Article 1 Subject matter and objective
1. This Decision establishes, for the period 2010-2015, a programme on interoperability solutions for European public administrations, including local and regional administrations and Community institutions and bodies, providing common and shared solutions facilitating interoperability (the ISA programme). 2. The objective of the ISA programme is to support cooperation between European public administrations by facilitating the efficient and effective electronic cross-border and cross-sectoral interaction between such administrations, including bodies performing public functions on their behalf, enabling the delivery of electronic public services supporting the implementation of Community policies and activities.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply: (a) ‘interoperability’ means the ability of disparate and diverse organisations to interact towards mutually beneficial and agreed common goals, involving the sharing of information and knowledge between the organisations, through the business processes they support, by means of the exchange of data between their respective ICT systems; (b) ‘solutions’ means common frameworks, common services and generic tools; (c) ‘common frameworks’ means strategies, specifications, methodologies, guidelines and similar approaches and documents; (d) ‘common services’ means operational applications and infrastructures of a generic nature which meet common user requirements across policy areas; (e) ‘generic tools’ means reference platforms, shared and collaborative platforms, common components and similar building blocks which meet common user requirements across policy areas; (f) ‘actions’ means studies, projects and accompanying measures; (g) ‘accompanying measures’ means strategic and awareness-raising measures, measures in support of the management of the ISA programme and measures in relation to the sharing of experience and the exchange and promotion of good practices.
Article 3 Activities
The ISA programme shall support and promote: (a) the establishment and improvement of common frameworks in support of cross-border and cross-sectoral interoperability; (b) the assessment of the ICT implications of proposed or adopted Community legislation and planning for the introduction of ICT systems to support the implementation of such legislation; (c) the operation and improvement of existing common services and the establishment, industrialisation, operation and improvement of new common services, including the interoperability of public key infrastructures (PKI); (d) the improvement of existing reusable generic tools and the establishment, provision and improvement of new reusable generic tools.
Article 4 General principles
Actions launched or continued under the ISA programme shall be based on the following principles: (a) technological neutrality and adaptability; (b) openness; (c) reusability; (d) privacy and protection of personal data; and (e) security.
Article 5 Actions
1. The Community shall, in cooperation with the Member States, implement the actions specified in the rolling work programme established under Article 9, in accordance with the implementation rules laid down in Article 8. Such actions shall be implemented by the Commission. 2. A study shall have one phase and be concluded by the final report. 3. A project shall, where appropriate, have three phases: (a) the inception phase, which leads to the establishment of the project charter; (b) the execution phase, the end of which shall be marked by the execution report; and (c) the operational phase, which starts when a solution is made available for use. The relevant project phases shall be defined when the action is included in the rolling work programme. 4. The implementation of the ISA programme shall be supported by accompanying measures.
Article 6 Project charter and execution report
1. The project charter shall comprise a description of: (a) the scope, objectives and problem or opportunity, including the expected beneficiaries and benefits of a solution and the quantitative and qualitative indicators for measuring such benefits; (b) the approach, including the organisational aspects of the project, such as phases, outputs and milestones, and measures to facilitate multilingual communication; (c) stakeholders and users, and the related governance structure; (d) details of the solution, including its coherence and dependencies in relation to other solutions, a breakdown of anticipated costs, timing and requirements and an estimate of the total costs of ownership, including, if any, the annual operational costs; (e) features of the solution; and (f) constraints, including security and data protection requirements. 2. The execution report shall comprise a description of: (a) the scope, objectives and problem or opportunity measured against the project charter; (b) the project effectiveness, including a measurement of achievements, incurred costs, actual timing and requirements against the project charter, an analysis of the expected return on investment and the total costs of ownership, including the annual operational costs; (c) organisational aspects, including the suitability of the applied governance structure and, where appropriate, recommendations concerning a post-execution governance structure; (d) where appropriate, the proposed plan for rolling out the solution at the operational phase and the service level indicators; and (e) the end-user and technical support material available.
Article 7 Solutions
1. Common frameworks shall be established and maintained by means of studies. Studies shall also serve as a means of supporting the assessment of the ICT implications of proposed or adopted Community legislation and the planning for introduction of solutions to support the implementation of such legislation. 2. Studies shall be published and forwarded to the European Parliament committees responsible as a basis for any future legislative amendments necessary to ensure the interoperability of the ICT systems used by European public administrations. 3. Generic tools shall be established and maintained by means of projects. Projects shall likewise be a means of establishing, industrialising, operating and maintaining common services.
Article 8 Implementation rules
1. In the implementation of the ISA programme due consideration shall be given to the European Interoperability Strategy and the European Interoperability Framework. 2. Involvement of the largest possible number of Member States in a study or project shall be encouraged. A study or project shall be open for accession at any stage, and Member States not involved in a study or project shall be encouraged to join at a later stage. 3. In order to ensure interoperability between national and Community systems, common frameworks, common services and generic tools shall be specified with reference to existing European standards or publicly available or open specifications for information exchange and service integration. 4. The establishment or improvement of solutions shall, where appropriate, build on or be accompanied by the sharing of experience and the exchange and promotion of good practices. 5. In order to avoid duplication and to speed up the establishment of solutions, results achieved by other relevant Community and Member State initiatives shall be taken into account, where appropriate. In order to maximise synergies and ensure complementary and combined efforts, actions shall, where appropriate, be coordinated with other relevant Community initiatives. 6. The initiation of actions, the definition of the phases of such actions and the establishment of project charters and execution reports shall be carried out and monitored by the Commission as part of the implementation of the rolling work programme established in accordance with Article 9.
Article 9 Rolling work programme
1. The Commission shall establish a rolling work programme to implement actions, for the duration of the application of this Decision. 2. The Commission shall approve the rolling work programme and, at least once a year, any amendment thereof. 3. Without prejudice to Article 10(4), the management procedure referred to in Article 12(2) shall apply in respect of the approval by the Commission of the rolling work programme and any amendments thereof. 4. For each action, the rolling work programme shall, where appropriate, include: (a) a description of the scope, objectives, problem or opportunity, expected beneficiaries and benefits and the organisational and technical approach; (b) a breakdown of the anticipated costs and, where appropriate, the milestones to be reached. 5. A project may be included in the rolling work programme in any of its phases.
Article 10 Budgetary provisions
1. Funds shall be released on the basis of the achievement of the following specific milestones: (a) for the initiation of a study, an accompanying measure or the inception phase of a project, the inclusion of the action in the rolling work programme; (b) for the initiation of the execution phase of a project, the project charter; (c) for the initiation of the subsequent operational phase of a project, the execution report. 2. Milestones to be reached during the execution phase and the operational phase, if any, shall be defined in the rolling work programme. 3. Where a project is included in the rolling work programme in its execution or operational phase, funds shall be released upon the inclusion of that project in the rolling work programme. 4. Amendments to the rolling work programme concerning budgetary allocations of more than EUR 400 000 per action shall be adopted in accordance with the management procedure referred to in Article 12(2). 5. The ISA programme shall be implemented in accordance with Community public procurement rules.
Article 11 Community financial contribution
1. The establishment and improvement of common frameworks and generic tools shall be funded fully by the ISA programme. The use of such frameworks and tools shall be financed by the users. 2. The establishment, industrialisation and improvement of common services shall be funded fully by the ISA programme. The operation of such services shall be funded fully by the ISA programme to the extent that their use may serve Community interests. In other cases, use of those services, including their operation on a decentralised basis, shall be financed by the users. 3. Accompanying measures shall be funded fully by the ISA programme.
Article 12 Committee
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the committee on Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (the ISA Committee). 2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. 3. The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.
Article 13 Monitoring and evaluation
1. The Commission shall regularly monitor the implementation of the ISA programme. It shall explore synergies with complementary Community programmes. The Commission shall report annually to the ISA Committee on the implementation of the ISA programme. 2. Solutions shall be subject to a review every two years. 3. The ISA programme shall be subject to an interim evaluation and a final evaluation, the results of which shall be communicated to the European Parliament and the Council by 31 December 2012 and 31 December 2015 respectively. In this context the responsible committee of the European Parliament may invite the Commission to present the evaluation results and answer questions put by its members. The evaluations shall examine issues such as the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, utility, sustainability and coherence of the ISA programme’s actions and shall assess performance against the objective of the ISA programme and the rolling work programme. The final evaluation shall, in addition, examine the extent to which the ISA programme has achieved its objective. The evaluations shall also examine the benefits of the actions to the Community for the advancement of common policies, identify areas for potential improvement and verify synergies with other Community initiatives in the area of cross-border and cross-sectoral interoperability.
Article 14 Interaction with stakeholders
The Commission shall bring together relevant stakeholders for the purposes of exchanging views among themselves and with the Commission on issues addressed by the ISA programme. To this end, the Commission shall organise conferences, workshops and other meetings. The Commission shall also make use of electronic interactive platforms and may use any other means for interaction which it considers appropriate.
Article 15 International cooperation
1. The ISA programme shall be open to participation, within the framework of their respective agreements with the Community, by the countries of the European Economic Area and the candidate countries. 2. Cooperation with other third countries and international organisations or bodies shall be encouraged, notably within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and Eastern Partnership and with neighbouring countries, in particular those of the Western Balkans and of the Black Sea region. Related costs shall not be covered by the ISA programme. 3. The ISA programme shall promote, where appropriate, reuse of its solutions by third countries.
Article 16 Non-Community initiatives
Without prejudice to other Community policies, solutions established or operated by the ISA programme may be used by non-Community initiatives, provided that no extra costs are incurred for the general budget of the European Union and the main Community objective of the solution is not compromised.
Article 17 Financial provisions
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of the Community action under this Decision for the period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2015 shall be EUR 164 100 000, of which EUR 103 500 000 is for the period from 1 January 2010 until 31 December 2013. For the period following 31 December 2013, the amount shall be deemed to be confirmed if it is consistent for this phase with the financial framework in force for the period commencing in 2014. 2. The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial framework.
Article 18 Entry into force
This Decision shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union . It shall apply from 1 January 2010 until 31 December 2015.