Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social committee and the Committee of the Regions - Mid term review of the eTEN Programme
Date: 2005-08-01
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, report, telecommunications, trans-European network

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 1.8.2005 
COM(2005)354 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Mid term review of the eTEN Programme 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION 

In accordance with article 14 of the eTEN Decision of the European Parliament and 
the  Council  establishing  the  Guidelines  for  trans-European  telecommunications 
networks  “the  Commission  shall  submit  a  report  on  the  implementation  of  this 
Decision during the period July 2000 to June 2004, to the European Parliament, the 
Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions”. 

An  evaluation  of  the  eTEN  Programme  was  commissioned  from  a  consortium 
consisting  of  Ramboll  Management  and  IDATE  under  the  guidance  of  a  steering 
committee  appointed  by  the  Commission.  This  took  place  between  January  and 
December 2004. The two objectives were: 

•  To evaluate ex post the implementation and performance in relation to objectives 
and results of the programme over the period July 2000 to June 2004, extended to 
include  an  assessment  of  the  longer  term  socio-economic  impacts  of  the 
programme, 

•  To  evaluate  ex  ante  possible  programme  re-orientations  in  the  near  future  (until 
end  2006)  and  possible  policy  options  for  a  new  phase  of  the  programme  from 
2006. 

The “Conclusions and Recommendations” of the draft final report of this evaluation 
was made available to the eTEN Management Committee on 14 December 2004. 

2. 

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ETEN PROGRAMME 

eTEN is part of the Trans-European Networks Policy of the EU1. The financial basis 
for the award of grants is defined in the common TENs Financial Regulation2 which 
also  applies  to  TEN  Transport  and  TEN  Energy.  The  technical  basis  of  eTEN  is 
defined in a separate Guidelines Decision3. 

Following  the  previous  review  of  the  TEN  Telecom  programme4,  and  also  “the 
Special  Report  from  the  Court  of  Auditors”5,  Annex  1  to  the  Guidelines  Decision 
was  revised  redefining  the  “services  of  common  interest”,  and  the  programme 

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The  Trans-European  Network  (TEN)  initiative  is  based  on  articles  154,  155  and  156  of  the  Treaty 
establishing  the  European  Community,  which  set  the  objective  of  establishing  Trans-European 
networks in the areas of transport, telecommunications and energy. 
Regulation  (EC)  No  1655/1999  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  19  July  1999, 
amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  2236/95  laying  down  general  rules  for  the  granting  of  Community 
financial aid in the field of trans-European networks (OJ L 197, 29.7.1999, p. 1). 
Decision No 1376/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 amending 
Decision  No  1336/97/EC  on  a  series  of  Guidelines  for  trans-European  telecommunications  networks,  
(OJ L 200, 30.7.2002, p. 1) 
Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  Council,  the  European  Parliament,  the  Economic  and  Social 
Committee and the Committee of the Regions COM(2001)742 final - “Report on the implementation of 
Decision No 1336/97/EC on a series of guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks.” 
Special  Report  No  9/2000  concerning  trans-European-networks  (TEN)  -  telecommunications, 
accompanied by the Commission’s replies. 

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became known as eTEN. This re-orientation brought eTEN in line with new policy 
objectives  defined  in  the  Lisbon  Agenda;  with  rapid  developments  in  the 
telecommunications  sector,  especially  the  availability  of  new  services  and  the  new 
regulatory framework; and with new social and economic demands arising from the 
rapid  development  of  the  Internet.  eTEN  is  now  concerned  with  accelerating  the 
takeup  of  trans-European  eServices  of  common  interest  in  the  EU  and  is  a  support 
programme  for  the  achievement  of  objectives  defined  in  the  eEurope  Action  Plan 
2005. 

In  line  with  the  subsidiarity  principle,  eTEN  concentrates  on  support  for  the 
provision of trans-European eServices, as defined in the Guidelines Decision, leaving 
the  provision  of  services  required  at  national  level  to  the  Member  States.  The 
definition  of  “trans-European”  includes  pan-European,  cross  border  and  the 
satisfaction of needs in several Member States. 

eTEN had an annual budget of around €45 million in the years 2003 and 2004 and 
operated  mainly  through  the  disbursement  of  grants  following  annual  Calls  for 
Proposals. This level of funding is expected to continue in 2005 and 2006. 

eTEN  supports  two  kinds  of  projects,  so-called  “Initial  Deployment”  projects  and 
“Market  Validation”  projects.  Initial  Deployment  projects  are  downstream  and 
support  the  roll-out  phase  of  an  eService;  they  are  funded  at  up  to  10%  of  project 
costs. These represent a small fraction of funded projects. Market Validation projects 
are upstream and seek to validate the cost benefit of an eService; they are funded at 
up to 50% of project costs and represent the largest fraction of funded projects and 
proposals submitted. 

3. 

COMMISSION’S GENERAL APPRAISAL OF THE EVALUATION 

The  Commission  accepts  the  Evaluation  Report  as  being  a  fair  assessment  of  the 
eTEN Programme during the period July 2000 to June 2004. 

It is clear from the report that the eTEN Programme has a major role to play in the 
future  deployment  of  the  Information  Society  in  Europe.  Further,  the  Commission 
welcomes  the  report’s  acknowledgement  that  the  programme  is  now  well  managed 
and  that  following  its  re-alignment  in  July  2002,  it  is  now  more  strategically 
positioned and is a key part of Information Society policies. However, it is also clear 
that  under  its  present  form,  eTEN  will  not  achieve  its  potential  and  needs  to  be 
substantially  re-cast  in  a  more  demand  led  form  in  a  future  follow-on  initiative. 
Taking  both  the  ex-ante  and  ex-post  conclusions  into  account,  the  Commission  is 
now engaged in the definition of such a new follow on Programme. The Commission 
also acknowledges the report’s recommendations for the short and medium term and 
is engaged in improvements to the current programme. 

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4. 

(EX-POST) CONCLUSIONS OF THE INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION (EX-POST) 

4.1. 

Conclusion  1:  The  changes  to  the  programme’s  legal  base  in  2002  has  had 
significant positive effects on the implementation of the programme. 

this  fast  moving  sector.  Already 

the  programme  has  moved  from 

It is clear that the positioning of the eTEN programme must be continuously assessed 
in 
its 
telecommunications  focus  in  the  mid  1990s  through  an  Internet  focus  and  has  now 
been  integrated  into  the  Community  policy  as  a  programme  which  addresses 
contemporary  needs  for  public  services,  within  the  framework  of  eEurope.  The 
Commission  welcomes  the  report’s  findings  that  since  2002,  projects  and  their 
deployment  prospects  have  improved.  It  also  agrees  with  the  evaluation  report’s 
recommendation  that  the  Programme  should  be  further  re-designed  to  optimise 
impact. 

4.2. 

Conclusion  2:  Programme  management  and  administration  has  been 
considerable improved. 

The  Commission  welcomes  the  findings  on  improved  performance  with  the 
conclusion that eTEN is now a well run programme. The procedures for evaluation 
of  proposals  have  been  continuously  improved  and  the  Commission  believes  that 
they  now  represent  good  practice.  eTEN  has  also  strengthened  its  communication 
strategy,  and  managed  to  secure  a  high  participation  of  New  Member  States  in  the 
2004  Call.  The  Commission  agrees  that  the  financial  administration  is  too 
cumbersome.  An  objective  in  the  new  programme  will  be  to  streamline  the  eTEN 
financial  administration  whilst  maintaining  compatibility  with  the  Commission 
Financial Regulation. 

4.3. 

Conclusion  3:  Impacts  of  the  pre-2002  projects  are  limited  so  far,  but  there  is 
considerable potential for producing more impacts. 

The  Commission  largely  concurs  with  this  and  related  conclusions,  6,  7  and  8. 
Essentially  the  evaluation  points  to  an  important  role  for  eTEN  but  a  need  to  re-
design  the  Programme  to  strengthen  its  impacts.  The  pre-2002  projects  were 
implemented  according  to  the  Guidelines  Decision  in  force  prior  to  July  2002. 
Nevertheless,  the  report  also  states  that  “most  (pre-2002)  projects  resulted  in  some 
form of deployment” and also that “Many of these results would not have occurred, 
or  occurred  later,  or  on  a  smaller  scale  without  the  programme.”  The  Guidelines 
Decision was brought up to date in July 2002 by introducing “a much stronger focus 
on  the  public  sector.”  This  and  the  improvements  in  management  of  the  eTEN 
programme  have  resulted  in  post-2002  projects  being  “better  prepared  for 
deployment”.  In  addition,  “the  new  project  mentoring  initiative  which  aims  at 
removing  obstacles  to  the  deployment  of  the  results  of  market  validation  projects, 
will  provide  greater  support  for  deployment,  including  the  possibility  for  financial 
investment.” 

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4.4. 

Conclusion 4: Successful projects are driven by strong players, often including 
end-users. 

The  Commission  takes  note  of  this  conclusion.  However,  the  Commission  believes 
that  the  sustainability  of  successful  project  results  requires  the  commitment  of 
Member States to the provision of the service. 

4.5. 

Conclusion  5:  Many  projects  aiming  at  B2C  and  B2B  markets  have  not  been 
very successful. 

These kinds of services are no longer targeted in the revised Guidelines Decision. 

4.6. 

Conclusions 6: Weak participation of public partners in the projects constitutes 
a barrier to deployment and to achievement of large-scale impacts. 

The Commission concurs with this Conclusion. The Commission’s response is given 
in sections 5.1 and 5.6 below. 

4.7. 

Conclusion 7: Deployment is often limited in scale: 

The  Commission  concurs  with  this  Conclusion.  However,  this  conclusion  is  drawn 
from  the  results  of  projects  prior  to  the  re-orientation  of  eTEN  in  2002.  The 
Commission intends to carry out a similar impact assessment for later projects when 
they  have  been  completed.  Actions  taken  to  improve  deployment  are  given  in 
sections 5.1 and 5.6 below. 

4.8. 

Conclusion 8: Limited and/or delayed deployment results and limited achieved 
impacts so far. 

The  Commission  concurs  with  this  Conclusion.  However,  this  conclusion  is  drawn 
from  the  results  of  projects  prior  to  the  re-orientation  of  eTEN  in  2002.  The 
Commission intends to carry out a similar impact assessment for later projects when 
they  have  been  completed.  Actions  taken  to  improve  deployment  are  given  in 
sections 5.1 and 5.6 below. 

4.9. 

Conclusion 9: eTEN plays an important role in the value chain from research to 
deployment. 

The report’s acknowledgement of the continued relevance of eTEN and its synergies 
with  the  research  activities  is  welcomed.  The  Commission  is  committed  to  a 
balanced and holistic approach to research, deployment and regulatory activity in the 
area  of  information  society.  DG  Information  Society  aims  to  strengthen  such 
linkages  by  continuing  to  take  lead  responsibility  for  coherent  and  consistent 
management across all three of these areas. 

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5. 

SHORT  TERM  EX  POST  RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  THE  CURRENT  PHASE  OF  THE 
PROGRAMME 

5.1. 

Recommendation 1: Strengthen Evaluation Criteria Further. 

The key stakeholders which are likely to ensure sustainable deployment  are  clearly 
public bodies. The Commission accepts the importance of sound business cases for 
public services as well as for the private sector and this issue will continue to be an 
important aspect of the evaluation criteria. 

The Commission has modified the evaluation criteria significantly for the 2005 Work 
Programme  by  placing  more  emphasis  on  the  deployment  potential.  A  new  award 
criterion  has  been  introduced  bringing  even  higher  visibility  and  greater  weight  to 
this issue. The committed involvement of public bodies is already strongly promoted 
in the Information Campaign as well as in the reinforced award criteria. Further steps 
will  be  taken  in  2005  in  conjunction  with  the  Management  Committee  to  engage 
public bodies in the programme.  

5.2. 

Recommendation  2:  Give  priority  to  replication  of  services  that  have 
demonstrated their sustainability and utility in a national context. 

Considerable  emphasis  is  already  placed  in  eTEN’s  information  campaign  on  the 
importance  of  “Good  Practice”  and  its  re-use  as  a  basis  for  eTEN  proposals.  The 
identification of “Good Practice” in New Member States is one of the objectives of 
an  ongoing  Study  and  the  results  will  be  widely  promoted  throughout  the 
Community to promote replication. 

Until  now  the  identification  of  “Good  Practice”  has  been  left  to  the  proposers  but 
increasingly  the  Commission  will  address  this  issue  in  collaboration  with  Member 
States in the context of the so-called “Top Down Approach”. 

5.3. 

Recommendation 3: Integrate market validation and deployment in multi-phase 
projects. 

The  Commission  agrees  to  the  concept  of  integrating  Market  Validation  and  Initial 
Deployment  in  multi-phase  projects.  This  will  require  a  change  in  the  Financial 
Regulation  which  currently  also  applies  also  to  TEN  Transport  and  TEN  Energy. 
This issue will be given full consideration in discussions on the future evolution of 
eTEN  in  relation  to  the  proposed  follow  up  programme  from  2007  onwards  and 
which will require a new legal base. 

5.4. 

Recommendation  4:  Continue  the  push  for  an  increase  in  the  overall  funding 
ceiling for projects. 

Taking  into  account  that  few  good  quality  initial  deployment  proposals  have  been 
received, it seems that the eTEN constituency has  substantially  rejected the  current 
funding ceiling of 10%. It has been demonstrated that this level of funding does not 
cover the overheads, the extra costs and the risk of implementing a “trans-European” 
service.  All  information  available  to  the  Commission  supports  the  necessity  of  the 
increased funding level of 30% and is urging the necessity of a positive decision in 
time for use in contracts in 2005. 

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5.5. 

Recommendation  5:  Define  project  objectives  and  milestones  in  terms  of 
concrete results, not deliverables. 

The  Commission  recognises  the  importance  of  putting  greater  emphasis  on 
milestones and concrete results rather than producing deliverables. The Commission 
needs  certain  deliverables  in  order  to  judge  the  effectiveness  of  the  consortia  and 
progress towards meeting project objectives. Some deliverables, especially those of 
an administrative nature, are a mandatory part of the contract. Nevertheless contracts 
normally  include  many  more  paper  deliverables  decided  by  the  consortia.  In  the 
latest round of negotiations the Commission has started to question the need for all 
the  deliverables  proposed  by  consortia  with  the  objective  of  keeping  these  to  a 
necessary minimum. 

5.6. 

Recommendation 6: Continue refinement of the Work Programme. 

The Work Programme for 2005 takes into account experience gained from previous 
Calls  for  Proposals  and  recommendations  made  in  the  evaluation  report.  The  legal 
base requires the thematic approach but a cross cutting approach has been introduced 
whereby  all  proposals  are  required  to  address  relevant  “eInclusion”  and  “Trust  and 
Security” issues. There is an increased emphasis on deployment through the addition 
of  an  award  criterion  dedicated  to  this  issue  and  greater  emphasis  is  placed  on  the 
leading role which public bodies should be playing. The administrative load has also 
been lightened by simplifying the template for the proposal structure and also for the 
first time by allowing electronic submission as well as submission on paper. 

The  Commission  will  continue  with  this  process  of  refinement  in  2006  within  the 
limits set by the legal base. In particular, during 2005 the Commission will assess the 
potential for implementing a demand driven approach in conjunction with the current 
bottom up approach based on Calls for Proposals. 

6. 

ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL OPTIONS FOR A FUTURE PROGRAMME 

The Report discusses 5 options for the future. The first three of these are presented as 
theoretical possibilities and their analysis draws attention to the essential role of the 
programme in filling a gap between research and market roll-out which is not filled 
by other Community initiatives. The Commission agrees that “it would be too risky 
to completely abandon the bottom-up type of approach”. 

The  Report  identifies  a  need  for  a  major  change  in  the  current  form  of  the 
programme  and  proposes  an  optimal  mix  of  approaches  including  a  more  co-
ordinated strategy which is led by demand. Under this approach, requirements would 
be  defined  by  committee  and  projects  would  be  implemented  by  a  public 
procurement procedure. The Commission will investigate the prospects for applying 
the  Open  Method  of  Coordination  to  support  policy  learning,  good  practice 
exchange, benchmarking and better co-ordination of strategies across local, regional 
and national activities. 

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To a significant extent, the increase in productivity required for the realisation of the 
Lisbon  objectives  will  be  realised  through  the  use  of  effective  eServices.  The 
Commission takes note of the objective recommended in the Evaluation Report for 
the  future  programme  which  is  “To  contribute  to  the  deployment  of  eServices  (or 
eSolutions) addressing key needs of the public sector, as well as interoperability of 
services and systems across borders, thus helping to reduce the barriers for citizens 
and companies to participate fully in the internal market and benefit from an efficient 
and effective delivery of public services.” 

6.1. 

Change  the  intervention  approach  from  supply-driven  to  demand-driven: 
Addressing key issues 

The  Commission  agrees  with  the  conclusion  (see  section  5)  that  there  is  a  need  to 
introduce services in the common interest defined in a more strategic, co-ordinated 
fashion. Experience shows that the use of Open Calls for Proposals does not lead to 
the  coordinated  implementation  of  trans-European  public  eServices.  A  variety  of 
mechanisms for a more co-ordinated approach including those described in section 6 
above will need to be evaluated when defining the follow up programme. 

6.2. 

Improve leverage of eTEN funds 

The  Commission  agrees  with  the  statement  “If  real  impacts  are  to  be  achieved, 
projects should address a significant part of the demand in selected areas.” The “Top 
Down”  approach  addressed  in  section  6.1  implemented  with  the  assistance  of 
Member States will play a crucial role in identifying the demand. The deployment of 
larger  scale  services  in  the  common  interest  will  need  both  a  larger  budget  than  is 
currently available and will depend on the availability of more attractive conditions 
of  participation  than  those  offered  by  the  current  10%  limit  which  the  stakeholder 
community have clearly rejected as being too small. 

7. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The Commission broadly welcomes this report and the timely opportunity it provides 
to support new thinking in policy formulation. 

The  Commission  followed  the  work  of  the  contractor  in  order  to  identify 
improvements early. As a result, most of the recommendations have already been 
incorporated in the Work Programme for 2005 as described in section 5 above. 

In  view  of  the  conclusion  of  the  Evaluation  Report  stating  that  “The  overall 
objectives of eTEN are fully in line with the Lisbon Strategy”, recommendations of a 
longer term nature have been taken into account as described in section 6 above in re 
designing the programme as a key element in a new initiative to follow-up eEurope 
2005, namely the i2010 initiative launched by Commissioner Reding on 1 June 2005. 
Furthermore,  the  Competitiveness  and  Innovation  Programme6,  which  includes  a 

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COM(2005)121  of  6.4.2005:  Proposal  for  a  Decision  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council 
establishing a Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (2007 – 2013). 

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proposed follow-up programme to eTEN, has been adopted by the Commission7 and 
submitted  to  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  as  part  of  the  new  Financial 
Perspectives. 

7 

In view of this general revision, the Commission will not make a separate proposal to revise Annex 1 to 
the current Guidelines Decision, which will consequently lapse on 31 December 2006, except in respect 
of calls for proposals which have already been published in the Official Journal before that date. 

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