COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER Background information related to the strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’)   Accompanying document to the Communication on better governance of the Single Market through greater administrative cooperation:   A strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’)  Text with EEA relevance   (COM(2011) 75 final)
Date: 2011-02-21
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: action programme, administrative cooperation, information society, information system, information technology, single market

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 21.2.2011 
SEC(2011) 206 final 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER 

Background information related to the strategy for expanding and developing the 
Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’) 

Accompanying document to the Communication on better governance of the Single 
Market through greater administrative cooperation: 

A strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System 
(‛IMI’) 

Text with EEA relevance 

(COM(2011) 75 final) 

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INTRODUCTION 

This Commission staff working document contains background information relevant 
to the Commission Communication "Better governance of the Single Market through 
greater  administrative  cooperation  –  A  strategy  for  expansion  and  further 
development of the Internal Market Information System (IMI)". 

SECTION I – HOW IMI WORKS 

IMI has been designed as a reusable tool which can be easily customised to support 
new legislative areas. In order to reuse the IMI information exchange workflow for a 
new  legislative  area,  the  only  effort  required  is  to  import  a  new  set  of  translated 
question and answer pairs (derived from the relevant legislative provisions) into the 
IMI database and to ensure that any competent authorities who wish to exchange this 
information are registered in IMI and have access to the new legislative area. 

Competent  authorities  need  only  register  once  in  the  IMI  database  and  may  be 
granted  access  to  multiple  legislative  areas,  depending  on  their  sphere  of 
competence. Registration in IMI is open to national, regional and local authorities in 
the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway who deal with the specific legislation it 
supports. 

COMPETENT AUTHORITIES AND NATIONAL EXPERTS

CA
CACA
DATA
DATADATA

CA
DATA

CA
DATA

CA
DATA

Information
exchange for

Information
exchange for

Information
exchange for

Information
exchange for

LANGUAGE
SUPPORT

SERVICES

PROFESSIONAL
QUALIFICATIONS

POSTING OF
WORKERS

.......
.......

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

QUESTION SET GENERATOR

IMI helps its users to:  

•  find the right authority to contact in another country;  

•  communicate  with  them  using  pre-translated  sets  of  standard  questions  and 

answers;  

•  follow the progress of the information request through a tracking mechanism. 

Because  Member  States  have  been  closely  involved  in  devising  the  system,  IMI 
offers uniform working methods agreed by every EU country.  

For  more 
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/imi-net/index.html 

information 

please 

IMI, 

on 

see 

the 

IMI  website: 

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The  screenshots  below  illustrate  how  a  Polish  competent  authority  that  needs 
information about a British pharmacist can send a request in Polish to its counterpart 
in the UK. The UK authority can view and reply to the questions in English. 

Screenshot 1- Polish authority’s view of the request 

Screenshot 2- U.K authority’s view of the same request  

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SECTION II - FINANCIAL EXPENDITURE 

A. Overall expenditure on IMI to date 

Table  (A)  below  provides  an  overview  of  total  expenditure  on  IMI  to  date  and 
estimated expenditure for the period 2011-2012. 

Table A 

2006-2009 

2010 

2011 

2012 

Total (€) 

(actual €) 

(actual €) 

planned 

planned 

(1) Development 

2 195 000 

950 000

650,000

650,000 

4 445 000

(2) Maintenance & 
support services  

-- 

400 000

350 000

350 000 

1 100 000

(3) Hosting  

118 000 

237 000

237 000

237 000 

829 000

(4) Training & 
promotion  

200 000 

100 000

200 000

200 000 

700 000

Total 

2 513 000 

1 687 000

1 437 000

1 437 000 

7 074 000

B. Financial advantages of a reusable IT system 

The original concept of IMI as a reusable tool which could be easily customised to 
support new legislative areas has been successfully proven with the expansion from a 
single module covering the Professional Qualifications area to three current modules 
(Professional Qualifications, Services, Posting of Workers1). 

While examining the feasibility of using a specific module of the IMI system to be 
used  in  the  area  of  posting  of  workers  in  order  to  further  enhance  administrative 
cooperation foreseen under Directive 96/71/EC (concerning the posting of workers in 
the  framework  of  the  provision  of  services),  an  analysis  of  the  expected  costs  and 
benefits carried out showed that no further technical development was required and 
therefore no development cost would be incurred. A separate and specific application 
for Posting of Workers has been created in IMI without any IT cost and will be used 
as  a  pilot  following  the  adoption  of  Council  Conclusions  (foreseen  for  EPSSCO 
Council in March 2011).  

1 

The  decision  to  begin  the  Posting  of  Workers  pilot  is  awaiting  adoption  of  Council  conclusions 
(foreseen for EPSSCO Council in March 2011). 

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It  is  possible  to  appreciate  the  potential  savings  offered  by  a  reusable  system,  by 
comparing  the  cost  of  developing  an  electronic  information  exchange  tool  from 
scratch versus adapting or reusing an existing tool.  

Table (B) below shows:-  

•  the  actual  cost  of  developing  the  first  (information  exchange)  workflow  from 

scratch, including common system features (row 1); 

•  the incremental cost of reusing this information exchange workflow in a separate 

and specific application to support the Posting of Workers directive (row 2); 

•  the cost of adapting IMI to develop a second (alert) workflow, reusing the existing 

common system features (row 3). 

Please note that Table B deals with the portion of total development cost associated 
with the initial development of the two IMI workflows. Subsequent development of 
IMI has taken place in response to user requests for improvement and in 2010 a new 
searchable  database of registers  was developed. These additional costs  (included in 
Table A) are excluded from Table B below. 

Table B 

IMI feature 

Cost to develop 

(1) 

Cost of developing first IMI workflow 

€1  417 000

•  Common  features  (competent  authority  database,  multilingual 
support, registration of authorities and users, user management, 
authentication)  

•  First  workflow  (one-to-one  information  exchange,  used  for 

both Professional Qualifications and Services directives) 

(2) 

(3) 

Incremental  cost  of  re-using  the  existing  information  exchange 
workflow  (and  common  features  of  IMI) 
the 
administrative cooperation requirements of the Posting of Workers 
Directive 

to  support 

Incremental  cost  of  developing  a  new  workflow  to  support  the 
alert  mechanism  foreseen  in  the  Services  Directive,  reusing  the 
existing common features of IMI  

•  Second workflow(one-to-many alert) 

€0

€973  500

The cost of development is just one aspect of the total cost of an IT system. Annual 
costs for hosting, maintenance, second-line support and training as shown in rows 2-
4  of  Table  (A)  above  should  also  be  factored  in.  Re-using  an  existing  IT  system 
generates  synergies  as  these  costs  are  not  incurred  many  times  over  for  separate 
systems. 

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SECTION III – ESSENTIAL BUILDING BLOCKS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPING IMI 

Building block 

Function 

Authentication 

Verifies  whether  someone  who  tries  to 
access the system is an authorised user 

Competent  authority 
and 
management 
authorisation 

Enables  the  authorising  actor  to  give  others 
access to the system and to define their user 
profile (rights to act within the system)  

Elements  already  in 
IMI  

Internal  user  name, 
password  and  digital 
code 

Self-registration 
module (by invitation) 

Multilingual 
interface 

user 

Enables the user to work in their language of 
choice 

23-language  interface 
and 
machine 
translation2 

Information Exchange 
workflows  

A  pre-structured  sequence  of  interactions 
between  authorities  in  the  system  (content 
may be questions/answers, structured forms, 
free text, attached files, etc.) 

Information request 

Alert 

Information request 

• 
•  Alert 
•  Notification 

Interface 
external systems 

with 

Information 
repository 

Search 

sending, 

uploading, 

Enables 
storing, 
receiving and downloading of pre-structured 
information  sets  (transfer  of  information 
to/from external systems) 

Structured 
exchanged or uploaded within the system  

capacity 

storage 

for  data 

Capacity  to  find  specific  information  within 
any data or within defined categories of data 
within a database  

None 

Competent  authorities 
database 

Registers database 

Various searches 

Further 
needed 

improvement 

2 

Following  the  judgment  of  the  General  Court  of  the  European  Union  in  case  number  T-19/07  on  16 
December 2010, the use of ECMT has been suspended 

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Report and statistics 

Generates structured reports and statistics on 
activities and data within the application 

External, 
Objects 

Business 

Webform  for  external 
supply and retrieval of 
data  

for 

networks 

Technical  means3,  which  can  be  used  by 
existing 
administrative 
cooperation to allow citizens, enterprises and 
organisations  to  interact  with  the  competent 
authorities  in  order  to  supply  information 
and retrieve data  

Not available yet 

3 

Such  a  means  of  interaction  will  avoid  duplication  with  existing  e-Government  portals  such  as  the 
Points of Single Contact of the Services Directive (PSCs) and e-Government projects such as SPOCS 
(Simple Procedures Online for Cross-border Services) and PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement 
Online), instead seeking to reuse existing tools and establish synergies where possible. 

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SECTION IV - INDICATIVE LIST OF POTENTIAL AREAS THAT COULD BENEFIT FROM IMI 

(as identified and (partially) examined by the Commission services and Member States in 2010) 

TOPIC 

Internal Market 

Gambling 

Related texts and initiatives 

•  No specific legal instrument on gambling 
•  Council Conclusions 10 December 2010 mentioning IMI 
•  Public consultation on on-line gambling to be launched in the 

first quarter of 2011 

e-Commerce 

•  Ongoing evaluation of 2000/31/EC 
•  Article  3.4  on  the  notification  procedure  and  Article  19  on 

Intellectual  property 
rights 

Professional 
qualifications 

Services 

e-Procurement 

Postal Services 

Business registers 

Auditing 

Assets Management 

Insurance 
pensions 

and 

Employment and 
Social Affairs 

Posting of workers 

cooperation between contact points 

•  Public consultation completed on 5 November 2010 
•  Communication planned for first semester in 2011 
•  Directive 2004/48/EC requires designation of national 

correspondents 

•  2008 Communication and Council conclusions: mentions setting 

up a network for exchanging information  

•  European professional card, alert system for health professions 
•  To be examined as part of the review of the Professional 

Qualifications Directive 

•  Notification procedure (Articles 15.7 and 39.5 of Services 

Directive 2006/123/EC) 

•  Public procurement package: Directives 2004/18/EC and 

2004/17/EC 

•  e-CERTIS database to help companies and contracting 
organisations cope with the documentation demands 
encountered when tendering for public contracts in the EU 

•  Directive 2008/6/EC on internal market of postal services 
•  Article 22 on collaboration and mutual assistance of national 

regulatory authorities 

•  Forthcoming proposal for a directive on creating links between 

company registers  

•  Directive 2006/43/EC on Statutory Audit. Article 33 on 

cooperation between public oversight systems  

•  Green Paper on audit policy (October 2010) deals with closer 

cooperation between ‘the national audit oversight systems’ and 
mentions the idea of a European pass for auditors 

•  UCITS: Directive 2009/65/EC. Article 34 concerns the need to 

set up a central system to store a database of all UCITS and 
related information, including the documentation referred to in 
Article 93(3) of Directive 2009/65/EC 

•  AIFM: Proposal for a Directive on Alternative Investment Fund 
Managers currently in discussions. Chapter VIII, Section 2 
concerns cooperation between Competent Authorities 

•  Revision of 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation  
•  Article 9 on exchanging information between Member States 
•  Ongoing public consultation until end of January 2011 

•  A separate and specific application of IMI to be used as a pilot 
following the adoption of Council Conclusions (foreseen for 

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TOPIC 

Related texts and initiatives 

Coordination of social 
security systems  

EPSSCO Council in March 2011) 

•  Regulation (EC) 883/2004 and its Implementing Regulation (EC) 

987/2009 

•  Potential synergies with IMI 

Enterprise and 
Industry 

Marketing of products 

Free  movement  of 
goods 

Product 
Points 

Contact 

Approval of vehicles 

Marketing 
of 
construction products 

Economic Affairs 

Cross-border  cash  in 
transit 

Justice 

Public 
and 
Civil 
documents 

documents 
status 

Contract Law 

Transport  

•  Regulation (EC) 765/2008 setting out the requirements for 

accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing 
of products  

•  Article 23 on a general archiving and exchange of information 

system, using electronic means 

•  Regulation  (EC)  No  764/2008  laying  down  procedures  relating 
to  the  application  of  certain  national  technical  rules  to  products 
lawfully marketed in another Member State  

•  Article 11: The Commission may establish a Telematic Network 
for the exchange of information between Product Contact Points 
and/or the competent authorities of the Member States 

•  Directives on approval of motor vehicles (2007/46/EC), tractors 
(2003/37/EC) and three-wheel motor vehicles (2002/24/EC)  
•  Article  12  (2007/46/EC),  Article  13  (2003/37/EC)  and  Article  4 
(2002/24/EC) mention cooperation between approval authorities 

•  Proposal for a regulation on harmonised conditions for the 
marketing of construction products (repealing Directive 
89/106/EEC) 

•  Chapter VII on notification authorities, including provisions on 
exchanging experience between authorities (Article 44) and 
coordination of notified bodies (Article 45) 

•  Draft regulation on cross-border transportation of euro cash 

presented in July 2010 

•  Article 11 on mutual information and National Contact Points 
•  Articles 20, 22, 23 (notification, alerts) 

•  Green paper – Less bureaucracy for citizens: promoting free 

movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of 
civil status records  was adopted on 14/12/2010 

• 

Cooperation between judicial authorities in the context of a 
possible future instrument on European contract law 

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Passenger rights 

Vehicle procurement  

Maritime 
policy: 
inland waterways 

ports 

transport 
and 

Health 

Patients rights  

Medicinal products 

Media 

Audiovisual  &  Media 
services  

(AVMSD) 

Education  

Europass 

Energy 

Energy Efficiency and 
Intelligent Energy 

•  Regulations EU 261/2004, EU 1107/2006, EU 1370/2007, EU 
1177/2010 and future Regulation on passenger rights for 
transport by sea and inland waterways; draft Regulation on 
Rights of Passengers in bus and coach transport.  

•  Article 31 of 1371/2007/EC about cooperation between National 
Enforcement Bodies (for the purposes of the passenger rights 
regulations, it would be necessary to include opening of 
registration in IMI to Switzerland and other European third 
countries which apply EU Law through bilateral agreements) 

•  Directive  2009/33/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of clean and energy-
efficient road transport vehicles. 

•  The  Directive  requires  that  energy  and  environmental  impacts 
linked  to  the  operation  of  vehicles  over  their  whole  lifetime  are 
taken into account in purchase decisions. 

•  New  directive  which  obliges  MS  to  have  a  single  information 
point  for  maritime  issues  (Single  Window).  The  most  likely 
platform  to  exchange  data  between  ports  and  authorities  is 
SafeSeaNet, but there may be potential synergies between this 
system and IMI 

•  Proposal for a directive on patients' rights in cross-border 

healthcare  

•  Article 6.2 about cooperation between National Contact Points 

for cross-border healthcare; Article 10(1) about the exchange of 
information between MS on standards and guidelines on quality 
and safety and supervision; Article 10 (2) (b) about the 
exchange of information on the right to practice of health 
professionals 

•  Proposal for a directive on falsified medicinal products currently 

discussed in first reading 

•  Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS): 2010/13/EU 
•  Article 30 on cooperation and exchange of information between 

regulators  

•  Europass Decision 2241/2004/EC  

•  Labelling Directives  
•  Energy Star Regulation 
•  Ecodesign Directive: exchange of information on product testing 

results between energy performance auditors  

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SECTION V: IT TOOLS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE COOPERATION (NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST) 

IT Tool 

EU policy 
area 

Short description 

Operational 
since 

Multilingual 

Exchange 
volume 

of 

No 
registered 
public 
authorities 

the 

solution 

supporting 

(Communication  and 

CIRCABC (‘Communication and Information Resource 
Centre for Administrations, Businesses and Citizens’) 
is  used  to  create  collaborative  workspaces  where 
communities of users can work together over the web 
and share information and resources. It is intended to 
replace  CIRCA 
Information 
for  Administrations),  an  e-
Resource  Centre 
government 
online 
collaborative activities of the European Union’s public 
administrations. Since 1997, CIRCA has  operated  as 
an IDA(BC) service and has been used by more than 
the 
30  Directorates-General, 
committees  and  consultative  bodies  established  to 
support collaboration between the Member States and 
the  EU 
than  100  national 
administrations have received a free licence and use it 
for 
their  own  needs.  The  CIRCABC  groupware 
enhances  the  performance  of  CIRCA  in  terms  of 
capacity,  security,  availability  and  interoperability.  Its 
user interface will be available in 23 languages. 

institutions.  More 

in  particular  by 

protection 

enforcement. 

The  aim  is  to  enable information  exchange  between 
national  authorities  and  serve  as  an  information 
repository  to  improve  EU  cooperation  in  the  field  of 
consumer 
National 
enforcement  authorities  are  able to  exchange 
information  and  cooperate  with  counterparts  in  other 
Member States working together to stop rogue traders 
or  any  other  cross-border  breach  of  consumer 
protection  laws.  It  tackles  breaches  in  a  variety  of 
areas  such  as  misleading  advertising,  package 
holidays,  timeshares  and  distance  selling.  CPCS  is 
used as the IT tool to support the ECC-NET network 
of European consumer centres. 

CIRCABC 

All  policy 
areas 

CPCS: 
Consumer 
Protection 
Cooperation 
System 

Consumer 
protection 

EESSI 
(Electronic 
Exchange  of 
Social 
Security 
Information) 

Social 
Affairs 

The EESSI system will support information exchanges 
that take place between the social security institutions 
of the Member States to implement EU social security 
coordination  rules.  The  objective  is  to  ensure  that  all 
the  information  exchanges  currently  taking  place 
through  the  use  of  paper  E  (European)  forms  will  be 
undertaken by electronic means. 

2007 

Yes 

2006 

Directory 
services 
operational 
since  2010, 
for 
system 
exchanging 
info  will  be 
fully 
operational 
in May 2012  

Interfaces 
yes. 
Translation 
of 
information 
exchanged 
is 
the 
responsibility 
of the MS 

The 
structured 
electronic 
messages 
exchanged 
in 
the 
system  are 
translated  in 
22 
official 
languages  of 
the  EU  but 
the 
translation  of 
information 
exchanges 
and  software 
interfaces  is 
the 
responsibility 
of the MS. 

over 

1500 
last 4 years 

3000 

data 
No 
available yet 

10,  000 
16 000 

- 

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11 

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IT Tool 

EU policy 
area 

Short description 

Operational 
since 

Multilingual 

Exchange 
volume 

of 

No 
registered 
public 
authorities 

ERRU 

Transport 

EUCARIS 

(Not 
managed  by 
Commission) 

Transport 

EUDAMED 

Health  

for 

road 

ERRU  stands 
for  European  Registers  of  Road 
Transport  Undertakings.  The  system  interconnects 
national  electronic 
transport 
registers 
undertakings  in  order  to  enable  Member  States  to 
exchange  information  on  infringements  and  about 
transport  managers  in  a  fully  automated  mode.  The 
exchange of information is based on Regulation (EC) 
No 1071/2009 establishing common rules concerning 
the  conditions  to  be  complied  with  to  pursue  the 
occupation of road transport operator, Regulation (EC) 
No  1072/2009  on  common  rules  for  access  to  the 
international  road  haulage  market  and  Regulation 
(EC)  No  1073/2009  on  common  rules  for  access  to 
the international market for coach and bus services. 

be 

will 
operational 
in early 2013 

all 
of 

Almost 
content 
the 
messages  is 
predefined 
and 
therefore 
multilingual 

Competent 
Authorities of 
EU 
and 
EFTA 
countries 
(one  contact 
per 
point 
country) 

In  2008 

EUCARIS  stands  for  EUropean  CAR  and  driving 
licence  Information  System.  The  system  has  been 
developed  by  and  for  national  authorities  and  is 
operated  by  a  national  organisation  (RDW).  With 
EUCARIS  countries  can  connect  their  registries  and 
communicate  directly. 
the  EUCARIS 
application  was 
introduced  by  Council  Decisions 
2008/615/JHA and 2008/616/JHA (formerly known as 
the Prüm Treaty) for combating crime and is supposed 
to connect all EU MS by mid 2011. Currently several 
Member  States  are  involved  in  EUCARIS  for  the 
exchange  of  information  on  vehicle  registration  (11 
Member  States)  and  on  driving  licences  (7  Member 
States).  The  exchange  is  based  on  different  legal 
frameworks. 

Eudamed  is  a  secure  web-based  portal  acting  as  a 
central  repository  for  information  exchange  between 
national competent authorities and the Commission. It 
is not publicly accessible. Eudamed is currently being 
used  by  a  number  of  Member  States  on  a  voluntary 
basis  and  will  be  obligatory  as  from  May  2011.  The 
aim  of Eudamed is to strengthen market surveillance 
and  transparency  in  the  field  of  medical  devices  by 
providing  Member  State  competent  authorities  with 
fast  access  to  information  on  manufacturers  and 
authorised representatives, on devices and certificates 
and on vigilance and clinical investigation data. It also 
contributes  to  a  uniform  application  of  the  Directives, 
in particular for registration requirements. 

partly 
operational 
in 
7 
countries    ( 
supposed  to 
fully 
be 
operational 
in 2011) 

2004 

No, just EN 

1 

Approx. 30 

Approx. 
Million 
medical 
advice 
messages 
are 
exchanged 

being 

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IT Tool 

EU policy 
area 

Short description 

Operational 
since 

Multilingual 

Exchange 
volume 

of 

No 
registered 
public 
authorities 

European 
Computerise
d  System  for 
Exchanging 
Information 
on  Criminal 
Convictions 
(ECRIS) 

Justice 

IMI  

Internal 
Market  

ECRIS  is  a  decentralised  information  technology 
in 
system  based  on  criminal  record  databases 
Member  States.  It  consists  of  an  interconnection 
software 
information 
that  allows  exchanges  of 
between  national  databases  and  a  common 
communication infrastructure, which will initially be the 
Trans-European  Services  for  Telematics  between 
Administrations (S-TESTA) network. 

is  being  used 

IMI is a single information system designed to support 
administrative  cooperation  obligations  under  various 
Directives in the field of the internal market. Currently 
it 
the  Professional 
to  support 
Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC) and the Services 
Directive (2006/123/EC) and in 2011 a pilot project to 
support the Posting of Workers Directive (1996/71/EC) 
is due to begin (still to be confirmed). 

2012 

 Yes 

 100 000 
messages 
per  month 
estimated 

 Not  known 
yet 

February 
2008 

Yes 

1404 in 2009 

5700  public 
authorities, 
10 000 users  

RAPEX 

Health 
and 
Consumer 
protection 

the  exception  of 

RAPEX is the EU rapid alert system for all dangerous 
food, 
consumer  products,  with 
pharmaceutical  and  medical  devices. 
It  allows 
Member  States  via  central  contact  points  and  the 
Commission 
information  on 
measures taken to prevent or restrict the marketing or 
use of products posing a serious risk to the health and 
safety  of  consumers  in  accordance  with  article  22  of 
Regulation 765/2008. 

to  rapidly  exchange 

Current 
version since 
2004 

RASFF 

Health 
and 
Consumer 
protection 

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) 
was  put  in  place  to  provide  food  and  feed  control 
authorities  with  an  effective 
to  exchange 
information on measures taken responding to serious 
risks  detected  in  relation  to  food  or  feed.  This 
exchange  of  information  helps  Member  States  act 
more rapidly and in a coordinated manner in response 
to a health threat caused by food or feed. 

tool 

Since 1979 

RESPER 

Transport 

RESPER  interconnects  national  electronic  registers 
for  Driving  licences  in  order  to  enable  the  Member 
issuing  authorities  an 
States  Driving  Licence 
automatic exchange of information in accordance with 
Directive 126/2006/EC. 

be 

Will 
operational 
as  of  19  Jan 
2013 

No 
Notifications 
only 
are 
being 
translated 
into 
Interfaces 
will 
multilingual 
in 
2011 

Spring 

EN. 

be 

only 

No, 
information 
is 
translated 
into 
Interfaces 
will  become 
multi-lingual 
in 2011. 

EN. 

question 
are 
in 

Standardise
d 
sets 
available 
all 
languages, 
free 
not 
necessary 

text 

is 

1993 in 2009 

not known 

8000 
2009 

for 

109 

Mio 

 30 
messages  
per anno 

 Likely  that  it 
include 
will 
CAs  outside 
the  EU  and 
EFTA 

SOLVIT 

Internal 
Market  

SOLVIT  is  an  on-line  problem  solving  network  in 
which  EU  Member  States  work  together  to  solve 
without  legal  proceedings  problems  caused  by  the 
misapplication  of 
law  by  public 
Internal  Market 
authorities. 

July 2002 

Yes 

1540 
SOLVIT 
cases  were 
submitted  in 
2009 

One  Solvit 
per 
centre 
EEA 
state 
(30) 

EN 

13 

   EN 

 
IT Tool 

EU policy 
area 

Short description 

Operational 
since 

Multilingual 

Exchange 
volume 

Tachonet 

Transport 

Tachonet  interconnects  national  electronic  registers 
for Driver-cards for the Digital Tachograph  in order to 
enable Member States Driver card issuing authorities 
an  automatic  exchange  of  information  as  stated  in 
Regulation (EEC) n°3821/85 

2005 

question 
are 
in 

Standardise
d 
sets 
available 
all 
languages, 
free 
not 
necessary 

text 

is 

Mio 

7 
messages 
between  Jan 
- Nov 2010 

of 

No 
registered 
public 
authorities 

Currently  33 
countries 
(EU  Member 
States  and 
AETR 
countries); 
50 
participating 
States  when 
all 
AETR 
countries are 
connected  

TRACES 

Health 
and 
Consumer 
protection 

is  an 

TRACES 
internet-based  network  between 
veterinary  authorities  in  EU  countries  and  business 
operators.  The  system  makes  it  possible  to  produce 
and  exchange  information  on  all  animal  health  and 
welfare  and  public  health  certificates  accompanying 
animals,  semen,  embryos  and  products  of  animal 
It  speeds  up  administrative  procedures  - 
origin. 
business  operators  can  make  requests  online,  for 
imports as well as trade within the EU. 

2004 

TRIS 

Enterprise 
and 
Industry 

In  the  field  of  products  and  information  society 
services,  Directive  98/34/EC  obliges  Member  States 
to  notify  to  the  Commission  and  to  other  Member 
States their technical regulations (rules on information 
society  services)  at  a  draft  stage.  TRIS  contains  a 
database  of  notifications  which  can  be  searched  by 
country, number, date, keyword, etc. 

1990 

Interfaces 
yes. 
Documents 
are  already 
available 
in 
all 
languages 
they 
before 
are uploaded 
to 
the 
system. 

Draft  text  is 
translated 
into 
all 
languages  if 
document  is 
less  than  30 
pages 

in 

1300 
October 
2010 

1000 

3099 in 2009 

31 

EN 

14 

   EN