Amended proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adoption of a multi-annual programme (2003-2005) for the monitoring of eEurope, dissemination of good practices and the improvement of network and information security (MODINIS) (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)
Date: 2003-04-07
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: action programme, benchmarking, cooperation policy, data protection, dissemination of information, information network, information society, information technology, transmission network

EN

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 7.4.2003
COM(2003) 160 final

 2002/0187 (COD)

Amended proposal for a

DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the adoption of a multi-annual programme (2003-2005) for the monitoring of
eEurope, dissemination of good practices and the improvement of network and
information security (MODINIS)

(presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)

 
1.

BACKGROUND

Transmission of the Proposals to the Council and the European Parliament (COM(2002) 425
final – 2002/0187(COD) in accordance with article 157§3 of the Treaty:26 July 2002

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee : 24 October 2002

Opinion of the Committee of Regions : 12 February 2003

Opinion of the European Parliament - first reading : 12 February 2003

2.

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

The proposal on the MODINIS programme aims to create a legal basis for the continuation
of monitoring activities of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and dissemination of best practices.
Furthermore the draft Decision allows to launch preparatory actions for the establishment of
the Network and Information Security Agency.

3.

COMMISSION OPINION ON THE AMENDMENTS ADOPTED BY THE PARLIAMENT

3.1.

Amendments accepted by the Commission

Of the 15 amendments adopted by the European Parliament, 4 amendments are fully accepted
by the Commission, namely amendments 1,2,3,9.

Amendment  1  adding  in  recital  6  a  reference  to  the  Resolution  of  22  October  2002  of  the
European  Parliament  related  to  the  networks  and  information  security.  This  is  a  useful
addition  completing  the  reference  to  political  acts  inviting  the  Commission  to  present
proposals on this issue.

Amendment 2 (recital 6a new), proposing a reference to the eEurope 2005 Action plan and
its  objective  to  create  a  Cyber  security  task  force  to  become  a  centre  of  competence  on
security questions. The Commission agrees with this useful amendment. 

Amendment  3  proposing  in  recital  7,  the  replacement  of  the  word  “two-tiers-society”  with
the word “digital exclusion”.

Amendment  9  (article  1)  adding  an  invitation  to  Member-States  to  provide  up-to-date
statistics.  This  amendment  could  be  accepted  and  the  Commission  proposes  the  following
text: “inviting Member-States to provide the most recent data that is available”.

3.2.

Amendments accepted in part or in principle by the Commission

Amendment 4 (recital 7 paragraph 2a new) proposing a new recital with a reference to people
in  groups  which  in  the  past  have  been  unable  to  take  advantage  of  the  ICTs.  In  particular,
there  is  a  reference  to  actions  in  the  field  of  the  Information  Society,  aiming  to  further
promote  the  participation  of  some  categories  of  disadvantaged  people  (women,  disabled
people,  elderly  people  and  unemployed).  The  Commission  can  agree  in  principle  with  the
addition  of  this  recital.  However  the  reference  to  an  explicit  list  of  disadvantaged  people
would unduly limit the scope of the amendment. For this reason, the Commission proposal is

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to  read  the  text  of  the  recital  7,  paragraph  2a  new  as  follows:  “The  European  Union  and
Member  States  actions  in  the  field  of  Information  Society  aim  to  further  promote  the
participation of disadvantaged groups”.

Amendments  5,  6,  (recitals  13  a  and  b  new)  proposing  a  new  recital  linking  in  detail  all
different activities of the programme to the European Parliament proposal for its extension to
the  Accession  Countries,  EEA,  associated  countries  of  the  Central  and  Eastern  Europe  and
Turkey. The Commission agrees in principle with a new recital mentioning the request of the
European  Parliament  and  therefore  proposes  a  new  recital  13a  by  merging  the  two  recitals
with the following text: “these activities pursue the objectives of promoting synergies and co-
operation between Member States, EEA, Accession countries as well as associated countries
and  Turkey,  the  Commission  could  encourage  in  the  future  further  involvement  of  these
countries in the activities of the programme" .

Amendment 10 (article 1 point c) adding clarification in order to guarantee that the analysis
of economic and societal consequences of the IS would give responses also in terms of social
inclusion  and  to  eliminate  digital  divide.  The  Commission  can  accept  in  principle  this
clarification and proposes the following text: “as well as in terms of social inclusion in order
to eliminate the risks of digital divide and in terms of internal market efficiency”.

Amendments  11  and  12  (article  1  point  d  and  article  2  point  e)  constitute  useful
clarifications.  The  Commission  agrees  with  this  clear  reference  to  the  Cyber-security  body.
However,  the  Commission  proposes  that  the  text  has  to  fit  with  the  recently  adopted
Commission’s  proposal  on  the  creation  of  a  “Network  and  Information  security  Agency”.
Therefore,  the  Commission  accepts  the  amendment  by  replacing  the  words  “Cyber-security
task force” by the words “Network and Information Security Agency”.

Amendment  15  (new  article  7a)  proposes  a  clear  reference  to  the  possible  openness  of  the
programme to the Accession  countries, EEA and Turkey. The  Commission  agrees  with  this
clear reference to these countries. However, the second paragraph of the European Parliament
text  seems  to  repeat  the  same  meaning  and  therefore  the  Commission  proposes  to  maintain
only the first paragraph of the amendment as follows:

“ The programme may be opened, within the framework of their respective agreements with
the European Community, to participation of countries of the European Economic Area, the
Accession Countries as well as associated countries and Turkey”.

3.3.

Amendments the Commission cannot accept

Amendment 7 (recital 13 c new) adds a reference to the Gothenburg European Council (June
2001)  where  a  similar  initiative  on  benchmarking  monitoring  in  CEEC  has  been  launched
following the same methodology as in the European Union. The initiative has been based on
the decision of the Heads of Government of the EU Candidate Countries. This programme is
now  running  and  ends  at  the  end  of  the  year  2003.  The  Commission  considers  that  this
reference  is  not  necessary  as  these  countries  will  fully  participate  in  the  programme  from
2004 as Member States.

Amendment  8  (recital  14)  proposing  an  “advisory  committee”  instead  of  a  “management
committee”.  The  Commission  considers  that  its  proposal  is  the  most  appropriate  for
transparency reasons. The Commission proposal  has taken  also into account Member  States
wishes  for  the  management  of  the  programme  as  they  have  been  expressed  during  the
implementation of the predecessor “PROMISE programme”.

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Amendment 13 (article 6) referring to the nature (advisory committee) and the composition
(one representative per Member State and participation of representatives of other participant
countries) of the MODINIS Committee (amendment linked to amendment 8). 

a) This issue will be part of the internal regulation of the Committee which will be based on
the model rules of procedure decided by the Commission on the basis of the Council Decision
1999/468. In these rules it is considered that every Member State has to be represented by one
member. After authorisation of the President of the Committee there is a possibility for other
experts to participate paid by the concerned Member State concerned.

b)  It  is  implicit  in  the  Commission’s  proposal  that  the  participation  of  other  countries  is
automatic  as  far  as  these  countries  participate  in  the  programme.  The  Accession  Countries
will automatically be included in the programme in 2004.

c) For the reasons referred to in the amendment 8, the Commission considers that the nature
of the implementation committee has to be of management type.

Amendment 14 adding a reference to budgetary procedures requirements (annual quantitative
and qualitative evaluation based on performances). This amendment is not necessary because
it  repeats  the  general  obligation  for  the  Commission  in  the  implementation  of  the  annual
budgetary  expenditure  (article  27§3  and  4  of  the  financial  regulation  N°  1605/2002  of  the
25.6.2002).

4.

CONCLUSION

Having regard to article 250(2) of the EC Treaty, the Commission modifies its proposals as
indicated above.

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