Explanatory Memorandum to SEC(2011)206 - Background information related to the strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’) Accompanying document to the Communication on better governance of the Single Market through greater administrative cooperation: A strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’). - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | SEC(2011)206 - Background information related to the strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System ... |
|---|---|
| source | SEC(2011)206  |
| date | 21-02-2011 |
Brussels, 21.2.2011
SEC(2011) 206 final
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER
Background information related to the strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’)
Accompanying document to the Communication on better governance of the Single Market through greater administrative cooperation:
A strategy for expanding and developing the Internal Market Information System (‛IMI’)
Text with EEA relevance
(COM(2011) 75 final)
INTRODUCTION
This Commission staff working document contains background information relevant to the Commission Communication "Better governance of the Single Market through greater administrative cooperation – A strategy for expansion and further development of the Internal Market Information System (IMI)".
SECTION I – How IMI works
IMI has been designed as a reusable tool which can be easily customised to support new legislative areas. In order to reuse the IMI information exchange workflow for a new legislative area, the only effort required is to import a new set of translated question and answer pairs (derived from the relevant legislative provisions) into the IMI database and to ensure that any competent authorities who wish to exchange this information are registered in IMI and have access to the new legislative area.
Competent authorities need only register once in the IMI database and may be granted access to multiple legislative areas, depending on their sphere of competence. Registration in IMI is open to national, regional and local authorities in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway who deal with the specific legislation it supports.
IMI helps its users to:
- find the right authority to contact in another country;
- communicate with them using pre-translated sets of standard questions and answers;
- follow the progress of the information request through a tracking mechanism.
Because Member States have been closely involved in devising the system, IMI offers uniform working methods agreed by every EU country.
For more information on IMI, please see the IMI website: ec.europa.eu/internal_market/imi-net/index
The screenshots below illustrate how a Polish competent authority that needs information about a British pharmacist can send a request in Polish to its counterpart in the UK. The UK authority can view and reply to the questions in English.
Screenshot 1- Polish authority’s view of the request
Screenshot 2- U.K authority’s view of the same request
SECTION II - Financial expenditure
A. Overall expenditure on IMI to date
Table (A) below provides an overview of total expenditure on IMI to date and estimated expenditure for the period 2011-2012.
B. Financial advantages of a reusable IT system
The original concept of IMI as a reusable tool which could be easily customised to support new legislative areas has been successfully proven with the expansion from a single module covering the Professional Qualifications area to three current modules (Professional Qualifications, Services, Posting of Workers1).
While examining the feasibility of using a specific module of the IMI system to be used in the area of posting of workers in order to further enhance administrative cooperation foreseen under Directive 96/71/EC (concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services), an analysis of the expected costs and benefits carried out showed that no further technical development was required and therefore no development cost would be incurred. A separate and specific application for Posting of Workers has been created in IMI without any IT cost and will be used as a pilot following the adoption of Council Conclusions (foreseen for EPSSCO Council in March 2011).
It is possible to appreciate the potential savings offered by a reusable system, by comparing the cost of developing an electronic information exchange tool from scratch versus adapting or reusing an existing tool.
- the actual cost of developing the first (information exchange) workflow from scratch, including common system features (row 1);
- the incremental cost of reusing this information exchange workflow in a separate and specific application to support the Posting of Workers directive (row 2);
- the cost of adapting IMI to develop a second (alert) workflow, reusing the existing common system features (row 3).
Please note that Table B deals with the portion of total development cost associated with the initial development of the two IMI workflows. Subsequent development of IMI has taken place in response to user requests for improvement and in 2010 a new searchable database of registers was developed. These additional costs (included in Table A) are excluded from Table B below.
| IMI feature | Cost to develop |
| 1. Cost of developing first IMI workflow - Common features (competent authority database, multilingual support, registration of authorities and users, user management, authentication) - First workflow (one-to-one information exchange, used for both Professional Qualifications and Services directives) | €1 417 000 |
| 2. Incremental cost of re-using the existing information exchange workflow (and common features of IMI) to support the administrative cooperation requirements of the Posting of Workers Directive | €0 |
| 3. Incremental cost of developing a new workflow to support the alert mechanism foreseen in the Services Directive, reusing the existing common features of IMI - Second workflow(one-to-many alert) | €973 500 |
The cost of development is just one aspect of the total cost of an IT system. Annual costs for hosting, maintenance, second-line support and training as shown in rows 2-4 of Table (A) above should also be factored in. Re-using an existing IT system generates synergies as these costs are not incurred many times over for separate systems.
SECTION III – Essential building blocks for further developing IMI
| Building block | Function | Elements already in IMI |
| Authentication | Verifies whether someone who tries to access the system is an authorised user | Internal user name, password and digital code |
| Competent authority management and authorisation | Enables the authorising actor to give others access to the system and to define their user profile (rights to act within the system) | Self-registration module (by invitation) |
| Multilingual user interface | Enables the user to work in their language of choice | 23-language interface and machine translation2 |
| Information Exchange workflows | A pre-structured sequence of interactions between authorities in the system (content may be questions/answers, structured forms, free text, attached files, etc.) - Information request - Alert - Notification | Information request Alert |
| Interface with external systems | Enables uploading, sending, storing, receiving and downloading of pre-structured information sets (transfer of information to/from external systems) | None |
| Information repository | Structured storage capacity for data exchanged or uploaded within the system | Competent authorities database Registers database |
| Search | Capacity to find specific information within any data or within defined categories of data within a database | Various searches Further improvement needed |
| Report and statistics | Generates structured reports and statistics on activities and data within the application | External, Business Objects |
| Webform for external supply and retrieval of data | Technical means3, which can be used by existing networks for administrative cooperation to allow citizens, enterprises and organisations to interact with the competent authorities in order to supply information and retrieve data | Not available yet |
SECTION IV - Indicative list of potential areas that could benefit from IMI
(as identified and (partially) examined by the Commission services and Member States in 2010)
SECTION V: IT tools for administrative cooperation (non-exhaustive list)
| IT Tool | EU policy area | Short description | Operational since | Multilingual | Exchange volume | No of registered public authorities |
| CIRCABC | All policy areas | CIRCABC (‘Communication and Information Resource Centre for Administrations, Businesses and Citizens’) is used to create collaborative workspaces where communities of users can work together over the web and share information and resources. It is intended to replace CIRCA (Communication and Information Resource Centre for Administrations), an e-government solution supporting the online collaborative activities of the European Union’s public administrations. Since 1997, CIRCA has operated as an IDA(BC) service and has been used by more than 30 Directorates-General, in particular by the committees and consultative bodies established to support collaboration between the Member States and the EU institutions. More than 100 national administrations have received a free licence and use it for their own needs. The CIRCABC groupware enhances the performance of CIRCA in terms of capacity, security, availability and interoperability. Its user interface will be available in 23 languages. | 2007 | Yes | ||
| CPCS: Consumer Protection Cooperation System | Consumer protection | The aim is to enable information exchange between national authorities and serve as an information repository to improve EU cooperation in the field of consumer protection enforcement. National enforcement authorities are able to exchange information and cooperate with counterparts in other Member States working together to stop rogue traders or any other cross-border breach of consumer protection laws. It tackles breaches in a variety of areas such as misleading advertising, package holidays, timeshares and distance selling. CPCS is used as the IT tool to support the ECC-NET network of European consumer centres. | 2006 | Interfaces yes. Translation of information exchanged is the responsibility of the MS | 1500 over last 4 years | 3000 |
| EESSI (Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information) | Social Affairs | The EESSI system will support information exchanges that take place between the social security institutions of the Member States to implement EU social security coordination rules. The objective is to ensure that all the information exchanges currently taking place through the use of paper E (European) forms will be undertaken by electronic means. | Directory services operational since 2010, system for exchanging info will be fully operational in May 2012 | The structured electronic messages exchanged in the system are translated in 22 official languages of the EU but the translation of information exchanges and software interfaces is the responsibility of the MS. | No data available yet | 10, 000 - 16 000 |
| ERRU | Transport | ERRU stands for European Registers of Road Transport Undertakings. The system interconnects national electronic registers for road transport undertakings in order to enable Member States to exchange information on infringements and about transport managers in a fully automated mode. The exchange of information is based on Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator, Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 on common rules for access to the international road haulage market and Regulation (EC) No 1073/2009 on common rules for access to the international market for coach and bus services. | will be operational in early 2013 | Almost all content of the messages is predefined and therefore multilingual | Competent Authorities of EU and EFTA countries (one contact point per country) | |
| EUCARIS (Not managed by Commission) | Transport | EUCARIS stands for EUropean CAR and driving licence Information System. The system has been developed by and for national authorities and is operated by a national organisation (RDW). With EUCARIS countries can connect their registries and communicate directly. In 2008 the EUCARIS application was introduced by Council Decisions 2008/615/JHA and 2008/616/JHA (formerly known as the Prüm Treaty) for combating crime and is supposed to connect all EU MS by mid 2011. Currently several Member States are involved in EUCARIS for the exchange of information on vehicle registration (11 Member States) and on driving licences (7 Member States). The exchange is based on different legal frameworks. | partly operational in 7 countries ( supposed to be fully operational in 2011) | |||
| EUDAMED | Health | Eudamed is a secure web-based portal acting as a central repository for information exchange between national competent authorities and the Commission. It is not publicly accessible. Eudamed is currently being used by a number of Member States on a voluntary basis and will be obligatory as from May 2011. The aim of Eudamed is to strengthen market surveillance and transparency in the field of medical devices by providing Member State competent authorities with fast access to information on manufacturers and authorised representatives, on devices and certificates and on vigilance and clinical investigation data. It also contributes to a uniform application of the Directives, in particular for registration requirements. | 2004 | No, just EN | Approx. 1 Million medical advice messages are being exchanged | Approx. 30 |
| European Computerised System for Exchanging Information on Criminal Convictions (ECRIS) | Justice | ECRIS is a decentralised information technology system based on criminal record databases in Member States. It consists of an interconnection software that allows exchanges of information between national databases and a common communication infrastructure, which will initially be the Trans-European Services for Telematics between Administrations (S-TESTA) network. | 2012 | Yes | 100 000 messages per month estimated | Not known yet |
| IMI | Internal Market | IMI is a single information system designed to support administrative cooperation obligations under various Directives in the field of the internal market. Currently it is being used to support the Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC) and the Services Directive (2006/123/EC) and in 2011 a pilot project to support the Posting of Workers Directive (1996/71/EC) is due to begin (still to be confirmed). | February 2008 | Yes | 1404 in 2009 | 5700 public authorities, 10 000 users |
| RAPEX | Health and Consumer protection | RAPEX is the EU rapid alert system for all dangerous consumer products, with the exception of food, pharmaceutical and medical devices. It allows Member States via central contact points and the Commission to rapidly exchange information on measures taken to prevent or restrict the marketing or use of products posing a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers in accordance with article 22 of Regulation 765/2008. | Current version since 2004 | No Notifications are only being translated into EN. Interfaces will be multilingual in Spring 2011 | 1993 in 2009 | not known |
| RASFF | Health and Consumer protection | The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) was put in place to provide food and feed control authorities with an effective tool to exchange information on measures taken responding to serious risks detected in relation to food or feed. This exchange of information helps Member States act more rapidly and in a coordinated manner in response to a health threat caused by food or feed. | Since 1979 | No, information is only translated into EN. Interfaces will become multi-lingual in 2011. | 8000 for 2009 | 109 |
| RESPER | Transport | RESPER interconnects national electronic registers for Driving licences in order to enable the Member States Driving Licence issuing authorities an automatic exchange of information in accordance with Directive 126/2006/EC. | Will be operational as of 19 Jan 2013 | Standardised question sets are available in all languages, free text is not necessary | 30 Mio messages per anno | Likely that it will include CAs outside the EU and EFTA |
| SOLVIT | Internal Market | SOLVIT is an on-line problem solving network in which EU Member States work together to solve without legal proceedings problems caused by the misapplication of Internal Market law by public authorities. | July 2002 | Yes | 1540 SOLVIT cases were submitted in 2009 | One Solvit centre per EEA state (30) |
| Tachonet | Transport | Tachonet interconnects national electronic registers for Driver-cards for the Digital Tachograph in order to enable Member States Driver card issuing authorities an automatic exchange of information as stated in Regulation (EEC) n°3821/85 | 2005 | Standardised question sets are available in all languages, free text is not necessary | 7 Mio messages between Jan - Nov 2010 | Currently 33 countries (EU Member States and AETR countries); 50 participating States when all AETR countries are connected |
| TRACES | Health and Consumer protection | TRACES is an internet-based network between veterinary authorities in EU countries and business operators. The system makes it possible to produce and exchange information on all animal health and welfare and public health certificates accompanying animals, semen, embryos and products of animal origin. It speeds up administrative procedures - business operators can make requests online, for imports as well as trade within the EU. | 2004 | Interfaces yes. Documents are already available in all languages before they are uploaded to the system. | 1300 in October 2010 | 1000 |
| TRIS | Enterprise and Industry | In the field of products and information society services, Directive 98/34/EC obliges Member States to notify to the Commission and to other Member States their technical regulations (rules on information society services) at a draft stage. TRIS contains a database of notifications which can be searched by country, number, date, keyword, etc. | 1990 | Draft text is translated into all languages if document is less than 30 pages | 3099 in 2009 | 31 |
1The decision to begin the Posting of Workers pilot is awaiting adoption of Council conclusions (foreseen for EPSSCO Council in March 2011).
2Following the judgment of the General Court of the European Union in case number T-19/07 on 16 December 2010, the use of ECMT has been suspended
3Such a means of interaction will avoid duplication with existing e-Government portals such as the Points of Single Contact of the Services Directive (PSCs) and e-Government projects such as SPOCS (Simple Procedures Online for Cross-border Services) and PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online), instead seeking to reuse existing tools and establish synergies where possible.
EN EN