Brussels, 12/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 12 June, the telecoms council reached broad agreement on the ISA programme to help member states update their public administrations and provide inter-operable digital services at national and European level.
The Presidency's compromise agreement included new measures not in the European Commission's initial draft in order to clarify the eligibility criteria for financing under the ISA programme and criteria for establishing a priority ranking for the eligible activities.
The European Parliament has not yet voted on its negotiating position but the draft agreement now needs to be given the go-ahead in codecision.
Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger urged the Council and EP to reach rapid agreement on the compromise so that ISA(2) can come into force on 1 January 2016.
The aim of the ISA programme is to allow continuous cross-border or cross-sector electronic interaction between European public administrations and between administrations, citizens and companies. The activities given support under the ISA programme include to create and verify electronic signatures to support cross-border access to online services by companies, the European interoperability framework for online health and an open tool to back the European Citizens' Initiative. An ISA(2) programme for the period 2016 to 2020 will take over at the end of the current ISA programme (which expires on 31 December 2015). The new programme will shore up and promote the assessment, fine-tuning and reuse of existing interoperability systems and the design of new ones. (Isabelle Lamberty)