Commission initiative leads to pan-European platform for eGovernment
A secure communications infrastructure which links the intranets of the EU's national governments, institutions and agencies has been established by the European Commission. The structure will act as a platform for new pan-European eGovernment services. Financed and managed under the interchange of data between administrations (IDA) programme, the structure is centred on a central private backbone network, TESTA (trans-European service for telematics between administrations). This provides for secure transmission of data from all intranets operated by national authorities. Some 13 of the 15 Member States have already signed up to this, as well as Iceland and Norway, and candidate countries are expected to join up sometime during 2002. Data that was carried over the network during the implementation phase included information on communicable diseases, road accidents and trade licenses. The growth of the flow of data during this period was around 30 per cent higher each month. Groupware tools are also available over the system, which provides secure transfer of data through its own security measures. The objective of the IDA programme is to help EU decision making, assist the Internal market and accelerate policy implementation.