Interactive Policy Making DG TAXUD workshop06'05'2004

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Interactive Policy Making Online Consultations
and Feedback MechanismDG TAXUD Workshop, 06
May 2004, 14.30 16.00
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The IPM initiative Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT
A 3
Eurobarometer Jan 2001 "73 of enterprises
believe the EC does not listen to enterprises"
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The IPM initiative Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT
A 3
White Paper on Governance
e-Commission initiative
Better Regulation initiative
Citizens, consumers and business should play an
active role in the European Unions policy-making
process
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The IPM initiative Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT
A 3

• OBJECTIVES
• Make available the opinions and experiences of
  business and citizens in order to
• Evaluate proposals for new actions
• Assess impact of policies on the ground
• by exploiting the opportunities offered by the
  Internet

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IPM online consultations Gudrun Waldenström -
DG MARKT A 3
1) The Commission launches an online consultation
on a specific issue.
2) Interested parties reply within a given time
frame.
Policy Making
3) The Commission analyses the results for
policy-making purposes.
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IPM Feedback Mechanism Gudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
1) Citizens and business seek advice from
existing contact points (intermediaries).
Reporting problems
2) Intermediaries provide a reply to their
clients... 3) ... and report problems to the
Commission in a structured online form.
Policy Making
Intermediaries
Answerhelp
daily contact
4) This unsolicited feedback is then used for
policy-making.
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Data collected Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT A 3
Feedback Mechanism
Online Consultation

• Problematic cases
• Encountered by citizens or business
• Related to the functioning of the Internal Market
• Reported to intermediary networks such as
• Euro Info Centres (EIC)
• Citizens Signpost Service (CSS)
• European Consumer Centres (ECC)

• Responses from stakeholders to online structured
  questionnaires
• Data collected through a representative panel of
  European companies (European Business Test Panel
  - EBTP)

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Promotion and access Gudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3

• Via Your Voice in Europe (http//europa.eu.int/you
  rvoice)
• Promotion and access to Commission online
  consultations
• Access to information on intermediary networks
• Information on IPM initiative

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Benefits for Policy-Making Gudrun Waldenström -
DG MARKT A 3

• Easier participation of stakeholders to
  policy-making
• Close monitoring of impact of existing EU
  policies
• Provision of additional input for new policy
  initiatives based on new sources of grass-roots
  evidence
• Greater transparency (publication of results)
• Information instantly available for policy-makers

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• IPM Online Consultations

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IPM Online Consultations Principles Christophe
Volckaert, DG Admin/DI

• Traditional consultations
• Linguistic complexity
• Individual promotion, not easy to find
• Small number of replies
• Unstructured papers
• Hundreds of pages to read
• E-mails, paper, fax,
• Difficult comparison and summary
• No synthesis of results
• No search facilities

• IPM Online Consultations
• Multilingual facilities
• Your Voice in Europe
• Higher number of replies
• Structured free-text
• Automatic collation of results
• Unique input format and centralised collection
• Simpler comparison analysis of results
• Online histograms and percentage-views, Excel
  output possible
• Search facilities including key words

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Applications of the IPM Online Consultations
Christophe Volckaert, DG Admin/DI

• The policy-making process
• Assessing the need for EU legislation or action
• Brainstorming options / ideas
• Receiving feedback on the proposed options
• Impact assessment of potential options
• Monitoring and evaluating existing legislation /
  programmes
• More applications
• Surveys
• Registration to events
• Preparation of discussions for conferences,.
• .

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IPM Online Consultations Christophe Volckaert,
DG Admin/DI

• FIGURES
• 28 online consultations promoted on Your Voice
  in Europe since January 2003
• 2003 21 IPM online consultations generating
  6.000 replies
• 2004 20 IPM online consultations generating
  11.300 replies
• 45 Services from 14 Commission Directorates
  General have used the IPM consultation tool

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IPM Online Consultations Christophe Volckaert,
DG Admin/DI

• ONGOING CONSULTATIONS
• Enterprise Policy New Enterprise Programme for
  businesses (DG ENTR)
• Consultation on board responsibilities and
  improving financial and corporate governance
  information (DG MARKT)
• The transparency of regulations and standards in
  the area of services (DG MARKT)
• FORTHCOMING CONSULTATIONS
• CD-ROMs technical survey (OPOCE)
• Corporate environmental attitude towards EMAS
  (ENV)
• Shaping of small business policy at
  national/regional level (ENTR)
• Green paper on anti-discrimination and equal
  treatment (EMPL)
• eGovernment Observatory (ENTR)
• Visa Information System (JAI)
• Genetically modified organisms (INFSO)
• Future European policy to support research (RTD)

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IPM Online ConsultationsChristophe Volckaert, DG
Admin/DI

• Online Demonstration
• Card Stop Europe
• Visa Information System

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IPM Online Consultations Christophe Volckaert,
DG Admin/DI
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IPM Online Consultations Christophe Volckaert,
DG Admin/DI

• GUIDELINES
• Plan ahead settting up an online consultation
  takes some time!
• Duration
• Background of consultation use of results
• Data protection
• Target Group
• Linguistic Versions
• Promotion
• Monitoring

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European Business Test Panel Christophe
Volckaert, DG Admin/DI

• WHAT IS THE EBTP ?
• A mechanism to consult businesses across the EU
• Consultations focus on new policy/legislative
  proposals
• The Panel is based on a representative sample of
  EU businesses
• The EBTP helps to make better regulation
  operational

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European Business Test Panel Christophe
Volckaert, DG Admin/DI

• SPECIFIC FEATURES OF EBTP CONSULTATIONS
• The EBTP focuses only on business opinions
• EBTP consultations deal with policies/proposals
  having a direct impact on business
• The EBTP can focus on specific economic sectors
• Results of consultations are representative of
  overall EU opinion
• Membership is fixed and rotated at regular
  intervals
• Member States nominate national co-ordinators

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European Business Test Panel Christophe
Volckaert, DG Admin/DI

• STATE OF PLAY
• First consultation on Taxation Issues completed
• Second consultation on Public Procurement ongoing
• EBTP Work Programme for 2004 adopted 6
  consultations envisaged
• Panel membership nearing completion (2250/2950)
• Accession Countries invited to participate

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• IPM Feedback Mechanism

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IPM Feedback Mechanism Gudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
1) Citizens and business seek advice from
existing contact points (intermediaries).
Reporting problems
2) Intermediaries provide a reply to their
clients... 3) ... and report problems to the
Commission in a structured online form.
Policy Making
Intermediaries
Answerhelp
daily contact
4) This unsolicited feedback is then used for
policy-making.
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IPM Feedback Mechanism Gudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3

• FACTS
• Problematic cases related to EU policies
• 3 Advisory Networks - 250 Intermediaries
• 34 Citizens Signpost Service (Citizens)
• 13 European Consumer Centres (Consumers)
• 194 Euro Info Centres (Businesses)
• 13.000 cases reported since February 2003
• 38.000 cases reported in previous versions of the
  feedback databases

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IPM Feedback MechanismGudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
THE CHALLENGE
Internal Market
A system meeting the needs of IM stakeholders
and Commission services
Commission Policy makers
Citizens Business
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THE IPM FEEDBACK ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE A
STRUCTURE DESIGNED FOR REPORTING
IPM Feedback MechanismGudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3

• 0 IDENTIFICATION OF THE CASE
• I DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE
• country where client is based, business sector,
  size of the company, other country involved if a
  cross-border case, citizens activity
• II POLICY AREAS
• 28 selectable EU policy fields, 23 have detailed
  sub-fields allowing to target a specific aspect
  of the policy concerned
• III DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM
• source of the problem (what, who), its impact on
  the client, free text field where the
  intermediary analyses the case
• IV HANDLING OF THE CASE signposting, frequency

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SOME STATISTICS FOR 2003
IPM Feedback MechanismGudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
Most frequent policy areas requested by business
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SOME STATISTICS FOR 2003
IPM Feedback MechanismGudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
Most frequent policy areas requested by citizens
(excl consumers)
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IPM Feedback MechanismGudrun Waldenström - DG
MARKT A 3
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE IPM FEEDBACK

• Representative data from stakeholders?
• Type of networks contracted to IPM?
• Quality of input?
• The technical system?

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• Use of IPM data in policy making -
• examples at European Commission level

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IPM Results Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT A 3

• IPM CONSULTATIONS USE OF RESULTS
• Reports on results
• Communications taking into consideration the
  replies
• Working documents for working groups based on
  results
• Evaluation meetings with Member States
• Legal proposals as Regulations and Directives
• Presentations in Council Meetings

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IPM Results Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT A 3

• IPM FEEDBACK USE OF RESULTS
• Use of individual cases
• As systematic statistical information on the
  current problems faced by business and consumers
• As valuable proof of the existence of the problem
  
• As means to identify areas where further analysis
  and additional action may be required from the
  side of the EU
• As help to assess the impacts of certain problems
  for businesses
• As additional background-information during the
  drafting of new legal proposals
• Analysis as background and additional information
• 4 in-depth analyses drafted by an external
  consultant
• Short analysis according to the requests of
  services

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IPM Results Gudrun Waldenström - DG MARKT A 3

• COMBINATION OF BOTH IPM TOOLS
• In depth analysis on e-Commerce
• In depth analysis evaluating national review
  procedures in the field of public procurement

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Interactive Policy Making (IPM)

• LINKS
• Your Voice in Europe http//europa.eu.int/yourvoi
  ce/
• IPM Europa website http//europa.eu.int/yourvoice
  /ipm
• IPM Feedback Mechanism http//europa.eu.int/yourv
  oice/feedback.html
• IPM on IntraComm http//www.cc.cec/home/dgserv/ma
  rkt/ipm_en.htm
• IPM Online Consultations guidelines
  http//www.cc.cec/home/dgserv/markt/ipm/index_en.h
  tm