This is essential, because in
today's Europe, more and more citizens work and relocate, and businesses
trade and operate, across the Union. When they do this, they frequently have to
interact electronically with Member State administrations.
Unfortunately, problems such as
organisational complexity, outdated and cumbersome procedures, and lack of
cooperation very often create electronic barriers which prevent citizens and
businesses from using public services efficiently and impede the smooth
functioning of the internal market.
Vice-President Maroš
Šefčovič said: "Under pressure from the recent economic crisis,
Member States are already reducing administrative burdens and costs,
introducing digital services and improving business processes. However, because
this often takes place at department level and lacks cross-sector and
European-level interoperability, these changes very often throw up e-barriers.
This can cause frustration for businesses and citizens, wasting their time and
money.
"Years of work on
interoperability, eGovernment and open data mean interoperable platforms now
have the potential to unleash unprecedented speed, efficiency and quality in
the delivery of public services. ISA2 is the key that
will unlock that potential. It is central to the Digital Agenda for
Europe."
A report published last month
(EC
eGovernment Report 2014) shows that Member State governments still have a
long way to go in giving businesses and citizens trouble-free access to online
public services even within the Member State. In addition, availability of
cross-border public services to nationals of a different EU country stands at
just 42% - 30 percentage points behind the availability of public services for
country nationals.
At European level, many Union
policy areas depend on interoperability for their successful implementation,
such as the internal market, environment, home affairs and justice, customs and
taxation, health, electronic identity and public procurement. All will benefit
from ISA2.
Background
Interoperability programmes have
come a long way since they were first introduced in 1995. ISA2 is based on
the collective experience and results of two decades of Commission programmes,
supporting first the establishment of electronic connections among public
administrations, then the availability of information on the internet, then the
electronic collaboration of public services and now the implementation of
transactional services across Europe.
ISA2 will cover the period
2016-2020 with a financial envelope of €131 million. It replaces the
current ISA programme which comes to an end in December 2015 and which resulted
in a number of high-value initiatives, including e-Prior (an IT system for
electronic invoicing and the exchange of public procurement documents), the
Internal Market Information System, IMI (allowing national authorities to
exchange information), MT@EC (a machine translation service in all official
languages for the EU institutions and Member States), and a system allowing
online collection of statements of support for European citizens’
initiatives.
Full text of the
proposal:
http://ec.europa.eu/isa/documents/isa_2_proposal_en.pdf
A Digital Agenda for
Europe:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52010DC0245R(01)
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