Ref. Ares(2020)7898139 - 23/12/2020

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case

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Project Title: Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE)

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07/02/2019

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NOTE: All Approvers are required. Records of each approver must be maintained. All
Reviewers in the list are considered required unless explicitly listed as Optional.

Name Role Action
(se) 31/01/2019
(SG) System Provider 31/01/2019

(SG) Business Manager (until 20/12/2018
a
(SG) Business Manager (as of 31/01/2019

(SG) Project Manager 30/01/2019

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Changes to this document are summarised in the following table in reverse chronological order
(latest version first).

Revision ste jCrestedby _____ |ShortDesciptionofiChanges
1.0 25/06/2018 Creation of the document
1.1 19/11/2018 Updates following CASE@EC meeting

1.2 20/11/2018 Updates following feedback from the

 

1:3 Updates following feedback from IT

1.4 11/12/2018 Completion of certain sections; drafting
suggestions

1.6 14/12/2018 Updates following the Project Steering
Ba

1.7 30/01/2019 Updates following the feedback from SG
Bu

Date: 07/02/2019 2/29 Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case 1.8           05/02/2019                                   Typo on page 27 1.9           06/02/2019                                   Updates following feedback from the IT Investments Team Configuration Management: Document Location The latest version of this controlled document is stored in the EASE project collaborative space. Date: 07/02/2019                                  3 / 29                                   Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 PROJECT INITIATION REQUEST INFORMATION ................................................................................. 5 2 CONTEXT ......................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Situation Description and Urgency ................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Situation Impact................................................................................................................................ 7 2.3 Interrelations and Interdependencies ............................................................................................ 13 3 EXPECTED OUTCOMES ....................................................................................................................14 4 POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES ................................................................................................................15 4.1 Alternative A: Do Nothing ............................................................................................................... 15 4.2 Alternative B: Using the Alaveteli solution ..................................................................................... 17 4.3 Alternative C: Using CASE@EC........................................................................................................ 18 4.4 Alternative D: Develop a Building Blocks Based Solution ............................................................... 20 4.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 20 5 SOLUTION DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................................22 5.1 Legal Basis ....................................................................................................................................... 22 5.2 Benefits ........................................................................................................................................... 22 5.3 Success Criteria ............................................................................................................................... 22 5.4 Scope .............................................................................................................................................. 23 5.5 Solution Impact ............................................................................................................................... 23 5.6 Deliverables .................................................................................................................................... 24 5.7 Assumptions ................................................................................................................................... 24 5.8 Constraints ...................................................................................................................................... 25 5.9 Risks ................................................................................................................................................ 25 5.10 Costs, Effort and Funding Source.................................................................................................... 26 5.11 Roadmap ......................................................................................................................................... 27 5.12 Synergies and Interdependencies................................................................................................... 27 6 GOVERNANCE .................................................................................................................................28 6.1 Project Owner (PO) ......................................................................................................................... 28 6.2 Solution Provider (SP) ..................................................................................................................... 28 6.3 Approving Authority ....................................................................................................................... 28 APPENDIX 1: REFERENCES AND RELATED DOCUMENTS .........................................................................29 Date: 07/02/2019                                                        4 / 29                                                            Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case

1 PROJECT InıTIATION REQUEST INFORMATION

a — Title: Electronic Access to the European Commission Documents

| B6/Unit: | sw |

Date of Request: 31/01/2019 Fr ee — Q4/2020

Type of Delivery:

In-house Outsourced Mix Not-known

 

Date: 07/02/2019 5/29 Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case 2      CONTEXT 2.1       Situation Description and Urgency The current landscape of tools supporting the submission and handling of applications to access to Commission documents under Regulation 1049/2001 is fragmented and outdated. There is very little automation as there are various channels for the submission of the applications, consultation of the Member States and third parties and communication with the applicants. Moreover, the current system (GestDem) is cumbersome, not user-friendly enough and sustained by a technology (ColdFusion) which will no longer be supported by DIGIT after the end of 2020. Applicants have very limited possibilities to search and retrieve documents already partially or fully disclosed under Regulation 1049/2001 as such documents are not fully published. The applicants also do not have an overview or traceability of their requests while the Member States have no overview of the documents on which they have been consulted. On the side of Commission services who are responsible for replying to initial applications for 1 access, and the Secretariat-General, which is responsible for confirmatory applications , the current system does not provide an all-in-one case-management system. It does not provide an overview of the workflow or the generation of the relevant statistics about the respect of deadlines, the types of replies given and the types of documents released. In order to analyse how to improve the business processes and the supporting IT tools for submitting and handling requests for public access to documents, a comprehensive study was conducted in 2018 in the context of the ISA² action 2018.05 ‘Electronic access to European Commission documents - Study’. The outcomes of the study are: 1. ‘AS IS’ analysis [4] - The project team analysed the IT tools and business processes currently in place (‘AS IS’) for handling applications for public access to documents, from the submission of the applicant’s request up until the final answer of the Commission. 2. Stakeholder consultations [8] - A wide range of consultations was carried out in 2018 in order to gather the stakeholders’ views and suggestions and assess the business needs for the future IT system. 3. ‘TO BE’ analysis [5] - Based on the results of the consultations, the ‘TO BE’ business process workflows were designed, covering both initial and confirmatory applications. The overall processes cover the attribution and assessment of the requests for documents, the third-party (including Member State) consultations, as well as the dispatch of the reply to the applicant. Moreover, during the study, we have explored solutions to provide applicants, Member States, other EU institutions and third parties with a user-friendly interface to European Commission, and to enable Commission services to deal with these stakeholders in an efficient and coherent manner. Volume of requests to be processed Annually, the European Commission receives approximately 6000 initial applications and around          300        confirmatory          applications         to     access       to      documents. Of these requests, about 77% come through the online form, 23% come through other means (e.g. paper, e-mail). The ‘AS IS’ analysis has revealed weaknesses of the current system: too 1 In case of a partial or full refusal of the access to the documents at the initial stage, the applicant can file a confirmatory application in which the Secretariat-General conducts a fresh review of the case. Date: 07/02/2019                                        6 / 29                                    Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case many manual processes; a lack of tools to ensure that citizens' applications are dealt with in a coherent and consistent manner. Objective and urgency The objective of the EASE (Electronic Access to European Commission Documents) project is to ensure the Commission will be equipped with modern, electronic and integrated IT tools allowing the submission and handling of the requests for public access to documents. The solution will cover the public interface for communicating with applicants, the internal workflows within the European Commission, and the consultations of other EU Institutions, Member States and third parties, from the first request of the applicant to the final decision of the Commission. The ultimate goal is to bring the EU decision-making process closer to its citizens. The urgency of the project is also justified by the fact that the current tools supporting the public access to documents process are fragmented and are sustained by a technology (ColdFusion) which will no longer be supported by DIGIT as from 2021. Moreover, the current system, based on delivery by registered mail or by an express courier 2 service, has triggered criticism by the European Ombudsman and civil society, who consider it cumbersome and not citizen-friendly enough. Therefore, the future ‘access to documents’ process needs to become more efficient and more user friendly for the citizen so as to make the EU decision-making process more transparent in line with the Juncker Commission priority of ‘Democratic Change’. The aim of the future IT system is to be generic, reusable by any transnational, national or subnational administration managing requests from the public for access to documents. 2.2     Situation Impact 2.2.1 Impact on Processes and the Organisation The main objective of the project is to provide an information system that enables streamlining of the access to European Commission documents processes across the different stakeholders. The future system will improve the workflows linked to the submission, processing and preparation of replies to requests for access to European Commission documents. It also aims to rationalise internal workflows and enhance consistency between replies. 2.2.1.1     Impacts on the organisation's strategy The Commission services spend significant resources in processing requests to access to documents. The current IT configuration provides limited support. Obtaining statistics and Key Performance Indicators is difficult and incomplete due to the absence of any categorisation of documents requested and released. The new IT system will enable the Commission services to have a better overview of the types of documents requested and released, and of the exceptions invoked. It will also ensure increased coherence in the access granted to the same or similar documents requested at different points in time, or by different Directorates-General or services. The new system will also provide for the systematic identification of personal data dealt with in the process of handing applications for access to documents, and their easy retrieval or 2 See decision in case 682/2014/JF Date: 07/02/2019                                  7 / 29                                   Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case deletion at a later stage. It will thereby ensure compliance with the requirement, laid down by 3 the new Data Protection Regulation 2018/1725, of ‘data protection by design’ . 2.2.1.2     Impacts on the IT landscape The current landscape of tools supporting the public access to documents in possession of the European Commission is fragmented and many exchanges are not electronic: 1. The European Commission provides, as part of the Register of Commission Documents (‘RegDoc’), a web form allowing EU citizens and other beneficiaries to request access to the documents in possession of the European Commission. 2. The NGO Access Info Europe, established in Madrid in 2006, provides a separate/private website, AsktheEU, in which access to information and access to document requests forwarded by e-mail to the European Commission are published. This website uses the Alaveteli platform. Documents to which access is given under Regulation 1049/2001, requests and the answers to the requests are made public on that website. The main disadvantages are that: a. the personal data contained in the communication between the European Commission and the applicant are published automatically, and b. the system does not generate acknowledgments of receipt of the answers and the documents, which are critical to judge whether the confirmatory application was submitted within the legal deadlines. 3. Today, applicants have no electronic means at their disposal to file confirmatory applications (’appeals’ when an initial application is rejected or partially rejected). 4. Whereas consultations concerning documents originating from other institutions are conducted via e-mail only, consultations of Member States and third-parties are not fully electronic: a. Consultations concerning documents originating from third parties are conducted via registered mail / express courier delivery (an informal copy is provided by e-mail); b. Consultations concerning documents originating from Member States are delivered by hand and by e-mail. 5. All written exchanges with applicants, Member States, third parties and other EU institutions are manually encoded afterwards in a different information system, which is called GestDem. 6. All (partially) negative initial replies are delivered by registered mail and by e-mail and all confirmatory decisions are notified to applicants via DHL by the Secretariat-General and by e-mail. 7. Notification/Consultation via registered mail or express courier delivery is required in order to ensure the traceability of communication with the applicants, third parties and Member States. 8.    The Commission extracts statistics from GestDem, but these are incomplete, as the system does not allow for a systematic encoding of the types of documents requested, their subject matter, and the type of access granted. As a result, the Commission does not have an overview of the types of documents to which access if most often requested and the type of access that is generally granted to specific types of documents. 3 The Commission’s Data protection Officer has proposed using the new system of a best practice example in this respect. Date: 07/02/2019                                    8 / 29                                   Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case 9. Because of the limited document categorisation and identification functionalities in Ares/GestDem, it can happen that access to a document partially released in the past is fully refused at a later stage, with negative consequences for the coherence of the Commission’s policy, its image and its position in legal proceedings. 10. Units dealing with the treatment of initial and confirmatory applications for access to documents have in some cases set up tailor-made delay monitoring systems. There is no central overview of the respect of the deadlines under Regulation 1049/2001 at initial and confirmatory level and the time taken for the successive steps in the process; 11. If applicants asking for their personal data processed in the framework of the treatment of an application for access to documents, the Commission has to search for these data in various systems (email boxes, Ares/GestDem); 12. Templates and guidance on the use of the various exceptions and the Commission’s administrative practice in this respect are available on MyIntracomm; 13. There is no corporate tool available to search previous decisions and documents released according to words appearing in the text; 14. Adobe Acrobat Professional is currently used in order to redact selected parts of text falling under one or several exceptions of Regulation 1049/2001; 15. The Commission’s electronic translation tools, developed by the Directorate-General for Translation, are used case-by-case in order to understand the scope of applications submitted in a language other than the languages mastered by the unit. This project aims to eliminate this fragmentation and implement a fully electronic, holistic solution for: -    filing initial and confirmatory applications; -    communicating with applicants throughout the application process; -    consulting Member States, other EU institutions and third-parties; -    replying to requests; -    making documents released under Regulation 1049/2001 available to the wider public; -    Identifying documents fully or partially released under Regulation 1049/2001 and classifying them according to the document type and policy area concerned (e.g. ‘briefing’ related to ‘infringements’); -    Identifying, extracting and deleting (after expiry of the retention period) personal data processed when handling applications for access. -    a corporate delay monitoring system enabling to monitor the respect of the deadlines under Regulation 1049/2001; -    integrating reply templates into the system for handling applications; -    facilitating full-text search of previous decisions; -    incorporating secure text redaction tools, with automatic full-text search capabilities for specific types of data (e.g. names; Member States’ acronyms); -    incorporating automatic text translation tools in order to enable a first assessment to be made of the scope (e.g. falling under Regulation 1049/2001 or not) of new applications.. Date: 07/02/2019                                     9 / 29                                   Doc. Version: 1.9

Electronic Access to European Commission Documents (EASE) Business Case

Ko
Sri inane&Prammna |

Legislative Lifecycle

 
   
 
 
 
 
 

   

Business Domain Yes/No

Procurement

Programme Management

  

Statistics Management

  
  

Case Management

      

   

Trans-European Services and

infrastructure management

 

Grant Management

Financial Management .

Asset Management un

 

Date: 07/02/2019

Crisis management

 

10/29

     

    
   
  

 

Structured data exchange
management (star systems)

Other: data protection

Yes

Yes

 

Yes
Yes
Yes

Doc. Version: 1.9