1. 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)

2. 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)

3. 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 & 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)

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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)