Brussels, 16/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has recently carried out a Mid Term Evaluation of the IDA II Programme for the Interchange of data between Administrations. The conclusions that it draws from its report will serve as a basis for its future proposal on subsequent IDA II activities that will begin on 31 December 2004, the expiry date for the current programme.
Launched in 1995, the IDA Programme aims to promote the interchange of electronic data between administrations in order to facilitate the inter-institutional communication and the Community decision-making process. With this objective, IDA II, adopted in 1999, defines the "projects of common interest (PCI) and Horizontal Actions and Measures (HAMs), these HAMs aim to ensure the inter-operability of the networks in the EU.
The evaluation of the IDA II carried out by the Commission has allowed it to identify a certain number of specific actions that it believes should be carried out before 2004. According to the Commission it will be necessary to: reinforce the assistance provided by the IDA team to the different sectoral administrations participating in the programme; revise the follow-up mechanisms for PCIs and HAMs; emphasis on cost-benefit analysis for both PCIs and HAMs; establish a description of an infrastructure, which shall serve as a platform for the development of PCIs and Other Sectoral Networks (OSNs); continued organisation of tutorial sessions/information days in both the Member States and Candidate Countries; keeping an open dialogue with all stakeholders concerned on pan-European e-Government services to citizens and enterprises.
The Commission indicates that alongside its evaluation and immediately afterwards, measures have now been taken. Activities have therefore been carried out to include the criteria on definition of the project stages and the advantages of the model in the overall implementation of the programme. A scoreboard has also been set up for measuring the progress of the HAMs, as well as a detailed guide for advising the sectors set up in 2001; it defines each necessary step in the process for IDA funding requests, while in the area of HAMs, an IDA catalogue of the common tools and techniques has been devised.
The Commission also notes that in support of the e-Europe action plan for 2005 and in compliance with the new IDA objective, which is to identify and deploy pan-European electronic services for citizens and companies, several actions have been launched, notably the opening of an EU administrative portal (public services.eu). In the context of citizens and companies, the Commission stresses that IDA II should continue to ensure that they benefit from the IDA network and encourages all developments that could help them to be become end-users whenever possible. It also indicates that in the framework of e-EUROPE 2005 (and taking into account of the principle of subsidiarity), the IDA is expected to promote direct access to public information and contribute to reducing the administrative charges weighing on citizens and companies, as well as the provision of pan-European services e-Government services. The Commission considers that it will be useful to examine the methods which IDA uses for ensuring adequate consultation links are maintained between the different levels of public administration, companies and citizens. The full report can be consulted at the following address: (http: //europa.eu.int/eur-lex/fr/com/rpt/2003_0100fr01.pdf).