(1)

In accordance with Article 154 of the Treaty, to help achieve the objectives referred to in Articles 14 and 158 thereof and to enable citizens of the Union, economic operators and regional and local communities to derive full benefit from the setting-up of an area without internal frontiers, the Community contributes to the establishment and development of trans-European networks.

(2)

Facilitating the mobility of businesses and citizens across European borders contributes directly to removing the obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital as well as to the free establishment of nationals of a Member State in the territory of another Member State.

(3)

In accordance with Article 157 of the Treaty, the Community and the Member States are to ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Community's industry exist.

(4)

By Decisions No 1719/1999/EC (4) and No 1720/1999/EC (5) the European Parliament and the Council adopted a series of actions, horizontal measures and guidelines including the identification of projects of common interest, with regard to trans-European networks for the electronic interchange of data between administrations (IDA). As those Decisions will expire on 31 December 2004, it is necessary to provide for a framework for the follow-up of the IDA programme as set up by those Decisions.

(5)

The IDABC programme will build on the successes of the preceding IDA programmes, which have improved the effectiveness of cross-border cooperation between public administrations.

(6)

In establishing and implementing the IDABC programme, which is the follow-up to previous IDA programmes, due account should be taken of the achievements of those programmes.

(7)

Work completed under the IDABC programme is likely to form the basis for further work. This, combined with the fast pace of technological change, will require the programme to be adaptable to future developments.

(8)

The European Council, meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, adopted conclusions aimed at preparing the transition of the European Union by 2010 to the world's most competitive, dynamic, and knowledge-based economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

(9)

The European Council, meeting in Brussels in March 2003, drew attention to the importance of connecting Europe and so strengthening the internal market and underlined that electronic communications are a powerful engine for growth, competitiveness and jobs in the European Union and that action should be taken to consolidate this strength and to contribute to the achievement of the Lisbon goals. To this end, the development and establishment of pan-European eGovernment Services and the underlying telematic networks should be supported and promoted.

(10)

The elimination of obstacles to electronic communications between public administrations at all levels and with businesses as well as with citizens contributes to improving the European business environment, lowering the administrative burden and reducing red tape. It may also encourage businesses and citizens of the European Union to reap the benefits of the information society and to interact electronically with public administrations.

(11)

Enhanced delivery of eGovernment services enables businesses and citizens to interact with public administrations without special Information Technology (IT) skills or prior knowledge of the internal functional organisation of a public administration.

(12)

The deployment of trans-European telematic networks to interchange information between public administrations, Community institutions and other entities, such as European agencies, services and organisations devoted to furthering the Community's interests, should not be considered as the end, but as the means to achieve interoperable information and interactive eGovernment services at the pan-European level, building on and extending to citizens and businesses the benefits resulting from the cooperation between public administrations across Europe.

(13)

The Commission undertakes and will update, as appropriate, comprehensive consultations involving all stakeholders in order to carry out a study, involving all relevant sectors, focusing on the needs of and benefits for citizens and businesses, with a view to preparing a list of necessary and beneficial pan-European eGovernment services that could be implemented within the whole duration of this Decision.

(14)

Pan-European eGovernment services permit public administrations, businesses and citizens to interact better with public administrations across borders. The delivery of these services requires the availability of efficient, effective and interoperable information and communication systems between public administrations as well as interoperable administrative front and back office processes in order to exchange in a secure manner, understand and process public sector information across Europe.

(15)

For the delivery of pan-European eGovernment Services it is necessary to take into account the provisions of, in particular, Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (6) and Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (7).

(16)

It is important that, in the context of the national efforts in support of eGovernment, due consideration be given to the priorities of the European Union.

(17)

It is essential to maximise the use of standards or publicly available specifications or open specifications for information exchange and service integration to ensure seamless interoperability and thereby increasing the benefits of pan-European eGovernment services and the underlying trans-European telematic networks.

(18)

The establishment of pan-European eGovernment services and the underlying telematic networks of which the Community is a user or a beneficiary is incumbent on both the Community and the Member States.

(19)

It is essential to ensure close cooperation between the Member States and the Community and, where relevant, the Community institutions and stakeholders.

(20)

Actions at Community level should stimulate the successful development of eGovernment services at the pan-European level and the associated measures required at all appropriate levels, taking due account of the linguistic diversity of the Community.

(21)

While the participation of all Member States in actions in support of pan-European eGovernment services provided by public administrations to businesses and citizens should be encouraged, actions comprising several Member States can be initiated and Member States not participating should be encouraged to join at a later stage.

(22)

Cross-fertilisation with relevant national, regional and local initiatives and delivery of eGovernment services within the Member States should be ensured.

(23)

The Action Plan for eEurope 2005, endorsed by the European Council meeting in Seville in June 2002, in particular the chapter on eGovernment, underlines the importance of the IDA programme in fostering the establishment of pan-European eGovernment services in support of cross-border activities thus complementing and providing a framework for initiatives regarding eGovernment at all appropriate levels.

(24)

In order to make efficient use of the Community's financial resources, it is necessary to share the cost of pan-European eGovernment services and the underlying telematic networks between the Member States and the Community on an equitable basis.

(25)

Productivity, responsiveness and flexibility in the establishment and operation of pan-European eGovernment services and the underlying telematic networks can best be achieved by embracing a market-oriented approach and thus selecting suppliers on a competitive basis in a multi-vendor environment, while ensuring, whenever appropriate, the operational and financial sustainability of measures.

(26)

Pan-European eGovernment services should be developed in the context of specific projects of common interest and specific horizontal measures. Other horizontal measures should be put in place to support the interoperable delivery of these services by establishing or enhancing infrastructure services.

(27)

The IDABC programme should consequently also be open to participation by the countries of the European Economic Area and the candidate countries, and cooperation with other third countries should be encouraged. International entities may take part in the implementation of projects of common interest and horizontal measures at their own costs.

(28)

In order to ensure the sound management of the financial resources of the European Union and to avoid needless proliferation of equipment, repetition of investigations and diversity of approach, it should be possible to use services developed under the IDA programme or the IDABC programme in the framework of the common foreign and security policy and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, in accordance with Titles V and VI of the Treaty on European Union.

(29)

Since the objective of establishing pan-European eGovernment services cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(30)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (8).

(31)

This Decision lays down, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial framework constituting the prime reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure (9), for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure,

(a)

enable the efficient, effective and secure interchange of information between public administrations at all appropriate levels, as well as between such administrations and the Community institutions or other entities as appropriate;

(b)

extend the benefits of the interchange of information as specified under (a) in order to facilitate the delivery of services to businesses and citizens taking into account their needs;

(c)

support the Community decision-making process and facilitate communication between the Community institutions by developing the related strategic framework at the pan-European level;

(d)

achieve interoperability, both within and across different policy areas and, where appropriate, with businesses and citizens, notably on the basis of a European Interoperability Framework;

(e)

contribute to the efforts of Member State public administrations and the Community in terms of streamlined operations, prompter implementation, security, efficiency, transparency, service culture and responsiveness;

(f)

promote the spread of good practice and encourage the development of innovative telematic solutions in public administrations.

(a)

‘Telematic network’ means a comprehensive data-communication system, comprising the physical infrastructure and connections as well as the related services and application layers, thus enabling the interchange of information electronically between and within public administrations as well as between public administrations and businesses and citizens;

(b)

‘Pan-European eGovernment services’ means cross-border public sector information and interactive services, either sectoral or horizontal, i.e. of cross-sectoral nature, provided by European public administrations to European public administrations, businesses, including their associations, and citizens, including their associations, by means of interoperable trans-European telematic networks;

(c)

‘Project of common interest’ means a project in the policy areas identified in Annex I, which is undertaken or continued under this Decision, and which concerns the establishment or enhancement of pan-European eGovernment services;

(d)

‘Infrastructure services’ means services provided to meet generic requirements, comprising technology and software solutions, including a European interoperability framework, security, middleware and network services. Infrastructure services underpin the delivery of pan-European eGovernment services;

(e)

‘Horizontal measure’ means an action as identified in Annex II, which is undertaken or continued under this Decision, and which concerns the establishment or enhancement of horizontal pan-European eGovernment services, infrastructure services or strategic and support activities;

(f)

‘Interoperability’ means the ability of information and communication technology (ICT) systems and of the business processes they support to exchange data and to enable information and knowledge to be shared.

(a)

a description of planned organisational development and, whenever appropriate, the re-engineering of working procedures;

(b)

objectives, functionalities, participants and technical approach;

(c)

measures to facilitate multilingual communication;

(d)

measures to ensure security and protection of data;

(e)

the assignment of roles to the Community and to the Member States;

(f)

a breakdown of the expected costs and a description of the expected benefits, including assessment criteria for measuring those benefits beyond the implementation phase and a detailed analysis of return on investment as well as milestones to be reached;

(g)

a schema which defines an equitable sharing between the Community and the Member States and, whenever appropriate, other entities, of the operational and maintenance costs of the pan-European eGovernment and infrastructure services on conclusion of the implementation phase.

(a)

a description of the objectives, scope, rationale, potential beneficiaries, functionalities and technical approach;

(b)

a breakdown of past expenditure and milestones reached, as well as the costs and benefits anticipated and the milestones to be reached;

(c)

a specification of the horizontal pan-European eGovernment and infrastructure services to be used.

1.

Community policies and activities (in accordance with section B), interinstitutional information exchange (in accordance with section C), international cooperation (in accordance with section D) as well as other networks (in accordance with section E).

2.

Functioning of the European Agencies and bodies and in support of the legal framework arising from the creation of the European Agencies.

3.

Policies related to the free movement of persons, notably in support of the delivery of equal services to citizens and businesses in the various Member States.

4

Actions which, within the framework of Community policies and activities and in unforeseen circumstances, are urgently required to support the action of the Community and the Member States.

1.

Economic and monetary policy.

2.

Consolidation of the ‘acquis communautaire’ following the enlargement of the European Union.

3.

Regional and cohesion policies, notably to facilitate the collection, management, and dissemination of information concerning the implementation of regional and cohesion policies at the level of central and regional public administration.

4.

Community funding, notably to create an interface with existing Commission databases in order to facilitate the access of European organisations, and particularly SMEs, to Community sources of funding.

5.

Statistics, notably regarding the collection and dissemination of statistical information, as well as statistics in support of eGovernment, in order to evaluate interoperability between systems and their efficiency as a measure of success.

6.

Publication of official documents and management of official information services.

7.

Agricultural and fisheries sectors, notably regarding support for the management of agricultural markets and structures, more efficient financial management, exchange of farm accounts data between national agencies and the Commission, and the fight against fraud.

8.

Industry and services sectors, notably concerning the exchange of information between public administrations in charge of business competitiveness issues, and between such public administrations and industry federations.

9.

Competition policy, notably through the implementation of improved electronic data exchange with the national public administrations in order to facilitate information and consultation procedures.

10.

Education, culture and audio-visual sector, notably for the exchange of information concerning content issues on open networks and to promote the development and free circulation of new audio-visual and information services.

11.

Transport sector, notably for the support of the exchange of data concerning drivers, vehicles, ships and transport operators.

12.

Tourism, environment, consumer protection and public health, and public procurement.

13.

Research policy, in particular to facilitate the collection, management and dissemination of information concerning the implementation of coordinated research policies at the level of national public administrations.

14.

Contributions to the objectives of the eEurope initiative and the related action plan, in particular the chapter on eGovernment and security, aimed at benefiting businesses and citizens.

15.

Immigration policy, notably through the implementation of improved electronic data exchange with the national public administrations in order to facilitate information and consultation procedures.

16.

Cooperation between judicial authorities.

17.

Information systems allowing the participation of national parliaments and civil society in the legislative process.

18.

Follow-up of the implementation of Community legislation in the Member States and exchange of information between Member States and Community institutions.

1.

in support of the Community decision-making process and Parliamentary questions;

2.

for the setting-up of the necessary telematic links between the Commission, European Parliament, the Council (including the site of the European Union Presidency-in-office, the Permanent Representation of the Member States and cooperating national ministries) and other Community institutions;

3.

to facilitate multilingualism in interinstitutional information exchanges, means of translation workflow management and translation support tools, the development and sharing of multilingual resources, and the organisation of common access to such resources;

4.

for document sharing between European Agencies and bodies and the Community institutions.

(a)

a portal to provide access to pan-European, multilingual online information and interactive services to businesses and citizens;

(b)

a single point of access to e.g. legal online information services in Member States;

(c)

an interactive application for collecting stakeholders' opinions and experience on issues of public interest and on the functioning of Community policies.

(a)

a secure and reliable communication platform for the interchange of data between public administrations;

(b)

a secure and reliable system for the management of dataflows inter-linked with different workflows;

(c)

a common toolkit for the management of multilingual collaborating web sites and portals;

(d)

platform accreditation with a view to handling classified information;

(e)

establishment and implementation of an authentication policy for networks and projects of common interest;

(f)

security studies and risk analysis in support of networks or other infrastructure services;

(g)

mechanisms to establish trust between certification authorities to allow for the use of electronic certificates in pan-European eGovernment services;

(h)

identification, authorisation, authentication and non-repudiation services for projects of common interest;

(i)

a common framework for sharing and interchanging information and knowledge between European public administrations and with businesses and citizens, including architecture guidelines;

(j)

specification of XML vocabularies, schemae and related XML deliverables to support the interchange of data in networks;

(k)

functional and non-functional model requirements for the management of electronic records in public administrations;

(l)

a metadata framework for public sector information in pan-European applications;

(m)

comparison of open exchange standards with a view to establishing a policy on open formats;

(n)

common specifications and infrastructure services facilitating electronic procurement across Europe;

(o)

machine translation systems and other multilingual tools, including dictionaries, thesaurus and classification systems in support of multilingualism;

(p)

applications to support cooperative work between public administrations;

(q)

applications to support multi-channel access to services;

(r)

open source software-based tools and actions to facilitate the exchange of experiences between, and the take-up of solutions by, public administrations.

1.

Strategic activities in support of the assessment and promotion of pan-European eGovernment services, such as:

2.

Support activities undertaken in support of programme management aiming at monitoring and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the programme, such as:

3.

Support activities undertaken to promote the spread of good practice in the application of information technologies to public administrations, such as: