Brussels, 26/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - A new programme aiming to improve electronic cooperation between the public administrations of the Member States of the EU entered into force on Friday 23 October. This programme, known as "Interoperability Solutions the European Public Administrations" (ISA), will help to facilitate communication between administrations throughout Europe. It draws on the experience acquired since 1999 with the two previous programmes, IDA II and IDABC. ISA, which will run from 2010 to 2015, will have a financial envelope of 164 million euros.
"The new ISA programme gives a boost to our long-standing efforts to create a European Union free from electronic barriers at national borders", said Siim Kallas, the European Commissioner for administration, audit and the fight against fraud, in a press release.
The ISA will allow actions to be carried out in four fields of activity: - joint frameworks to support interoperability; - re-usable generic tools; - common services; - an analysis of the implications for ICT (information and communication technologies) of the implementation of Community legislation. The ISA is managed by the Commission working closely together with the Member States of the EU represented on the programme's management board. ISA's webpage: http: //ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7706 (L.C./trans.fl)