ecohesion Policy Reflecting on the future Cohesion Policy portal functionalities at national and regional level

Transcription

1 ecohesion Policy Reflecting on the future Cohesion Policy portal functionalities at national and regional level IT implications assessment of ecohesion Policy at EU / Member State level DG REGIO - DG EMPL DG AGRI - DG MARE Meeting HLGIS, 21 June 2012

2 Table of Contents Deloitte

3 Table of Contents Introduction Scope & Objectives Approach Results Main findings Recommendations What s next? 3

4 Introduction Deloitte

5 Introduction IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Scope & Objectives (1) Some history: Recommendation from the Action Programme on Administrative Burden reduction to develop central Clearing Houses for Cohesion Policy at national / regional level. These Clearing Houses should allow Beneficiaries to encode data only once (those data being shared between different administrations at national and regional level) with state-of-the-art online portal functionalities for Beneficiaries that would allow electronic interactions with the national/regional authorities. The project has developed since then: no obligation for only one central portal and database; emphasis on enhancing the end-user facilitation (egovernment services, sophisticated online portal functionalities for Beneficiaries, suppression of parallel paper flows, ). 5

6 Introduction IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Scope & Objectives (2) Scope of the current project: The Commission wishes to understand better what it would require for the Member States to get their portals to the highest level of sophistication, in terms of budget, workload, costs and benefits, etc. Objectives: Define more precisely the new IT requirements to be built-in in the Cohesion Policy Regulation for Having Member States perform a cost-benefit analysis on the implementation of the ecohesion Policy initiative. Having Member States assess the ICT implications of the ecohesion Policy project. Help Member States to assess the impact in terms of administrative burden reduction of the new IT requirements. 6

7 Results Deloitte

8 Results of the IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Main findings Qualitative and Quantitative findings In general, the level of egovernment maturity and portal sophistication (according to the DG INFSO portal maturity ladder) among the Member States is quite advanced (on average, level 3-4). Overall, Member States have formulated a comprehensive plan in order to advance to a level 5 of sophistication, and this within the upcoming years. In most cases, when arriving at a level 4-5 of portal sophistication, the Return on Investment (RoI) becomes positive, taking into account the possible future reduction of administrative burden for businesses / beneficiaries. An investment in terms of resources is required at Member State level (both for the implementation as for the maintenance of the system; mainly a human resources cost), but in the long term, there is a clear benefit for all parties involved (internal cost savings for Member State authorities and substantive administrative burden reduction for beneficiaries). The administrative burden reduction linked to ecohesion Policy could amount to 9-11% of the total administrative burden ( 89 mio per annum). This reduction could even be higher, following good practice examples. 8

9 Results of the IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Main findings As every government project, ecohesion Policy should be considered as an investment and its return in the long term, taking into account also the cost savings for business. The Return on Investment (RoI) measures the possible efficiency of an investment. A positive RoI indicates that the investment will generate substantial gains. The cumulative RoI is the aggregate amount that an investment has gained over time, independent of the period of time involved. Looking at the graph above (based upon fully filled-in quantitative datasets from MS), it can be stated that in general there is a positive annual Return on Investment as of following the implementations of more sophisticated functionalities in the Member States, when taking into account the administrative burden reduction for beneficiaries. The cumulative Return on Investment (which takes into account historic gains or losses) becomes positive at a later stage, which is intrinsic to investments, especially in the public sector where the benefit of the society as a whole also plays its part. 9

10 Results of the IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Main findings Moreover... This analysis was based upon Member State IT experts self-assessments, which might be prudent estimations; Therefore, the benefits might be higher and the investment / cost might be lower, especially when looking beyond ; Real-life cases such as the Welsh implementation of ecohesion Policy prove this can indeed be the case; In case ecohesion Policy could be implemented faster, the RoI will become positive quicker; Concerns and issues raised by Member States The study has shown that potential barriers were not necessarily technical or financial. They were rather political, organisational, legal and even semantic (e.g. recognition of esignatures, adaptation of audit trails to paperless procedures,...); Lack of resources and financial means; Member States with a relatively low share in Cohesion Policy funds could have less interest in the ecohesion Policy project; Lacking co-operation in terms of project management, sharing of best practices, etc. 10

11 Results of the IT implication assessment of ecohesion Policy Recommendations Solutions Continue to clarify the scope of the regulatory minimum requirements. Budgetary constraints are a significant limitation for the Member States when implementing the ecohesion policy project. etrustex should in any case help to overcome at least part of the budgetary issues. The Commission should continue facilitating the knowledge sharing, allowing Member States to exchange experiences & best practice models. This could be accompanied by an online forum or helpdesk to facilitate change management at Member State level. (e.g. RegioNetwork2020). The Commission is strengthening ecohesion Policy continuously: Within DG REGIO: continuation of the implementation of ecohesion Policy in the IT systems of Member States and regions Within DIGIT : (re)use of etrustex in the context of ecohesion Policy 11

12 What s next? Next steps: Presentation of findings to the COCOF: 13/07; Negotiation between the EP and the Council in September; Drafting of the implementing acts; Explore novel, innovative IT solutions (cloud computing, cloud sourcing, mobile applications, ) to further enhance the interactions between beneficiaries and Member State / regional authorities. 12

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