CELEX: 51998PC0785
Language: en
Date: 1998-12-15
Title: Amended proposal for a Council Decision adopting a series of actions and measures in order to ensure interoperability of an access to trans-European networks for the electronic Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA)

C 10/8               EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                  14.1.1999
2.ÚÙDetailed rules for the application of this Regulation                                     Article 6
shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid
down in Article 23 of Regulation (EEC) No 1766/92 or,               Action under this Regulation shall be covered by ArticleØ3 of
as appropriate, the corresponding articles of the other             Regulation (EEC) No 729/70, including the costs arising
regulations on the common organisation of markets.                  from the application of the last subparagraph of Article
                                                                    4(1) of this Regulation.
                          Article 5
The book value of agricultural products from inter-                                           Article 7
vention shall be determined in accordance with the                  This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
procedure laid down in Article 13 of Council Regulation             following its publication in the Official Journal of the
(EEC) No 729/70Ø(Î).                                                European Communities.
(Î)ÙOJ L 94, 28.4.1970, p. 13. Regulation last amended by           This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
    Regulation (EC) No 1287/95 (OJ L 125, 8.6.1995, p. 1).          directly applicable in all Member States.
              Amended proposal for a Council Decision 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)Ø(Î)
                                                        (1999/C 10/05)
                                                    (Text with EEA relevance)
                                            COM(1998) 785 final — 97/0341(SYN)
              (Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 189a(2) of the EC-Treaty on 16 December
                                                              1998)
              (Î)ÙOJ C 54, 21.2.1998, p. 12.
                      ORIGINAL TEXT                                                       AMENDED TEXT
                                                           Recital 11
                                             (based on Parliament amendment 1)
(11)ÙWhereas it is essential to maximise interoperability           (11)ÙWhereas it is essential to maximise the use of
      in order to achieve economies of scale and to                       standards, publicly available specifications and
      increase the benefits of such networks;                             public domain applications to ensure seamless inter-
                                                                          operability in order to achieve economies of scale
                                                                          and to increase the benefits of such networks;
                                                       Recital 20a (new)
                                             (based on Parliament amendment 4)
                                                                    (20a)ÙWhereas a financial reference amount, within the
                                                                           meaning of point 2 of the declaration by the
                                                                           European Parliament, the Council and the
                                                                           Commission of 6 March 1995, is included in this
                                                                           Decision for the entire duration of the
                                                                           programme, without thereby affecting the powers
                                                                           of the budget authority as they are defined by the
                                                                           TreatyØ(Î);
                                                                    (Î)ÙOJ C 102, 4.4.1996, p. 4.
 ---pagebreak--- 14.1.1999            EN              Official Journal of the European Communities                                  C 10/9
                       ORIGINAL TEXT                                                    AMENDED TEXT
                                                        Recital 24
                                           (based on Parliament amendment 6)
(24)ÙWhereas the Council has adopted Decision                    (24)ÙWhereas actions have been carried out under
      95/468/EC on a Community contribution for                        Decision 95/468/EC on a Community contribution
      telematic interchange of data between adminis-                   for telematic interchange of data between adminis-
      trations in the Community (IDA);                                 trations in the Community (IDA);
                                                      Article 1(1)(b)
                                           (based on Parliament amendment 7)
b)Ùthe achievement of greater costefficiency, respon-            b)Ùthe achievement of greater costefficiency, respon-
   siveness, flexibility and adaptability to technological          siveness, flexibility and adaptability to technological
   change and market evolution in the establishment and             change and market evolution in the establishment and
   operation of such networks;                                      operation of such networks, in national adminis-
                                                                    trations as well as between the latter and the
                                                                    Community administration;
                                                 Article 5, 1st paragraph
                                           (based on Parliament amendment 8)
The Community shall ensure that common tools and                 The Community shall ensure that common tools and
techniques are developed for sectoral network                    techniques are acquired from the public domain or from
applications with the aim of reducing the overall costs          the market, or otherwise developed for sectoral network
associated with application development, rationalizing           applications with the aim of reducing the overall costs
and improving technical solutions, decreasing the time           associated with application development, rationalizing
required for the implementation of operational systems,          and improving technical solutions, decreasing the time
and streamlining system maintenance.                             required for the implementation of operational systems,
                                                                 and streamlining system maintenance.
                                                       Article 13(1)
                                          (based on Parliament amendment 10)
1.ÙÙÙTwo years after the entry into force of this                1.ÙÙÙA qualitative and quantitative evaluation shall be
Decision or any subsequent amendment of this Decision,           carried out after two years of implementation and at
and at three-yearly intervals thereafter, the Commission         three-yearly intervals thereafter. The findings of this
shall, in coordination with the Member States, carry out         evaluation shall be forwarded to the budgetary authority
an evaluation of the implementation of this Decision.            before the first reading of the budget for the financial
                                                                 year 2001.
 ---documentbreak---      COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                         Brussels, 15.12.1998
                                         COM(1998) 785 final
                                         97/0341 (SYN)
                    Amended proposal for a
                     COUNCIL DECISION
   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)
 (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                       of the EC-Treaty)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                           EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
The Commission hereby presents a modified proposal for a European Parliament and
Council Decision on 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). The modified proposal
incorporates those amendments proposed by the European Parliament at First Reading
which can be accepted by the Commission.
1. Introduction
On 12 December 1997, the Commission proposed to the European Parliament and the
Council the adoption of 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). '
This Commission proposal accompanied a proposal to adopt a series of guidelines
governing the establishment of telematic networks in support of the Community
decision-making process and of Community policies and activities. Both decisions
together provide a balanced framework which will form the basis of a. second phase of
the IDA programme.
The Economic and Social Committee gave a favourable opinion on the 29th April
 1998.
The Committee of the Regions gave a favourable opinion on the 14th May 1998.
On the 18th November 1998, the European Parliament adopted a favourable resolution
at its first reading with regard to the Commission proposal on a series of actions and
measures to ensure interoperability of IDA networks, and proposed 11 amendments.
  OJC54, 21.2.1998, p. 12.
                                                                                       «L
 ---pagebreak--- 2. Amendments rejected
IDA networks must necessarily take into account the great diversity of the
organisations and people that they are going to connect. The original Commission
proposal for the interoperability decision includes this consideration in recital 18,
which refers to the need to preserve a balance between national specificities and
common network requirements. In its broad meaning, the term used encompasses
technical, organisational, administrative, linguistic and, of course, cultural diversity.
Amendment 2 focuses on only one of these aspects (i.e. cultural specificity) and
therefore the Commission has not incorporated it into its amended proposal.
Pursuant to Article 129d CE, the Council shall adopt measures to ensure
interoperability of networks in accordance with the co-operation procedure. Upon the
entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the co-decision procedure will apply to
these measures. Until such moment, the legislative proposal for the interoperability
decision cannot accommodate amendment 11, whereby proposals for the revision of
this decision should be submitted to both the European Parliament and the Council.
The Commission would like to stress that the Institutions should respect the agreed
standard texts, especially in respect of the matters covered by the Joint Declaration of
the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 6 March 1995. In
respect of committee procedures, the initial proposal of the Commission uses the
exact wording of Article 2 of the Council decision of 13 July 1987 (87/373/CE) in
describing the rules governing Procedure 2, variant a. Therefore, amendments 3, 5 and
9 will not be incorporated into the amended proposal of the Commission.
 3. Amendments accepted
Amendments 1, 6, 7, 8 and 10 have been incorporated without adjustment into an
amended proposal. With the above-mentioned reference to standard texts, the
Commission has also incorporated the substance of amendment 4.
The amendments accepted by the Commission contribute to a clearer motivation of
this decision, to enhancing the orientation of the IDA programme towards market-
based solutions, to improving both its structural and technical coherence and to
making it more transparent. In accordance with Article 189a paragraph 2 of the EC
Treaty, the Commission amends its initial proposal, incorporating these amendments.
                                                                                          3
 ---pagebreak---                                 Amended Proposal for a
                                COUNCIL DECISION
              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)
                               (Text with EEA relevance)
(Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 189a(2) of the EC Treaty on XX
1998)
              ORIGINAL TEXP                                           AMENDED TEXT
                                               Recital 11
                                 (based on Parliament amendment 1)
(11) Whereas it is essential to maximise                (11) Whereas it is essential to maximise the
     interoperability in order to achieve                    use of standards, publicly available
     economies of scale and to increase the                  specifications    and public domain
     benefits of such networks;                              applications     to    ensure     seamless
                                                             interoperability in order to achieve
                                                             economies of scale and to increase the
                                                             benefits of such networks;
                                           Recital 20a (new)
                                 (based on Parliament amendment 4)
                                                        (20a) Whereas a financial reference amount,
                                                             within the meaning of point 2 of the
                                                             declaration by the European Parliament,
                                                             the Council and the Commission of 6
                                                             March 1995, is included in this Decision
                                                             for the entire duration of the programme,
                                                             without thereby affecting the powers of
                                                             the budget authority as they are defined
                                                             by the Treaty3;
  OJC 54, 21.2.1998, p. 12.
  OJC 102,4.4.1996, p. 4.
                                                                                                 U
 ---pagebreak---                                         Recital 24
                           (based on Parliament amendment 6)
(24) Whereas the Council has adopted                      (24) Whereas actions have been carried out
     Decision 95/468/EC on a Community                          under Decision 95/468/EC on a
     contribution for telematic interchange of                  Community contribution for telematic
      data between administrations in the                       interchange       of     data      between
      Community (IDA);                                          administrations in the Community (IDA);
                                       Article l(l)(b)
                            (based on Parliament amendment 7)
 (b) the achievement of greater cost-                      (b) the achievement of greater cost-
      efficiency, responsiveness, flexibility and                efficiency, responsiveness, flexibility and
      adaptability to technological change and                   adaptability to technological change and
      market evolution in the establishment and                  market evolution in the establishment and
       operation of such networks;                               operation of such networks, in national
                                                                 administrations as well as between the
                                                                 latter and the Community administration;
                                          Article 5, 1st paragraph
                                   (based on Parliament amendment 8)
 The Community shall ensure that common                    The Community shall ensure that common
 tools and techniques are developed for sectoral           tools and techniques are acquired from the
 network applications with the aim of reducing             public domain or from the market, or otherwise
 the overall costs associated with application             developed for sectoral network applications
 development, rationalizing and improving                  with the aim of reducing the overall costs
 technical solutions, decreasing the time                  associated with application development,
 required for the implementation of operational            rationalizing      and    improving     technical
 systems, and streamlining system maintenance.             solutions, decreasing the time required for the
                                                           implementation of operational systems, and
                                                           streamlining system maintenance.
 ---pagebreak---                                             Article 13(1)
                               (based on Parliament amendment 10)
1. Two years after the entry into force of this        1. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation
Decision or any subsequent amendment of this           shall be carried out after two years of
Decision, and at three-yearly intervals                implementation and at three-yearly intervals
thereafter, the Commission shall, in                  thereafter. The findings of this evaluation
coordination with the Member States, carry ouï         shall be forwarded to the budgetary authority
an evaluation of the implementation of this            before the first reading of the budget for the
Decision.                      financial                         year 2001.
                                                                                                 é
 ---pagebreak---                                                                 ISSN 0254-1475
                                                           COM(98) 785 final
                                             DOCUMENTS
EN                                                           15 16 06 01
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-98-781-EN-C
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
L-2985 Luxembourg
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