision of coordination, advice and technical support to assist MSAs and the EC in identifying where generic services are most appropriately used, and to integrate them into existing systems.

- The replication of best practice amongst IDA projects, supplying at all stages, including the feasibility study, specification, development, implementation, and operational phases.

- Experimentation (piloting) of solutions in an administrative environment before operational usage.

· The actions initiated in 1997 to help existing sectoral networks to migrate to the use of generic services (ASSIST type of action) will be continued and enlarged on a broader scale.

The need for action in this particular area is urgent. It is a domain where experience and knowledge must be quickly acquired, so they can be used to refine the strategy for providing generic services. Above all, there must be a strong collaboration established with customers to ensure that the process does not become supplier-driven. If customers are prepared to pay for new services, the services must be provided.

Spread of best practice

The drive towards the increasing use of electronic communication is inescapable, and all organisations, including administrations, will eventually assimilate telematic information exchanges into their daily routine. However, it is often difficult for administrations, given their constraints, to invest in and realise the full potential of new technology, even if they are aware of the benefits and interested in adopting new practices . The Commission, and in particular the IDA Programme, has an important role to play in this area by encouraging the development and dissemination of ideas, techniques and solutions which could ease the adoption process and demonstrate concretely in an administrative environment the possible applications and benefits of communicating electronically over telematic networks.

The primary objectives of the actions which are planned in this area are:

· To assist organisations in implementing interoperable telematic solutions, and to reduce the individual effort required to do so, by disseminating and promoting the use of common methodologies and interfaces, harmonised procedures, interoperability guidelines, and a legal framework;

· To reduce the overall cost of administrative telematics by encouraging more organisations to use the generic services developed and offered within IDA through well-targeted marketing activities;

· To reduce duplication of effort, avoid certain risks and problems, and increase the spread of best practice by disseminating the experiences and results of individual IDA projects;

· To achieve a more coherent programme through active coordination with the dissemination activities carried out in individual sectoral IDA projects;

· To take better advantage of R & D results and of national experiences by improving coordination and synergy with related initiatives implemented in Member State Administrations and in third countries, and to link more closely with other Commission activities carried out in the framework of the Information Society;

The main benefit of these activities should be the saving of resources, both human and monetary. These benefits are achieved by people being able to start from a more advanced position because they are aware of similar activities, avoiding unnecessary duplication, and learning from past mistakes.

The coordination and collection of information can be a heavy consumer of resources, although this may be less true in a trans-European context than in a national or administrative domain. IDA must define a methodology which maximises the quality of useful information which is available whilst requiring a low overhead and providing constant monitoring and updating.

Audience for best practice actions


The target audience for these actions encompasses a wide spectrum of people and organisations:

· Organisations are primarily public administrations (Commission services, Institutions, Member State Administrations) but also industry, user groups, trade associations, social partners, influential partners in the open systems movement, the press, and importantly, citizens.

· Promotion shall be undertaken at all levels inside an organisation, from end users to those responsible for ICT, and decision-makers.

· Geographically, the programme will mainly be promoted within the European Union but EEA, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) and third countries shall also be targeted.

Best practice actions

The actions to be carried out fall into several distinct categories:

Information collection:

· Gather regular information on the progress and achievements of the many IDA telematic projects and applications;

· Collect information on Member State Administrations' telematic projects and experience;

· Collate useful results from the Commission R&D programmes and Information Society initiatives.

Information Packaging:

· Package IDA generic services, in particular TESTA, Architecture guidelines, and legal guidelines;

· Produce convincing business cases to encourage the replication of generic solutions;

· Describe success stories for dissemination at decision-making level.


Information Repository

· Create an IDA information repository, based upon current (Web and e-mail) technology which will allow immediate access to all relevant information available from IDA

· Set up interest groups and discussion fora

Information Dissemination Media

· IDA Newsletter and literature

· Web site

· CD-ROM

Information Help Desk

Set up and maintain an IDA technical Help Desk to provide information, advice and guidelines to administrations

Training/seminars

· Organise technical and management seminars to educate Member State Administrations;

· Organise multi-sectoral workshops to encourage cross-fertilisation of results and experiences.

Feedback

Implement feedback mechanisms (e-mail, discussion lists on the Internet, surveys, workshops) to gather input from administrations, industry and citizens.

The co-ordination and collection of information can be a heavy consumer of resources, although this may be less true in a trans-European context than in a national or administrative domain. IDA must define a methodology which maximises the quality of useful information which is available whilst requiring a low overhead and providing constant monitoring and updating. This could likely be achieved by taking advantage of technologies such as the WWW and hyperlinks, with the added value being derived from the editorial judgement. In any case, it is inevitable that the greater the volume of information which is provided, the greater the effort which will be required in managing it.

Application Development Policy

Need for application development policy

Although many of the basic requirements for information exchange can be addressed through the use of generic services, it is inevitable that once organisations begin to share information, there will be a need to manipulate and process the information and to incorporate it into in-house systems. This need is generally satisfied through application software, and most of the existing IDA networks have custom-built applications running on their networks.

Off-the-sehelf versus generic applications

In the same way that software is readily available 'off-the-shelf' from software providers to carry out basic administrative functions such as accounting and managing human resources, it is likely that certain administrative functions which have been translated into IDA network applications may also be capable of being performed by a more 'generic application', or at least by a specialised application which has been constructed using a base of generic modules.

Definition of a development policy

The overall intention behind the IDA application development policy is to adopt a similar approach to that of generic services in order to achieve further economies of scale. The distinction between generic services and generic applications is primarily in the degree of customisation to administrative requirements. Service providers will offer generic services to administrations which are also available to the private sector, whereas IDA generic applications will need to satisfy particular administrative requirements. Generic applications may also be required to act as an interface between the generic services of TESTA and the more specialised sectoral application components.

As with generic services, the fundamental principle which must guide activites in this area is that of purchasing from the marketplace rather than developing. IDA should stimulate the market by developing specifications and demonstrators which highlight what services are needed and define the scope and boundaries of which is required, then it is the responsibility of industry to provide actual solutions.

Benefits of application development policy

The benefits of this approach include rationalising the design of technical solutions, minimising certain risks by using well-established, proven solutions, reducing the delay between the definition of user requirements and the implementation of an operational system, improving the quality of application software, and being able to upgrade a single generic application to take advantage of the latest technology developments rather than multiple applications.

The specific actions needed are:

• Concentrate on the provision of interfaces (APIs) to generic services, as well as common classifications and conversion tables;
• Monitor the emergence of the relevant new technology (object-orientation), development methodology, programming tools and languages;
• Incorporate new developments where appropriate;
• Encourage the adoption of best practice in the development of applications through dissemination;
• Develop an approach for the identification and specification of generic application building blocks, adopting existing off-the-shelf products for the application components whenever possible;
• Provide a catalogue of re-usable software modules and objects as generic application services;
• Coordinate with a similar system provided by the Informatics Directorate (the SIC: “Systèmes d'Intérêt Commun”).

Budget needs

An additional budget requirement of 1 to 2 MECU over and above the sectoral application development budget (which must be based upon the requirements of the DGs, from which should be subtracted the cost of common APIs and the central development of building blocks for use in all applications) is estimated.

Infrastructure Interoperability with National Telematic Networks

National initiatives

Thus far, IDA has limited the scope of its activities to the development of sectoral networks and the provision of horizontal solutions such as generic telematic services to European public administrations at the national level. At the same time as IDA has focused on the interconnection of national administrations, many similar initiatives have been launched within the Member States, aimed at implementing national telematic networks for administrations. These initiatives, variously termed 'National Data Highway', 'Corporate Administration Network', etc., often create central backbones to link major administrative units, and offer a facility to integrate regional and local administrations.

Integrating national networks into IDA

The development of Trans-European telematic solutions for administrations has reached a sufficiently advanced state that it is now possible to build upon and benefit from national networks. The costs of the Trans-European network component can potentially be reduced by creating international networks consisting of connections between national networks, and at the same time the overall number of administrations that can have access to a particular network. can be greatly increased. Ignoring national activities increases the risk of developing IDA networks which may, at best, duplicate certain existing work, and at worst, may evolve in completely different, incompatible directions.

Specific activities

A number of activities are necessary to ensure that IDA is able to take advantage of national network initiatives:

• As a first step, IDA should establish a mechanism to collect and disseminate information about the various national initiatives in the area of telematic networks between administrations. This information would primarily concern the technical approaches which have been adopted, the status of implementation, and plans for further developments. The immediate benefit of having this information would be to encourage the development of IDA projects to take into account the existing related national network infrastructures.

• Secondly, IDA could act as a central forum for the exchange of views and experiences resulting from national initiatives by bringing together the relevant project managers, also thus becoming a catalyst to encourage new national initiatives.

• Finally, IDA could increase the cooperation, convergence and interconnection between national networks by providing common guidelines and recommendations for the evolution of these networks, specifying standard interfaces between international and national networks, and inter-linking national networks through generic Trans-European telematic services.
  

It should be acknowledged that the situation in terms of the status of interoperability throughout the Union will change continuously. There will be a need to create fora for national administration system project managers to exchange information and review interoperability requirements. The focus of activities in this area must therefore be on the networking of people.

Throughout the Union, a trend to increasing autonomy at local levels can be observed. This implies that in some cases the partners involved in the activities mentioned above will rather represent local or regional administrations than national ones.

Budget requirements

The initial budget requirement foreseen to establish the information collection mechanism is 0.4 MECU (duration: 0.5 years), followed by 0.7 MECU (duration: 1 year) to set-up the fora for communication, and finally 1.2 MECU (duration: 1.5 years) for the investigation and specification of common guidelines and recommendations, and incorporation of national administrative requirements into TESTA, representing a total of 2.3 MECU over 3 years.

Information Content Interoperability

Interoperability at all levels of the telematic pyramide

Interoperability is required at all levels of the telematic pyramid. The physical networks which represent the essential foundation of every network system must be interconnected, the services which use the network infrastructure must be consistent, the information which is exchanged through the services must be harmonised, and the applications which manipulate this information for the ultimate benefit of the end user must be compatible, both with each other and also with the paper- and human-based world in which they operate.

Many existing IDA projects have already shifted their focus from the initial phase of implementation of the telematic connections between organisations to concentrate on the more long-term effort of maximising the interoperability and reusability of the information which is exchanged through their networks.

Extent of the problem

Addressing this issue goes beyond the need to agree or harmonise the standards and specifications which will be used for document exchange, database access, structured messages, integrated messaging applications, and security mechanisms, for example. It will also include achieving compatible implementations of these standards, coherence with legal systems, and overall integration between an electronic environment and processes and the conventional means of operating.

Historical actions

In the past, much of the work in the area of information content interoperability has been carried out on a sectoral basis. IDA horizontal activities have recently also started to address the need to standardise document exchanges. IDA must now develop coherent strategies and carry out actions to address administrative requirements in this domain, to maximise the benefits of economies of scale, and to harmonise information flows between administrations in different sectors, as well as between administrations and the public sector.

Need for continuous activity

Initial investigation- requirements

The development and implementation of an IDA strategy in this area must become a continuous activity. An initial investigation exercise to be carried out within the existing programme should provide a baseline by identifying common administrative communication requirements, including transfers of data between different sectors, the public and private sector, and the public sector and citizens. Such a study will attempt to classify the information which is exchanged into broad categories with specific characteristics and requirements, based upon criteria such as the type of information (e-mail, documents, database queries, structured messaging, etc.), the nature of the senders/recipients (sophisticated large organisations, widespread heterogeneous small companies, etc.) the degree of harmonisation of the information between different countries, and the frequency and volume of such exchanges.

Further investigation - strategies and trends

In parallel, this investigation should also examine the current strategies which are being pursued by national administrations and large private organisations in related areas, and identify new trends and products which are likely to have an impact on structuring and harmonising information content in the future, including Electronic Commerce, Internet developments, “lite” EDI, electronic forms, etc. In particular, the current concept of formatted information exchange standards for electronic data interchange (EDI), which essentially duplicate paper forms and have been until now well suited to administrative requirements, are likely to evolve and mutate in the near future to accommodate the more casual, transient requirements associated with electronic commerce. This will have an enormous impact on the marketplace for EDI software products, which at the moment is characterised by a few expensive products with low functionality. Administrations must not only be aware of such new alternatives, but also have analysed their impact and be prepared to modify their current strategies accordingly.

Analyse and synthesize the investigation results

The ultimate goal will be to analyse all these factors and use the results as a basis for determining an appropriate strategy for IDA to adopt in this domain for both the short and medium term. This strategy must encompass the existing investment which IDA projects have already made and look at decisions as to how this investment can best be maintained or migrated to new products and services as appropriate. There must be close coordination with research initiatives and standardisation activities. The analysis should assess the costs, benefits, and risks associated with different approaches and make practical recommendations for IDA actions.

User forum

Furthermore, a forum for user representatives from administrations in all sectors will also be established during the final year of the current programme, to assist in the identification of synergy's, to enable information interoperability needs to be taken into account by the policies which are being developed, and to achieve consensus and agreement concerning policy-making.

Future actions



Budget needs



Thus the emphasis for the future will be to build upon the actions which have already been initiated:

• Monitor and update the overall strategy on a regular basis, to take advantage of new ideas and requirements as they arise;
• Establish commonly-agreed specifications where appropriate, already an important requirement for improving interoperability in the exchange of electronic documents, and also relevant for database querying and access and direct application-to-application communication;
• Develop guidelines and examples relating to administrative re-engineering and the adoption of new working practices, which would contribute to the general knowledge and experience in this area for administrations, and serve as a basis for the spread of best practice;
• Formulate common policies relating to the exchange of data between different public sectors resulting in data models which encourage the development of reusable and interchangeable application modules (or components);
• Focus on the definition of key elements which have widespread use by administrations, such as the identification of individuals, addresses, locations, etc., including the definition of X.500 directory contents;
• Ensure messaging definition emphasises generality, embedding messaging in business processes, implementation in different syntaxes, and the definition of a common, computer-readable description of what must be exchanged;
• Provide common solutions to widespread problems, such as the exchange of related management information for documents through electronic transmission sheets or cover notes, to improve the management of these documents and to implement electronic procedures.

The financial resources needed for this activity are expected to be much higher in the early years of the programme, when it is important to establish a strategy and implement the basic requirements in line with that strategy. Activities during the first 2 years should amount to approximately 1 MECU each year, with this reducing to 0.5 MECU for the following 3 years.

Legal Issues and Barriers

Legal vacuum

The electronic exchange of information is evolving in a paradoxical legal environment, characterised by the existence of a legal vacuum in terms of regulations concerning this information, whilst at the same time such electronic exchanges are effectively being discouraged by the barriers which traditional references to paper-based documents represent to their legal validity.

Hence certain contractual issues have come to the fore, such as the necessity to reform the legal requirements which prevent the formation of contracts electronically, and at the same time, the requirement to define certain paper-based contracts such as Interchange Agreements which describe the terms and conditions for exchanges of information to take place electronically. Similarly, formal requirements for documents to be exchanged in a specific format also exist, which have an impact on the enforceability, validity, and authenticity of their electronic equivalents.

The topic of information security is also of particular relevance. A high degree of information security can be obtained through the use of specific security concepts, such as confidentiality, authentication, data integrity and non-repudiation. Such requirements can be implemented in various ways, including operating procedures, hardware and software features, management procedures and any combination thereof designed to detect and prevent threats to an information system. The IDA requirements relating to security will be addressed in more detail in the later section on security policy.

Protection of personal data

In a similar vein, attention must also be given to European directives relating to the protection of personal data and databases, with a view to enlarging their scope to encompass a broader definition of the data which is to be protected and to developing common, practical solutions which are appropriate for administrations. Another key issue in this domain is the liability of intermediaries such as service providers, who control the flow of information between senders and receivers of data.

Learn from past experience

It is important that future IDA activities in this domain take advantage of the experiences and lessons resulting from previous projects in both the TEDIS and IDA programmes, as well as taking account of the work carried out in other services within the Commission, on the international level and within the Member States.

As a general rule, flexibility should prevail, leading to the progressive establishment of a legal framework either through the modification of existing laws, the development of model contracts, or the implementation of new legislation.

As a consequence, the objectives of an IDA policy for legal issues are:

to identify and remove the legal and contractual barriers that impede the smooth exchange of data between network users;

to create a legal framework which ensures the evidential value of the data exchanged, the protection of data, the rights and responsibilities of the users, and enforces security;

to establish a data protection methodology suitable for administrative requirements;

to formulate model contracts defining the rights and obligations of the players using the networks.

IDA legal actions

The following specific actions will be required in order to reach these objectives:

the identification of the legal and contractual issues hindering the smooth operation of networks using a pragmatic approach by carrying out pilot projects based on existing networks;

the definition of suitable guidelines for improving the legal and contractual environment in which networks operate, based upon the results of pilot projects;

Gradual improvement

the development of harmonisation measures at Community level, such as recommendations, directives and regulations, which take advantage of the guidelines which have been previously defined.

This approach would provide a practical assessment of the existing barriers, from which would be derived legal and regulatory proposals based on genuine situations and which solve current problems, using a gradual process of improvement as opposed to "a great leap forward". The philosophy behind the formulation of a legal and regulatory framework must be stepwise, running in parallel with technological developments, rather than attempting to create a definitive, wide-ranging legal framework which might instead have a counter-productive effect of impeding the progress of new products and technologies.

IDA legal budget

The actions which are envisaged correspond to the obligation laid down in Article 129c of the EC Treaty to "ensure the interoperability of networks". The associated budget is expected to amount to approximately 500 kecu per year.

IDA Security Policy

Security is needed

All users of IDA networks have basic security requirements that need to be fulfilled. The need for security becomes even more critical when data of a sensitive nature are being exchanged, which is true for many administrative networks. Users increasingly ask to have guidelines and advice concerning security mechanisms made available to them. For each IDA network, however, a pragmatic approach will be adopted for setting up the security framework. It will balance the expressed technical needs with the regulations and policies in the involved Member States.

Creating secure trans-European telematic networks between administrations requires End-to-End security, from user A to user B across the entire network(s). This concept encompasses several aspects; the security of the network(s), the databases which are connected to a network, and the information sent across the network itself, as well as the physical security of the hardware used to access the network.

Security gives confidence

Although the implementation of security is to a large extent a technological and organisational issue, intended to prevent the misuse of telematic applications, it also serves to build trust and confidence among users and helps to foster a common approach towards rules and methods. Furthermore, particular attention must be paid to both the legal provisions restricting the use of certain security techniques which may differ from country to country, and the fulfilment of security requirements through legal recommendations.

The issue of information security is especially relevant to ensure the fulfilment of administrative data security requirements such as confidentiality, authentication, data integrity, non-repudiation, and access control. The requirements for security between administrations are very different from those needed for communications between administrations and the private sector. In particular, the authentication of the sender, even for communications between administrations, represents an enormous problem, primarily because of the necessity to implement strict security measures within organisations. An approach which is increasingly being adopted and which may be appropriate for IDA, is for each partner to separately accept certain security responsibilities, such as the implementation of particular levels of security and the recognition of certain risks.

As a basis for IDA security actions, the solution should apply the following principles:

· provide an acceptable degree of confidence;

· take advantage of market products;

· be based upon open standards;

· be suitable for an international environment;

· satisfy technical and legal constraints;

· recognise national responsibilities and the principle of subsidiarity.

Security objectives

The objectives of having an IDA security policy are:

· To define a comprehensive security framework for administrative networks;

· To reach, in the short term, an appropriate level of security which strikes a balance between the urgent needs of the users and the necessity to find a widely-accepted solution;

· To ensure that security mechanisms are continually upgraded by adopting an incremental approach of constant improvement of the provided level of security.

The strategy to be taken will be based on the results of several case studies of existing IDA networks, where the security issues specifically affecting these networks will be analysed and the requirements for the trans-European exchange of data will be defined. These results will form the basis for proposals for guidelines and recommendations, meeting the needs of the networks and promoting common solutions where possible.

IDA security actions

The specific actions would entail:

· Establishing a coherent set of measures, to be implemented as a first step to reduce the immediate risks to acceptable levels;

· Define the security profiles, status and the corresponding security processes which need to be implemented,

· Examine the feasibility of having access to certification authorities to implement certain data security mechanisms.

Common requirements should be satisfied through market offerings. Generic telematic services will gradually be enhanced by generic security services which meet administrative requirements.

Any actions must take account of the work carried out in other contexts, including the international level, as security issues are of global concern. In particular, coordination will be ensured with the INFOSEC Programme through the Senior Official Group on Information Security of DG XIII. This programme has developed a comprehensive approach to the problem of security of information systems. The results of R&D programmes will be continuously monitored and taken into consideration.

It should be recognised that choosing certain security solutions may act as an impediment to interoperability (eg. proprietary implementations of the certain algorithms). Although the provision of security is a key issue, an IDA security framework must not allow the need for security to take precedence over the drive towards ensuring interoperability. The challenge is therefore to provide both.

IDA security budget

An estimated budget of approximately 300 kecu per year will be required for the definition of requirements and profiles. This estimate assumes that the actual security services will be offered by TESTA or another market offer, and paid for under such budgets.

IDA Standardisation Policy

The Commission standardisation policy has until recently been based exclusively on support for de-jure standards. In order to ensure the maximum degree of interoperability between the various telematic infrastructures which have been implemented, the IDA programme has, in accordance with Commission policy, advocated and implemented internationally agreed standards wherever possible within the projects for which it is responsible. For this purpose, these standards have been integrated into the IDA architecture guidelines, mainly through references to EPHOS.

Problems of the previous policy

This policy has occasionally led to conflict, since many project leaders naturally wanted to take advantage of the many promising new products and services available on the market, which did not conform to accepted de-jure standards, instead being publicly available or de-facto standards. It must be admitted that, in this domain, de-jure standards have tended to lag behind market developments.

Position of IDA - recognition and promotion of standards

In 1996, the Commission standardisation policy in the information technology area recognised the need to evolve into a more market-driven approach. Standardisation is a means to achieve interoperability, it is not an end in itself. The position of IDA will always remain that of a user of standards. IDA is neither a standard policy-making or standard-generating body, but rather a standard recognising and standard promoting organisation.

Position of IDA - link between standardisation bodies

Thus in addition to acting as a standards user, IDA can also serve as a link between standardisation bodies and the large user community in the public administration domain. In this role, IDA can contribute to the promotion and dissemination of standards, and to ensure that experiences and issues relating to the practical application of standards in IDA projects are fed back to the standardisation bodies. The location of the IDA programme within the standardisation unit of DG III of the Commission, as well as at the hub of the telematic projects for public administrations, make it an ideal candidate for this role. Furthermore, IDA can identify suitable products which emerge from project activities and suggest that these become publicly available standards.

Standardisation activities

The general IDA activities relating to standardisation are the following:

• Monitor the direction of the Commission standardisation policy, adapt IDA guidelines and recommendations accordingly;
• Contribute to the publication of products as publicly available standards;
• Act as a forum for discussion concerning which standards should be applied in IDA projects; ensure a common approach within IDA projects;
• Reinforce links to other standardisation units within DG III.

IDA Quality Assurance

IDA and QA

The ultimate success of any project depends upon the quality of its results, in particular the quality of the products and the delivered services. Quality assurance (QA) for IDA projects is challenging, because they usually involve 15 different Member States, each with their own individual cultures and practices. The projects must on one hand comply with the subsidiarity principle and at the same time be properly integrated into the national environments. However, certain basic QA concepts apply to the IDA projects, as they would to any project.

Quality must be planned and measured

QA must be based upon well defined, widely accepted procedures and practices. Today, a QA methodology not only deals with the products of an activity but also with the business processes. It is important to establish a QA plan for each project at the beginning. For IDA projects it will be modelled after a generic project QA plan which is part of the overall QA methodology put in place for the IDA team. The IDA quality will be controlled through measurements of the product deliverables, the processes internal to the projects and of the project management.

The IDA Programme management will thus define a quality policy which, as an horizontal activity, involves all other IDA projects, and will design a quality programme that implements this policy during the project developments. Since the scope of IDA sectoral projects is to render operational applications and systems developed for exchanging data between administrations, it is important to ensure that the required level of quality is maintained during the operational life-cycle of these projects.

Objectives of IDA QA

Thus the main objectives of IDA Quality Assurance activities are:

· To improve the way in which user expectations and project requirements are established;

· To improve the quality of project deliverables, both in terms of compliance with project and in terms of satisfaction of user expectations;

· To ensure that the IDA programme, and the individual projects, are optimally managed, and that project management experiences, both good and less good, become learning experiences.

IDA QA activities

The specific activities which are planned to be performed in this area include:

· Continuos monitoring and revision of the IDA QA Methodology (based on international standards and/or industry proprietary methodologies) which was developed during the first phase of IDA and which should be applied to all sectoral projects (the methodology will apply in particular to: system integration, provision of telecommunication services, software development, system operation, user support);

· Improvement of the communication between the users, project contractors, the sectoral Commission services, and the central IDA Unit at stages of projects where good communication is most vital (e.g. definition of user requirements, definition of acceptance criteria, acceptance testing, etc.);

· Implementation of specific Quality Control actions during the development of IDA projects and also during the operational life cycle of an IDA system/application;

· Dissemination of practices which can improve the quality of projects, either in terms of user satisfaction or in terms of Quality Control-related activities;

· Definition of a framework for assessing the achievements of large Trans-European network projects in administrations, and performing individual project evaluations of costs/benefits.

· Evaluation of whether ISO 9000 certification should be a mandatory requirement in CFT (Co-ordination with Public Procurement authorities and Commission Services (XV, DI) for approaching and solving this issue).

IDA QA budget needs

During the preparation of the initial actions on QA which were undertaken by the first IDA programme, it was considered that an amount between 5% and 15% of the overall cost of a project should be devoted to quality assurance activities. This estimate applies primarily to large projects which are developing and installing systems, networks, and applications.

8 Programme financial considerations

Principles

Limited IDA financial support for network development

IDA's first objective is to establish a number of networks in order to support the administration of the internal market. Both strategic and financial considerations mandate that these networks should be funded by IDA, however, once they become operational, IDA funding must not continue beyond a clearly defined point in time.

As experience in the first phase of IDA clearly shows, operational costs place a rapidly growing burden on a consolidated budget and greatly increase the overall financial needs of the programme. In addition, aggregating the cost of exchanging information with the associated investment may cause great distortion with respect to the programme objectives and financial structure.

In these circumstances, it is particularly difficult for the budgetary authority to make decisions on the overall financial envelope in the perspective of the Internal Market-related policy or activity that is served by each network.

An open-ended coverage of operational costs under a programme like IDA is likely to lead to sparse budgets and to competition between different projects. The programme management would thus be forced to establish funding priorities, with a direct impact on the implementation of the said Community policies and activities. In some cases, investments might have to be sacrificed in order to be able to keep networks operational.

This inconvenience can be overcome by limiting IDA financial contribution to development of networks until the moment they become operational, as well as network upgrading and migration towards the use of market-based services. Such a course of action would not risk the adoption of sub-optimal solutions, as it would still allow to decisions to be made based upon the approriateness of the technological approach and on cost-benefit analysis.

However, the distinction between development and operational costs is not always evident, due to the fact that certain operations are of a mixed nature. This is particularly true in the case of so-called evolutive maintenance. The borderline between investment and running costs is thus a difficult one to draw, be it in terms of progress (at what stage of a project or point in time a network becomes operational) or in terms of content (what are development costs and what are operational costs).

It is also important to accommodate to budgeting procedures in both the Community and the Member States, which require financial planning well in advance. In addition, not all network users may be in an operational position at the same time.

A transition phase is thus considered necessary, and it is proposed that Community contribution under the IDA programme must cease no later than the end of the second budgetary year following the year in which the network concerned becomes operational.

In order to identify the moment a network becomes operational, it seems appropriate to proceed on a case by case basis by applying a certain number of criteria such as: the nature of the type of actions to be undertaken, whether the associated expenditure is recurrent, the operational capacity a network has reached, etc. in connection with the nature and objectives of such network. This will naturally be reflected in the IDA yearly work programme (see below).

Equitable cost share between the Community and the Member States

The Community having a direct interest in IDA networks, its financial contribution must also be based upon equitable share of costs between the Community and the Member States involved. The means by which this result can be achieved is the approval of a yearly work programme. Therefore:

A) IDENTIFIABLE TASKS

The Community contribution must be based upon a clearly defined assignment of tasks to the Community and the Member States in a yearly work programme containing a detailed implementation plan for each network.

Entry of a network in the work programme will necessarily encompass, inter alia:

• a thorough description of the objectives to be reached and a detailed implementation plan;
• definition of both the tasks to be undertaken by the Community and the tasks to be undertaken by the Member States with Community financial support, as opposed to the tasks to be undertaken by the Member States at their sole expense;
• description of the scope for public-private partnerships and for private sector initiative, if any.
  

Approval of the work programme will require a favourable opinion of the IDA committee with regard to the technological approach in every network implementation plan.

B) CUI BONO

Community contribution must be defined in such a way that costs be born by the Community in proportion to its interest.

Entry of a network in the work programme must therefore include an analysis of such interest and propose a cost share scheme on this basis.

C) OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME

IDA must be particularly concerned with good operational performance. Allocation and availability of Community financial support must be made in a way not to impede the development of networks. It must follow simple procedures and allow timely budgeting and procurement on the part of both the Community and the Member States.

Thus all entries in the work programme must contain a breakdown of the estimated Community contribution over the entire development period and the operational expenses beyond. A budget breakdown for the current year will thus be proposed by the Commission to the Committee in accordance with these estimates, together with every yearly workprogramme update.

Funding priorities linked to the programme priorities

Allocation of Community contribution must serve the operational principles of the IDA programme. These principles will primarily be implemented by the general priorities contained in the Guidelines.

Transition from present financial framework

In order to ensure a smooth transition, those networks that have become operational under the existing IDA decision (which expires on 31.12.97) will continue to receive funding in order to cover their operational costs for a maximum period of two years.

Modalities for the Community financial contribution.

Projects of common interest.

Given the above considerations with regard to the distribution of tasks between the Commission and the Member States, the Community contribution to projects of common interest will be made either as tasks assigned to the Communities or as tasks assigned to the Member States.

Tasks assigned to the Communities must be implemented by the Commission either using its own resources or by means of ordinary procurement.

Community financial contribution to tasks assigned to the Member States must be made by means of grants. Grants may be justified under certain circumstances, e.g.

• one Member State administration is proposing to carry out activities relating to a trans-European telematic network system which will be of equal benefit to other Member State administrations, and the other parties concerned have agreed to having this work performed on their behalf, or
• a number of different Member State administrations are proposing to work together on non-technical aspects relating to a trans-European network, such as the harmonisation of data being exchanged or improvement of information flows, to take better advantage of telematic facilities,

• when an enhancement to a local Member State system is deemed necessary in order to improve the overall implementation of a particular network system eg. to simplify network implementation, facilitate the procurement of telematic services from the market or reach the indispensable processing capacity.
  

Grants will be quantified in every workprogramme update for the current budgetary year and paid in proportion to the budget actually available. Except for exceptional circumstances, grants must not exceed one quarter of the expenditure actually incurred by each Member State in implementing the tasks for which it is responsible.

Interoperability measures

Interoperability measures must remain the responsibility of the Communities. The Commission must implement them either with its own resources or by means of procurement.

These measures, and their respective cost, will equally be included in the yearly work programme and be submitted to the Committee.

Glossary

API Application programming interface

ASSIST IDA project that assists with implementation of generic

services

CARE IDA project setting up a health information network

CEEC Central and Eastern European Countries

CFT Call for tender

Cui bono Principle for (financial) contribution, where each partner

contributes in proportion to his interest

DES Data Encryption Standard

EEA European Economic Area (Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein)

EMEA IDA project together with the European Medicine

Evaluation Agency

EMU European Monetary Union

ENS European Nervous system

EP European Parliament

EudraWatch Pharmacovigilance database in the EMEA project

EURES IDA project on employment services

IDA Interchange of Data between Administrations

INFO2000 Community programme in multimedia content

MSA Member State Administration

QA Quality assurance

SIMAP IDA project on electronic procurement with DG15

TEN Trans-European Networks

TESS IDA project on social security

TESTA Trans-European Services for Telematics between

Administrations

World Wide Web Access methodology for the Internet, often written WWW

WWW see above

X.500 Electronic mail directory standard