1 Making legislation work better for citizens and business The IMI NETWORK Bucharest, 23 rd June 2008 Presentation by Nicholas Leapman, HOU DG MARKT Unit E3

2 IMI - An information system to make legislation work better 1.What is the Internal Market Information System (IMI)? 2.Why do we need an Internal Market Information System? 3.What benefits does IMI deliver? 4.How does IMI work? 5.The current status of IMI 6.IMI in the future

3 1. What is the Internal Market Information System (IMI)?  IMI is a multilingual electronic tool for exchange of information between Competent Authorities throughout the European Economic Area  IMI is developed by the European Commission in partnership with the Member States  IMI is financed and set up as a „Project of common interest" under the IDABC Work Programme ( )  IMI is currently in a pilot phase to support the information exchange as required by the Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC)

4 BG CS DA DE ET EL EN ES FR IT LV LT GA HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV IMI NO IS LI 1. What is the Internal Market Information System (IMI)?  IMI facilitates communication between public administrations at national, regional and local level  Competent Authorities of the 30 EEA Member States can contact each other via IMI

5 IMI is one system with customised applications for different Directives COMPETENT AUTHORITIES AND NATIONAL EXPERTS LANGUAGE SUPPORT QUESTION SET GENERATOR Information exchange for CA DATA QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS Information exchange for CA DATA SERVICES PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS QUESTIONS

6 2. Why do we need an Internal Market Information System?  Free movement of goods, services, people and capital depends on a complex mixture of rules (EU and national level)  Ensuring compliance with the rules is the responsibility of public authorities at local, regional and national level across the European Economic Area (EEA)  Public authorities need to cooperate closely to ensure that the full benefits of the legal framework are delivered for citizens and businesses

7 2. Why do we need an Internal Market Information System?  Confidence and trust between administrations can only be established on the basis of contact and easy access to information  However there are many practical barriers to cooperation, such as language or administrative structures  Administrative cooperation will not happen spontaneously – it needs support, particularly in a larger more diverse Europe

8 IMI does not impose additional obligations on Member States beyond those already contained in internal market legislation  Revised Directive on Professional Qualifications (2005/36/EC) Article 8 - Administrative cooperation Article 50 - Documentation and formalities Article 56 - Competent Authorities  Services Directive (2006/123/EC) Articles in particular articles 34.1, 36 and recital 112 Administrative cooperation - The legal obligations

9 3. What benefits does IMI deliver? For Member States For Competent Authorities For European Commission For migrating professionals  Easy to use and flexible  No new legal obligations  A single system to manage  Lower costs, Faster development  Easy to support new legislative areas  Easy access to information  More transparent process  Greater efficiency  More transparent process  Faster response by administrations

10 3. What benefits does IMI deliver? Result:  Exchange of information at all levels of administration across EU becomes possible  Secure and reliable system which allows complex problems to be dealt with quickly  Single system to support different pieces of Internal Market legislation

11 4. How does IMI work? Actors and roles in IMI European Commission  develops, maintains and runs IMI (data centre Luxembourg)  provides translations  central Helpdesk Competent Authorities (CAs)  find relevant Competent Authorities in another Member State  exchange information with this CA in other Member State  administer data and users of their authority in IMI

12 4. How does IMI work? Actors and roles in IMI IMI Coordinators (NIMIC, SDIMIC, DIMIC)  technical/ administrative coordination, e.g. registration and support of CAs (help desk)  functional coordination – by choice  act as CA and exchange information through IMI with other CAs

13  Language barriers – 23 official EU languages  Lack of clearly identified partners in other Member States  Different administrative structures and cultures  Lack of administrative procedures for crossborder cooperation  Management of 351 bilateral relationships in EU How does IMI work? System functionality IMI supports cooperation between MS administrations by addressing the following problems:

14 IMI works in all official EU languages

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17  Language barriers – 23 official EU languages  Lack of clearly identified partners in other Member States  Different administrative structures and cultures  Lack of administrative procedures for crossborder cooperation  Management of 351 bilateral relationships in EU How does IMI work? IMI supports cooperation between MS administrations by addressing the following problems:

18 Identifying partners in IMI

19 Identifying partners in IMI

20 Identifying partners in IMI

21  Language barriers – 23 official EU languages  Lack of clearly identified partners in other Member States  Different administrative structures and cultures  Lack of administrative procedures for crossborder cooperation  Management of 351 bilateral relationships in EU How does IMI work? IMI supports cooperation between MS administrations by addressing the following problems:

22 Flexibility for MS to organise themselves as they wish European Commission – IMI Administration - EC IMI Helpdesk - EC Member States Regional Level Functional Level Competent Authorities Member State 1 Member State 3 e.g. a Member State with federal structure Member State 2 Federal State 1 Federal State...16 NIMIC - helpdesk - NIMIC NIMIC - helpdesk - CA DIMIC 1 - helpdesk - DIMIC 2 - helpdesk - DIMIC 1 - helpdesk - DIMIC 2 - helpdesk - CA SDIMIC 1SDIMIC 16 CA

23 Member State 2 Flexibility for MS - Competent Authorities may contact each other directly via IMI Member State 1 IMI Coordinator IMICoordinator CompetentAuthorityCompetentAuthority REQUEST REQUEST REPLY REPLY

24 Member State 1 REQUEST Member State 2 IMI Coordinator IMICoordinator CompetentAuthorityCompetentAuthority REPLY REPLY Flexibility for MS - A MS may decide to direct all requests via the Coordinator of the CA SUBJECT TO APPROVAL REQUEST REQUEST

25 Member State 2 Member State 1 IMI Coordinator IMICoordinator CompetentAuthorityCompetentAuthority REQUEST REQUEST REPLY REPLY SUBJECT TO APPROVAL REPLY REPLY Flexibility for MS - A MS may decide to direct all replies via the Coordinator of the CA

26 Member State 2 Member State 1 IMI Coordinator IMICoordinator CompetentAuthorityCompetentAuthority SUBJECT TO APPROVAL REPLY REPLY Flexibility for MS – It is possible that both requests and replies are sent via Coordinators REQUEST SUBJECT TO APPROVAL REQUEST REPLY REPLY

27  Language barriers – 23 official EU languages  Lack of clearly identified partners in other Member States  Different administrative structures and cultures  Lack of administrative procedures for crossborder cooperation  Management of 351 bilateral relationships in EU How does IMI work? IMI supports cooperation between MS administrations by addressing the following problems:

28 Member States have agreed the flow of information for a request in IMI Create and send new request REQUESTING CA Accept request RESPONDING CA Provide full information RESPONDING CA Accept provided information REQUEST SENT AWAITING ACCEPTANCE REQUEST ACCEPTED REQUEST CLOSED INFORMATION PROVIDED REQUESTING CA The simple workflow of a request in IMI consists of 4 steps only REQUEST OPEN INFORMATION PROVIDED

29 Member States have agreed the flow of information for a request in IMI

30 Member States have agreed on the questions which can be asked in IMI

31 Member States can monitor IMI to make sure that replies are on time

32  Language barriers – 23 official EU languages  Lack of clearly identified partners in other Member States  Different administrative structures and cultures  Lack of administrative procedures for crossborder cooperation  Management of 351 bilateral relationships in EU How does IMI work? IMI supports cooperation between MS administrations by addressing the following problems:

33 MS manage single relationship with the IMI network instead of 26 bilateral relationships BG CS DA DE ET EL EN ES FR IT LV LT GA HU MT NL PL PT RO SK SL FI SV NO IS LI

34 5. The current status of IMI IMI pilot for Professional Qualifications  4 Professions are involved (doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists and accountants)  IMI was launched in November 2007 for the registration of Competent Authorities  Since February 2008 IMI has been supporting the exchange of information required by the revised Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC)

35 The aim of the pilot project  Test IMI application with real data and real information exchanges  Put in place organisational structures in Member States for large-scale roll-out  Set up the necessary support structures for the project 5. The current status of IMI IMI pilot for Professional Qualifications

36 30 EEA states if 100 professions in IMI, then at least Competent Authorities 30 EEA states if 100 professions in IMI, then at least Competent Authorities  4 participating professions  30 EEA states  332 CAs  526 users  Decentralised responsibilities for services  30 EEA states with approximately local and regional Competent Authorities  potential Competent Authorities at full maturity Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Pilot Information Exchange (PQ): 4 professions Technically possible to extend IMI to further professions IMI fully operational for PQ Pilot Services Directive, until fully operational IMI in the future

37 Extending IMI to other Professions Proposed approach :  preference for the 5 additional sectoral professions  preference for additional professions with significant migration rates  Preference for professions regulated in more Member States  general opening of system to other professions (timetable to be decided by Member States) IMI in the future - The next stage Extension in the area of Professional Qualifications

38 6. IMI in the future IMI to support the Services Directive After Professional Qualifications Services will be added to IMI as a legislative area

39 6. IMI in the future Proposed timetable for the Services Directive pilot  Pilot to start January 2009  January and February 2009– start registering additional Competent Authorities for Services Directive  March to 27th December – standard information exchange pilot  July to 27th December – self registration pilot for Competent Authorities  Q – pilot case by case and alert mechanism  28th December 2009 – Services Directive application operational

40 For further information of any question, please contact: IMI Website : _ market/imi-net/ IMI Website : _ market/imi-net/ _ market/imi-net/ _ market/imi-net/ Thank you for your attention