Javier Ossandon President of ELANET (CEMR) ossandon@elanet.org TOWARDS A STRONG PARTICIPATION OF NEW MEMBER STATES AND CEEC COUNTRIES IN THE ELANET (CEMR) ISSS Conference, 28 – 31 March 2004 Prague and Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic Javier Ossandon President of ELANET (CEMR) ossandon@elanet.org

The ELANET network born in 1996 as an informal network under the umbrella of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), involving not only tCEMR members formed by the Associations of Local and Regional Governments and their daughter companies supporting innovation ICT-based and the modernisation of public administations 20 countries actually represented (EU member States, Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Estonia)

Strategy Accompanying Local and Regional governments in their modernisation efforts and participation in European applied research and innovation in identifying needs, providing content for application/services and validating prototypes Creating synergies with EC and other European networks (stronger commitments with eris@ & TeleCities) in the framework of eEurope and EU enlargement Providing policy input on IS local/regional issues to administrations and the European institutions Implementing and supporting mainstream co-funded projects at European level Large dissemination effort on ideas, tools, instruments and cases of excellence (Conferences, Events, Project Gallery) www.elanet.org

Main initiatives within IST KEeLAN, a roadmap to improve egovernment and promote best practices www.keelan.ie PRELUDE, an instrument to support ERA and innovation at local and regional level (9 European clusters for innovation) www.prelude.org THREE ROSES, a constituency building process for eGovernment and local development through FLOSS www.prelude-portal.org/3roses EISCO Conference to: www.eisco2003.org - present cases of excellence - provide policy input to Regional and Local Administrations - discuss with EC on priorities and EU programmes

Future priorities Greater coordination among the IS networks and EC to boost research and innovation among public administrations Support enlargement and cohesion in Europe Develop international cooperation with other world players in the Information Society more structured approach in formulating policies and working programmes to enable an efficient use of available resources Governance and eInclusion must be main drivers

Strategic topics Integrated framework and patterns to finance the European Information Society and implement the Lisbon strategy Broker approach to coordinate and stimulate re-use of best practices in eEurope (e-government can be the test bed) Stimulate open source software solutions in the public sector. Need for a EU directive. Building of a constituency for eGovernment policy input at European level

Cooperation with new Member States and CEEC countries The most important strategic objective of ELANET (CEMR) in the short term ISSS Conference and the Cities in Internet Conference (June 2004, Zakopane Conference) important step in this direction EISCO 2005 Conference in Krakow is a milestone It should concentrate in: - building a cooperation framework - short term focused and qualified initiatives - a financial strategy making use of all available funding instruments (included BEI funding)

POSSIBLE INITIATIVES A common agenda on key issues, such as a) accessibility to services and open standards, b) broadband, c) citizens’ rights and data privacy, d) e-democracy, e) open source in the public sector, f) technology watching, g) interoperability for the back office Participation in network activities and European initiatives a) Models and policy guidelines b) EU projects c) brokerage of cases of excellence (real modernisation) d) sharing of experts and keynote speakers Portal and forum (providing sound information and very practical services)