Noel Bartolo

1
Presentation on the Internal Market Information
System (IMI)
10th December 2008
COMMERCE DIVISION MINISTRY OF FINANCE, THE
ECONOMY AND INVESTMENT
Noel Bartolo Director Small Businesses and Crafts
2
Background

• Lack of trust and confidence in the legal
  framework and in supervision in other Member
  States resulted in a duplication of requirements
  and controls for cross-border activities
• EU Enlargement from 15 to 27 MS
• Need and obligation to improve administrative
  Cooperation
• Services Directive sets out clear legal
  obligation to cooperate with competent
  authorities of other MS

3
Why IMI?
BG
SV

• 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

IS
CS
NO
DA
FI
DE
SL
ET
SK
RO
EL
PT
IMI
PL
ES
LI
NL
FR
MT
IT
HU
LV
GA
LT
4
IMI and Specific Directives

• IMI will include computer applications specific
  to a particular area such as the Services
  Directive or the Professional Qualifications
  Directive
• IMI will be a single system to support several
  pieces of internal market legislation and avoid
  proliferation of information systems

5
Legal Obligations of IMI

• IMI does not impose additional obligations on
  Member States beyond those already contained in
  internal market legislation
• Services Directive (2006/123/EC)
• Articles 28-36 in particular articles 34.1, 36
  and recital 112

6
Implementation of IMI at National Level

• Appointment of NIMIC Commerce Division
• Appointment of Contact Person within NIMIC
• Implementation of a Decentralised System

7
Professional Qualifications Pilot Project

• 4 Professions
• Accountants
• Doctors
• Pharmacists
• Physiotherapists
• Extension to support another 7 Professions
• Architects, Dentists, Nurses, Midwives,
  Radiographers, Secondary School teachers,
  Veterinary Surgeons

8
Competent Authorities Involved (1)

• Pilot Phase
• Accountancy Board (Accountants)
• Medical Council (Doctors)
• Medical Specialists Accreditation Committee
  (Doctors)
• Council for Professions Complimentary to Medicine
  (Physiotherapists)
• Pharmacy Council (Pharmacists)

9
Competent Authorities Involved (2)

• Extension
• Bord tal-Warrant tal-Periti (Architects)
• Medical Council (Dentists)
• Council for Nurses and Midwives (Nurses and
  Midwives)
• Council for Professions Complimentary to
  Medicine (Radiographers)
• Council for Teaching Profession (Teachers)
• Veterinary Surgeons Council (Veterinary Surgeons)

10
Activity so far

• NIMICs Appointed All MS
• DIMICs Nominated 26 MS
• SDIMICs Nominated 1 MS
• Number of Requests 130
• MS involved in Exchange All except 4
• Highest Number of Requests UK, DE, IE, BE
• Requests by Profession Mainly Doctors

11
Way Forward

• Decentralised System Yes
• DIMICs
  No
• Linked Authorities Yes
• Monitoring flow of Requests Yes
• Actually seeing requests Maybe

12
Benefits

• Saving time and resources in responding to
  requests from other Member States
• Service quality (consistency and transparency)
• Previous impossible areas of administrative
  cooperation now feasible
• Better and more consistent implementation of
  legislation
• Overcome language barrier

13
Features of the IMI System

• Find partner authority in another Member State
• Select from list of questions based on
  legislative provisions
• Automatic email alerts
• 23 languages
• Attach documents or images electronically
• Link additional authorities to request
• Manage requests request status, deadlines,
  request overview

14
Multilingual website and system
15
Secure Access
16
Simple Interface
17
Finding Partner Authorities
18
Flexibility of the System
Member State 2
Member State 1
IMICoordinator
IMI Coordinator
REQUEST
Competent Authority
Competent Authority
REPLY
19
IMI Workflow
4.
REQUEST CLOSEDINFORMATIONPROVIDED
The simple workflow of a request in IMI consists
of
REQUESTING CA
REQUESTING CA
Accept provided information
Create and send new request
4 steps only
1.
REQUEST SENTAWAITINGACCEPTANCE
RESPONDING CA
2.
3.
RESPONDING CA
REQUESTACCEPTED
REQUEST OPENINFORMATIONPROVIDED
Provide full information
Acceptrequest
20
Question Sets agreed upon by MS
21
Thank You

• For more information
• National IMI Coordinator (NIMIC)
• Commerce Division, Lascaris Valletta
• 21246615
• 21239891
• nimic_at_gov.mt