Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on:

- the "Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 1719/1999/EC on a series of guidelines, including the identification of projects of common interest, for trans-European networks for the electronic interchange of data between administrations (IDA)", and

- the "Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 1720/1999/EC, adopting a series of actions and measures in order to ensure interoperability of and access to trans-European networks for the electronic interchange of data between administrations (IDA)"

(2002/C 80/05)

On 12 November 2001, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 156 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposals.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 18 December 2001. The rapporteur was Mr Bernabei.

At its 387th plenary session (meeting of 16 January 2002), the Economic and Social Committee unanimously adopted the following opinion.

1. The IDA II programme: evaluation and proposed amendments

1.1. The IDA programme originated in 1993-1995, but it has had prolonged periods of difficulty owing to the absence of a legal basis, following the Court of Justice's judgment of 28 May 1998 annulling Decision No 468/95/EC that had formalised the Commission's 1993 proposal, on which the Committee had issued an opinion(1).

1.2. The IDA programme's new legal basis stems from Article 156 of the EC Treaty, on trans-European networks, as amended by the Maastricht Treaty. The two decisions relating to the programme, No 1719/1999/EC and No 1720/1999/EC, were however only adopted on 12 July 1999 and came into force on 3 August 1999, following their publication in the Official Journal.

1.3. The IDA II programme measures must therefore be considered to be at an early stage, although some of them began life in previous years. The previous absence of an appropriate legal basis led to uncertainties regarding finance, management and planning; and this has delayed development and reduced the major potential benefits.

1.4. With reference to the evaluation report, the Committee would stress the need to secure greater stability, certainty and continuity of action for the IDA programme. In this respect, it welcomes the Commission's draft decisions as a step towards establishing a multi-annual planning system and remodelling the programme on more solid foundations, more closely linked to the e-Europe programme. It should also be coordinated and in synergy with the relevant measures of the Community R& D framework programme, the TEN-Telecom initiatives and other sectoral networks (OSNs) not directly concerned by IDA projects.

1.5. The main aim of the current IDA programme is "to promote the electronic exchange of information between administrations, in order to support the functioning of the internal market and the implementation of a wide range of Community decisions", by means of:

- projects of common interest, with the establishment of operational, interoperable, trans-European telematic networks between Member State/regional administrations and the Community institutions, enabling the secure, efficient and effective interchange of information, to the benefit of end users and supporting the policies and activities of economic and monetary union and the Community, as well as the interinstitutional Community decision-making process;

- horizontal actions and measures to ensure: inter- and intra-sectoral interoperability; convergence towards common interfaces; the promotion of direct access for the public and for economic and social operators, whenever possible, to information of an administrative nature, helping to reduce the administrative burden at national and Union level; the dissemination of best practice and innovative solutions.

1.6. In its opinion on Decision No 1719/1999/EC and Decision No 1720/1999/EC, adopted on 29 April 1998(2), the Committee approved the general thrust of the IDA II programme, stressing in particular the need for coherence, coordination and cooperation, confidentiality, the protection of personal information, and training in the various aspects of network management.

1.7. According to the evaluation report, the fact that the Community measures are divided between two separate decisions clouds an overall view of the programme.

1.8. Furthermore, in the above mentioned report, the experts highlight the need for a stable and certain financial, management and planning framework; a single catalogue of IDA services; a simplified user guide; a substantial reduction in the size and complexity of procedures and documents; periodic reports on the results obtained from current and previous funding; the identification of measurable and quantifiable objectives; synergy with relevant Community research activities, with the TEN-Telecom networks, e-Europe initiatives and other sectoral networks (OSNs) external to IDA; and the dissemination of results and surveys on user satisfaction.

1.9. The Committee thinks that the Commission's proposed amendments to Decisions No 1719/1999/EC and No 1720/1999/EC meet at least some of the demands and issues raised. These amendments fall into three categories:

- legal and political obligations: changing the procedure for the Telematics between Administrations Committee (TAC) in Council Decision No 468/1999/EC of 28 June 1999; extending IDA II to Malta and Turkey; making general IDA services available to applicant countries and third countries, but at their expense and providing such a step is necessary for implementing a Community policy;

- practical measures: providing a financial reference for the implementation of Community measures planned for the 2002-2004 period, i.e. EUR 39,8 million for the guidelines part and EUR 34,2 million for interoperability; improving the dissemination of best practice;

- adjustments: giving consideration to new Community initiatives, e.g. by linking up to the e-Europe initiative and the "government online" chapter of its action plan; adding new areas of activity for the development of telematic networks, such as justice, education and immigration.

1.10. The Committee welcomes the results obtained by IDA, as presented in the evaluation report, in support of networks, especially in the areas of public procurement (SIMAP), health and the environment (EIONET, EUPHIN and EUDRA), company statistics (SERT) and social security (TESS) where the benefits to end users are most obvious. Further examples are the horizontal projects, such as TESTA - Trans-European Services for Telematics between Administrations, whose objective is interoperability and the convergence of networks into a common interface, CIRCA - Communication and Information Resource Centre Administrator, which develops common tools used by over 25 Commission departments and other European institutions and by hundreds of interest groups, SECLEG - Security and Legal Pilot Projects, which offers common security policy solutions for various sectoral networks, and DSIS - Distributed Statistical Information Services, aimed at developing a secure, standardised and interoperable system for electronic data collection.

2. General comments

2.1. In principle, the Committee approves the changes suggested by the Commission, although it believes that they could be broader and better tailored to the ultimate beneficiaries of the programme, namely the Community's public, companies and economic and social operators, not least in view of EU enlargement.

2.2. The Committee underlines that the programme's planning framework would be more stable and certain if it coincided with the Community's 2000-2006 financial perspective. This would also secure certainty and stability for activities in the later stages of the programme: the fact that it is out of step could hamper four-yearly projections beyond 2004.

2.3. The Committee understands the procedural and managerial reasons for having two sets of Community measures for the same programme, but it believes that there should be a single framework. It therefore calls for initiatives to make the measures more comprehensible and more coherent.

2.4. The applicant countries' involvement in the programme should be more systematic and less restricted, in the same way as for other Community programmes such as the R& D framework programme. This latter programme contains elements that could generate multiplying effects in combination with the IDA programme, in terms of the development of networks of excellence in the European research area and, more specifically, integrated research projects centring on the information society.

2.5. The adjustments needed to link up with the e-Europe initiative and its action plan should be supplemented with measures that provide for synergy and coordination with other Community actions and programmes, such as the R& D framework programme, the GEANT network, to provide services on broadband networks, the TEN-Telecom, RISI e ISIRIS initiatives at regional level, the networks for companies and for innovation, and, more generally, the non-IDA telematic networks existing at EU level, as well as external technical cooperation and assistance programmes that can facilitate participation in the IDA programme.

2.6. The procedures for access to IDA should be clearer, more transparent and simpler. The users' guide should include frequently asked questions (FAQ), and the criteria for the selection, evaluation and monitoring of results should be clearly stated and explained in advance, not least to facilitate the dissemination and cross-fertilisation of best practice.

2.7. In order to secure the highest possible level of transparency in the measures taken, the end users should be more closely and systematically involved in the IDA programme and individual projects, both through appropriate systematic consultations and through the establishment of a platform for dialogue, information, and the evaluation and development of projects and their results.

2.7.1. This dialogue platform could be a virtual one, built using appropriate telematic tools, such as those developed for the horizontal projects.

2.7.2. To involve the dialogue platform elements efficiently and effectively, the right yardsticks will have to be devised for assessing the functional capacity of the solutions developed and mapping their evolution over time (e.g. number of user organisations assisted, number of transactions/month, number of service failures/month, economic value of the transactions, etc.).

2.8. The Committee also believes that the development of common tools and services within IDA should be catalogued in a regularly updated list and a single register of horizontal projects and their results, thus giving definition and continuity to the action of disseminating best practice, as intended in the amendments proposed by the Commission.

2.8.1. On this note, the Committee would stress the importance of establishing dedicated budget headings in order to promote IDA tools and services, not only among the administrations and institutions concerned, but also among economic and social operators and, more broadly, the general public.

2.9. The Commission proposes extending the fields of action to the sectors of justice, education, continuing training and immigration. Security, privacy, research and mobility of researchers, regional development and decentralisation should also be included.

2.9.1. The Committee thinks that common interest projects should be set up in areas such as consumer protection, enlargement and economic and social cohesion, the industrial sectors, transport, education, scientific research and technological innovation, and interaction and interoperability between the various tiers of government in relation to the decentralisation process.

2.9.2. Here the Committee would stress that the changes proposed should constitute the first positive step towards an IDA programme that is more tailored towards the requirements of the end users, i.e. the public, including disabled and elderly people, and economic and social operators, who are the true end users of the Community measures in question and who as such should be more involved in both the definition of the horizontal and sectoral projects and their evaluation in terms of consumer satisfaction and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines.

2.9.3. Appropriate solutions to the problem of security and data confidentiality must be found for the various beneficiaries (administrations and institutions, companies and the public). On this note, the Committee would refer to the opinion adopted at the plenary session on 28 and 29 November 2001 on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on network and information security: proposal for a European policy approach(3).

2.10. As the representative of the economic and social elements of organised civil society, the Committee should be fully involved in IDA developments, not least by being duly consulted on the two-yearly reports to the Council and the European Parliament.

3. Specific comments

3.1. The state of development of telecommunications technologies nowadays enables the widespread adoption of virtual network techniques for the creation of infrastructures that can respond to the requirements of the various IDA 2 projects. It would not therefore seem necessary to set up dedicated networks using traditional leased lines. Use can however be made of the many existing infrastructure options, turning to dedicated circuits only in situations where specific transit and reply times are required.

3.1.1. This approach secures higher levels of service availability, greater reliability, better security and much lower overall costs than dedicated physical lines, and allows broader objectives to be pursued for the same level of available financial resources.

3.2. Proposed amendments to decision No 1719/1999/EC:

- in Article 10(3) and (4), the Committee suggests replacing "at their own costs", with "free of charge, providing there is no cost to the IDA programme".

Reason: the original text could suggest that the countries mentioned must carry a share of the cost; the proposed change makes it clear that the costs to be borne are only the operating costs for activities within their responsibility.

- in the Annex, section B, point 10, the Committee suggests adding "continuing training, disabilities" after "education".

Reason: telematic networks are an extremely useful tool not only for education, but also for continuing training and access for disabled and elderly people.

3.3. Proposed amendments to decision No 1720/1999/EC:

- the Committee proposes adding the following to Article 10(3): "and shall support those initiatives of individual administrations that are deemed especially effective and/or innovative, in order to raise awareness of what they have achieved in the sphere of the IDA 2 project".

Reason: to promote the dissemination of best practice by sparking positive competition between administrations.

- in Article 14(3) and (4), the Committee suggests replacing "at their own costs", with "free of charge, providing there is no cost to the IDA programme".

Reason: the original text could suggest that the countries mentioned must carry a share of the cost; the proposed change makes it clear that the costs to be borne are only the operating costs for activities within their responsibility.

4. Conclusions

4.1. The Committee would stress the importance of strengthening the IDA programme to benefit not only administrations and institutions, but also the public, companies and, more generally, organised civil society, with a view to ensuring greater economic and social cohesion of the Union and boosting European competitiveness, in accordance with the conclusions of the Lisbon and Stockholm summits.

4.2. The Committee would stress the importance of an effective EU certification authority, in order to secure adequate levels of security for access to and the exchange of information.

4.3. The Committee would stress the importance of ensuring maximum visibility, accessibility and interoperability for the networks promoted by the IDA programme, for benefit of the end users, not least given the principles of transparency that are supposed to govern the institutional system at European level and in the Member States.

4.4. The Committee believes that, in order to facilitate use of the IDA networks, initiatives must be taken at various levels to provide for the continuing training of users and to open up the above-mentioned network infrastructure for the purposes of continuing training.

4.5. Lastly, the Committee feels that given the sensitive nature of the data processed, it is essential to guarantee a high level of network security, by using appropriate safety nets, centrally, in the Member States and, in future, in the applicant countries.

Brussels, 16 January 2002.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs

(1) OJ C 249 of 13.9.1993.

(2) OJ C 214 of 10.7.1998, p. 33.

(3) COM(2001) 298 final - OJ C 48, 21.2.2002.