Community-COST Concertation Agreement on a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics (COST Project 11ter)
Date: 1985-11-04
Institutions: Austria, European Economic Community, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
Subjects: computer systems, international cooperation, telecommunications, telematics













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21985A1109(01)

Community-COST Concertation Agreement on a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics (COST Project 11ter)  


Official Journal L 297 , 09/11/1985 P. 0025 Spanish special edition: Chapter 13 Volume 19 P. 0034  Portuguese special edition Chapter 13 Volume 19 P. 0034  





*****COMMUNITY-COST CONCERTATION AGREEMENT  on a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics (COST Project 11ter)  THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY,  hereinafter referred to as 'the Community',  AUSTRIA, FINLAND, NORWAY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND and YUGOSLAVIA,  hereinafter referred to as 'the participating non-member States',  Whereas a Community-COST Concertation Agreement on a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics (COST Project 11bis), which was concluded between the Community, Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Yugoslavia on 22 January 1981 and expired on 1 September 1983, produced very encouraging results;  Whereas, by its Decision of 11 September 1979, the Council of the European Communities adopted a four year programme for the development of data processing;  Whereas, by its Decision of 22 November 1984, the Council amended the programme adopted by its Decision of 11 September 1979 and this amendment includes a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics, hereinafter referred to as 'COST Project 11ter';  Whereas the Member States of the Community, the participating non-member States, hereinafter together referred to as 'the States', and the Community intend, subject to the rules and procedures applicable to their national programmes, to carry out the research described in Annex A and are prepared to integrate such research into a process of concertation which they consider will be of mutual benefit;  Whereas implementation of the research covered by the concerted action project will require a financial contribution of some 20 million ECU from the States and the Community,  HAS AGREED AS FOLLOWS:  Article 1  The Community and the participating non-member States, hereinafter referred to as 'the contracting parties', shall participate for a period extending until 21 November 1986 in a concerted action project in the field of teleinformatics.  The project is described in detail in Annex A.  The States shall remain entirely responsible for the research executed by their national institutions or bodies except research under contract with the Commission of the European Communities, hereinafter referred to as 'the Commission'.  Article 2  Concertation between the contracting parties shall be effected through a Community-COST Concertation Committee, hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee'.  The Committee shall draw up its rules of procedure. Its Secretariat shall be provided by the Commission.  The terms of reference and the composition of the Committee are defined in Annex B.  The structure of the Committee may be revised by the contracting parties.  Article 3  In order to ensure optimum efficiency in the execution of this concerted action project, a project leader may be appointed by the Commission after having consulted the delegates of the participating non-member States on the Committee.  Article 4  The estimated financial contribution by the contracting parties to the coordination costs for the period referred to in the first paragraph of Article 1 shall be:  1 300 000 ECU from the Community;  57 000 ECU from Austria;  50 000 ECU from Finland;  53 000 ECU from Norway;  70 000 ECU from Sweden;  70 000 ECU from Switzerland;  58 000 ECU from Yugoslavia.  The ECU shall be that defined by the Financial Regulation in force applicable to the general budget of the European Communities and by the financial arrangements adopted pursuant thereto.  The rules governing the financing of the Agreement are set out in Annex C.  Article 5  1. Through the Committee, the States shall exchange regularly all useful information concerning the execution of the research covered by the concerted action project. They shall also endavour to provide information on similar research planned or carried out by other bodies. Any information shall be treated as confidential if the State which provides it so requests.  2. After having consulted the Committee, the Commission shall prepare yearly progress reports on the basis of the information supplied and shall forward them to the States. 3. At the end of the concertation period, the Commission shall, after having consulted the Committee, forward to the States a general report on the execution and results of the project. This report shall be published by the Commission not later than six months after it has been forwarded, unless a State objects. In that case, the report shall be confidential and shall be forwarded, on request and after having consulted the Committee, solely to the institutions and undertakings whose reasearch or production activities justify access to knowledge resulting from the performance of the research covered by the concerted action project.  Article 6  1. Each of the contracting parties shall, after signing this Agreement, notify the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Communities as soon as possible, of the completion of the procedures necessary under its internal provisions for the implementation of this Agreement.  2. For the contracting parties which have transmitted the notification provided for in paragraph 1, this Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the month following that in which the Community and at least one of the participating non-member States transmitted these notifications.  For those contracting parties which transmit the notification after the entry into force of this Agreement, it shall come into force on the first day of the second month following the month in which the notification was transmitted.  Contracting parties which have not yet transmitted this notification at the time of entry into force of this Agreement shall be able to take part in the work of the Committee without voting rights for a period of six months following the entry into force of this Agreement.  3. The Secretary-General of the Council of the European Communities shall notify each of the contracting parties of the deposit of the notifications provided for in paragraph 1 and of the date of entry into force of this Agreement.  Article 7  This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand, to the territories in which the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty and on the other hand, to the territories of the participating non-member States.  Article 8  This Agreement, drawn up in a single original in the Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek and Italian languages, each text being equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities, which shall transmit a certified copy to each of the contracting parties.  ANNEX A  PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT  The main purpose of the project is to create an environment and mechanisms to:  - initiate and stimulate cooperative research in teleinformatics;  - facilitate the exchange of ideas, identification of problems and harmonization of solution strategies;  - coordinate existing activities at European level, including harmonization of the efforts in European Research Networks;  - transfer possible solutions found in research to other environments (e.g. industry);  - provide, as a spin-off via national channels, input to standardization bodies.  By means of the following actions:  - short- and longer-term exchange of researchers;  - sponsoring of working groups for problem identification;  - sponsoring collaborative research projects, mainly by covering additional costs due to collaboration;  - possible establishment of experimental user groups,  the project will place greater emphasis on research into the requirements of user-oriented services and in particular on ways of providing a higher degree of accessibility, availability and service integrity.  Work performed in the Project will be directed, so as to be complementary to other European activities, in particular ESPRIT, especially with its Information Exchange System part, with the projects initiated by the COST Technical Committee on Telecommunications (TCT), with the activities in the framework of the Community standardization policy in information technology and with the activities in the framework of the Community telecommunication policy.  1.2 // 1.   // The areas are: those related to layer SEVEN of ISO   //   // This layer seven (i.e. application layer in the ISO Reference model) oriented group of activities will contribute to better understanding of the requirements of various applications, network arrangement and human interfaces.   //   // The sub-areas are:   // 1.1.   // Distributed data bases   //   // One of the most important future users of underlying communication services will be distributed data bases. A number of basic questions concerning management of DDB (concurrency, etc.) will have to be resolved. The work will initially be based on the results of DDB rojects running in the framework of COST Project 11bis;   // 1.2.   // Computer assisted human communication services   //   // The purpose of a project in this area is to perform research and development to provide suitable and new tools for person-to-person communication. Investigations on such topics should be done taking into account recent standardization efforts for 'message handling systems' by CCITT and therefore should concentrate on areas which are not covered by the new standards. New work in this area could so be understood as adding new values to the new standards.   // 1.3.   // Graphics applications   //  // With GKS as the emerging standard in the graphics area, one should examine its incorporation into the ISO RM, evaluating its specific requirements on the underlying service providers.  // 1.4.   // Human factors   //   // This activity aims at contributing to the development of application layer services in teleinformatics systems by investigating the man-computer interface (especially its software) with the intention of ensuring its usability and acceptability. The human and organizational implications of use of the teleinformatic services may also be subject of study.   // 1.5.   // OSIS (Open shop for information services)   //   // This activity, which started with a feasibility study already during COST Project 11 bis, should provide a means for easy access of users to the information providers and may have larger future impact on the techniques for all types of (value) financial transactions between service providers and service users. A demonstration of signing and authenticating a payment message at the same computer site and between different national computer sites is being prepared for the autumn of 1985.  // 1.6.   // Distributed system management   //   // The objectives to be supported are:   //   // - research into the mechanisms required to provide a management infrastructure to support distributed processing;   //   // - research to establish the tools and techniques needed by computer and network managers whose systems participate in distributed processing;   //   // - development of communication protocols for the purpose of distributed system management, within the scope of open systems interconnection.   // 1.7.   // Privacy and security in networking environment   //   // This area is a matter of much current concern. Objectives of the work are to examine techniques which will enable the network to safeguard information in transit.   // 2.   // Formal methods of description and testing protocols   //   // Various formal description techniques (FDTs), for describing protocols and services, have been developed in the last decade. Thus, when one has to describe a protocol and/or a service, one may choose from a variety of FDTs, according to one's objectives, field of applications, needs, etc.   //   // The objectives of this research are to state criteria and methods for evaluating and comparing FDTs for stating the equivalence and capability of interworking of formal descriptions obtained with different FDTs, and so on.   //   // The areas indicated above do not provide an exhaustive list but the limited funds likely to be available for the project will need to concentrate on a limited number of areas.  ANNEX B  TERMS OF REFERENCE AND COMPOSITION OF THE COMMUNITY-COST CONCERTATION COMMITTEE ON TELEINFORMATICS  1.2 // 1.   // The Committee shall:   // 1.1.   // Contribute to the optimum execution of the concerted action project giving its opinion on all its aspects, including in particular:   //  // - promoting and coordinating activities at national level within the concerted action;   //   // - defining subjects of particular importance or of common interest;   //   // - allocating financial support from the coordination fund;   //  // - selecting contractors for specific tasks;   //   // - appointing the project leader;   //   // - giving guidance to the project leader.   // 1.2.   // Evaluate the results of the projects and draw conclusions as to their application;  // 1.3.   // Be responsible for the exchange of information referred to in Article 5 (1) of the Agreement.   // 2.   // The Committee's reports and opinions shall be forwarded to the States.   // 3.   // The Committee shall be composed of one delegate from the Commission, one delegate from each participating non-member State, one delegate from each Member State representing its national programme, and the project leader. Ech delegate may be accompanied by experts.   //  // The Committee may invite representatives of users, of CEPT and of European bodies supporting standardization activities, to give their views.  ANNEX C  FINANCING RULES  Article 1  The provisions lay down the financial rules referred to in Article 4 of the Agreement.  Article 2  On the entry into force of the Agreement, the Commission shall send to each of the participating non-member States a call for funds corresponding to the amount laid down in Article 4 of the Agreement.  This contribution shall be expressed both in ECU and in the currency of the State concerned, the value of the ECU being defined in the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities and determined on the date of the call for funds.  The total contribution shall cover the travel and subsistence costs of the delegates to the Committee, in addition to the coordination costs proper.  Each participating non-member State shall pay its contribution to the coordinations costs under the Agreement three months after the issue of the call for funds by the Commission at the latest. Any delay in the payment shall give rise to the payment of interest by the participating non-member State concerned at a rate equal to the highest discount rate obtaining in the States on the due date. The rate shall be increased by 0,25 of a percentage point for each month of delay. The increased rate shall be applied to the entire period of delay.  Article 3  The funds paid by participating non-member States shall be credited to the concerted action project as budget receipts allocated to a heading in the statement of revenue of the general budget of the European Communities (Commission section).  Article 4  The provisional schedule for the coordination costs referred to in Article 4 of the Agreement is appended hereto.  Article 5  The Financial Regulation in force applicable to the general budget of the European Communities shall apply to the management of the appropriations.  Article 6  At the end of each financial year, a statement of appropriations for the concerted action project shall be prepared and transmitted to the participating non-member States for information.  APPENDIX  PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE FOR THE CONCERTED ACTION PROJECT: TELEINFORMATICS (ACTION COST 11ter)  BUDGET ITEM 7702 'COMMUNITY OPERATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF DATA PROCESSING'  (in ECU)  1.2,3.4,5.6,7.8,9.10,11 //  //  //  //  //  //  //  // 1985  // 1986   // 1987   // 1988   // Total  //  //  //  //  // 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11 //  // CA   // PA  // CA   // PA   // CA   // PA   // CA   // PA   // CA   // PA  //    //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   // 1. Initial estimate of overall requirements   //   //   //   //  //   //   //   //   //   //   // - Administrative operating expenditure and contracts   // 1 300 000   // 350 000   // -  // 400 000   // -   // 350 000   // -   // 200 000   // 1 300 000   // 1 300 000   //    //   //   //   //   //   //   //  //   //   //   // Total  // 1 300 000   // 350 000   // -  // 400 000   // -   // 350 000   // -   // 200 000   // 1 300 000   // 1 300 000   //    //   //   //   //   //   //   //  //   //   //   // 2. Revised estimate of expenditure taking into account additional requirements arising from the accession of participating non-member States   //   //   //   //   //  //   //   //   //   //   // - Administration operating expenditure and contracts   // 1 300 000   // 350 000   // 358 000   // 520 000   // -   // 470 000   // -   // 318 000   // 1 658 000   // 1 658 000   //    //   //   //   //   //   //  //   //   //   //   // 3. Difference between 1 and 2 to be covered by contribution from participating Member States   // 0   // 0   // 358 000   // 120 000   // -   // 120 000   // -  // 118 000   // 358 000   // 358 000   //    //   //   //  //   //   //   //   //   //   //  1.2 // CA   // = commitment appropriations.   // PA   // = payment appropriations.   //  //