IMI 1 Internal Market Information (IMI) system Brussels, 20 th June 2007 European Council of the Liberal Professions Presentation by Pamela Brumter-Coret DG MARKT Unit D3 Regulated Professions

IMI 2 Why do we need an Internal Market Information system? Correct implementation of EU legislation depends on partnership and administrative cooperation Internal Market is administered at local, regional and national level Administrative cooperation needs support especially in an EU of 27 MS Legal requirement of the Services Directive

IMI 3 Why does administrative cooperation not work as it should? Administrative cooperation between MS needs support because of: - different languages - no clearly identified partners - different administrative cultures - different administrative structures - lack of agreed procedures bilateral relationships to manage (105 in EU15)

IMI 4 Agreed rules built into the information system The process takes place at operational level and is thus de-dramatized MS have a clearly identified interlocutor in another MS How information systems help to solve the problem

IMI 5 Exchange of information speeded up so that complex problems can be dealt with in a reasonable time period Language problems reduced by structuring and translating in advance MS manage a single relationship with a network instead of 26 separate bilateral relationships How information systems help to solve the problem

IMI 6 IMI will be a general system providing services useful to Member States who want to communicate with each other on any subject IMI will also include computer applications specific to a particular area such as Services or Professional Qualifications IMI will be a single system to support several pieces of internal market legislation and avoid proliferation of information systems What is the articulation between IMI and specific directives?

IMI 7 The IMI system Horizontal and vertical applications

IMI 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

IMI 9 Find partner authority in another Member State Select from list of questions based on legislative provisions Target deadline for reply Automatic alerts 23 languages The IMI system – Basic features

IMI 10 Attach documents or images electronically Print reports in any of the EU languages national contact point, service provider or other authorities from within the application Link additional authorities to request Manage requests – request status, deadlines, request overview The IMI system – Additional features

IMI 11 Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as they wish

IMI 12 Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as they wish

IMI 13 Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as they wish

IMI 14 Organisation of Competent Authorities and monitoring the exchange of information in IMI

IMI 15 Obligatory entities in IMI: Competent Authorities National IMI Coordinator

IMI 16 What can a Competent Authority do in IMI? Competent Authorities registered in IMI can: find their relevant interlocutor in another Member State exchange information with them within the system

IMI 17 Why do we need a National IMI Coordinator? Every Member State has to have a National IMI Coordinator (NIMIC) To ensure that only valid Competent Authorities are registered to use IMI To act as main interlocutor with European Commission and other Member States on IMI matters To ensure replies to requests from and to other Member States – escalation procedures

IMI 18 Basic model with obligatory entities of IMI (CAs and a NIMIC)

IMI 19 Optional entities in IMI: Delegated IMI Coordinators

IMI 20 Why have Delegated IMI Coordinators? A MS can choose to appoint a number of Delegated IMI Coordinators because: Some MS have a federal structure CAs are organised differently in different MS Some MS wish to implement a centralised approach to IMI with information flowing via coordinators Some MS may have a very large number of CAs

IMI 21 Coordination of Competent Authorities in IMI

IMI 22 MS can choose how coordination is organised A Delegated IMI Coordinator could be responsible for: a legislative area (e.g. Professional Qualificatons) a geographicalarea (e.g. Autonomous Community in Spain) an administrative division (e.g. Ministry for Labour) a combination of the above (e.g. German Land PQ)

IMI 23 Model with DIMIC – organisation by legislative area – Hypothetical example (Austria)

IMI 24 Model with DIMIC – organisation by geographical area – Hypothetical example (Austria)

IMI 25 Feasibility stage completed Development has begun IMAC IMI Working Group PQD IMI Group currently finalising questions Pilot first PQD application (with 4 professions doctors, pharmacists, accountants, physiotherapists) end 2007 Services application to be ready for pilot end 2008 IMI project

IMI 26 The flow of a request in IMI

IMI 27 Example of an Information exchange about Professional Qualifications: Information exchange between Ireland and Belgium Information request about: Doctor / Permanent establishment Questions related to the professional & Questions to identify the qualification

IMI 28 The Requesting Competent Authority enters data about the professional

IMI 29 The Requesting Competent Authority selects the questions it wants to ask – How to select them?

IMI 30 Question selection – Displaying the subsections in the Question Set

IMI 31 Question selection – Displaying the full list of questions

IMI 32 Question selection – Displaying only the relevant part of the Question Set

IMI 33 Question selection – Displaying only the relevant part of the Question Set

IMI 34 Question selection – Displaying only the relevant part of the Question Set

IMI 35 Question selection – Search for questions using a keyword (training)

IMI 36 Question selection – Search for questions using a keyword (training)

IMI 37 Question selection – Search for questions using a combination of keywords (training & duration)

IMI 38 The Requesting Competent Authority selects the questions it wants to ask

IMI 39 The Requesting Competent Authority decides to send the request

IMI 40 Request sent

IMI 41 The Responding CA checks the received request and decides to accept it

IMI 42 Request accepted

IMI 43 After acceptance the Responding CA can see full details of the request

IMI 44 The Responding CA can also check the part of the directive to which a question refers

IMI 45 The Responding Competent Authority provides the information requested

IMI 46 Information provided

IMI 47 The Requesting Competent Authority checks and accepts the provided information

IMI 48 Provided information accepted

IMI 49 Data protection in IMI

IMI 50 Personal data processed in IMI Two different sets of personal data to be processed:  personal data relating to the staff in Competent Authorities themselves (including NIMICs and DIMICs)  personal data of the migrant service provider

IMI 51 Processing of personal data Most personal data processing acts take place in the IMI system:  either in order to populate the system with information about Competent Authorities  or during information exchanges between Competent Authorities

IMI 52 General rules for data processing  Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully  Personal data may only be processed:  when the aim of the information exchange is lawful  and the system procedures respect the legal requirements

IMI 53 No access to IMI for unauthorized users Personal data is transmitted encrypted through https protocol IMI has a logical data partitioning: user only has access to the specific data it needs Access to personal data is limited to the two CA involved in the exchange of information Protection of IMI data from unauthorized access Within the system data is protected in a number of ways:

IMI 54 Roadmap for Implementation

IMI 55 IMI – ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTATION  The IMI system has a number of different components  There are a number of different actors (Commission and Member State level) involved in developing and implementing IMI  Inter-dependencies exist between the various activities and actors involved in implementation

IMI 56 THE IMI SYSTEM SOFTWARE TRANSLATIONS COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA QUESTION SETS

IMI 57 THE IMI SYSTEM - SOFTWARE SOFTWARE

IMI 58 SOFTWARE (1) SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT  DIGIT (DG Information Technology) is the system supplier  Technical development of software to support all of the functionality requested by Member States  Creation and hosting of TEST, TRAINING and PRODUCTION IMI environments

IMI 59 SOFTWARE (2) SOFTWARE TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE  DG MARKT will test all of the features of the system  Test by function (CA registration, Request creation, etc.) : May – August 2007  Correction of problems by DIGIT

IMI 60 SOFTWARE (3) SOFTWARE TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE  Verification of all system “labels” which appear on screen in the reference language (English) by DG MARKT  End to end acceptance test by DG MARKT (September – October 2007)

IMI 61 THE IMI SYSTEM–QUESTION SETS QUESTION SETS

IMI 62 QUESTION SETS (1) QUESTION SETS  Questions derived from administrative cooperation provisions of revised PQ Directive (2005/36/EC)  Member State PQ committee to approve questions for IMI pilot by June 2007

IMI 63 QUESTION SETS (2) QUESTION SETS  Approved questions to be registered in IMI database (showing relationships, dependencies, etc.)  Questions to be extracted from IMI database and sent for translation

IMI 64 THE IMI SYSTEM - TRANSLATIONS TRANSLATIONS

IMI 65 TRANSLATIONS (1) TRANSLATION INTO 23 LANGUAGES  All translations by DG Translation (DGT)  All software “labels” to be translated  Questions derived from the PQ Directive to be translated

IMI 66 THE IMI SYSTEM COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA

IMI 67 COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA (1) TRAINING OF NIMIC’s/DIMIC’s  DG MARKT will train National and Delegated IMI Coordinators in how to register Competent Authorities in IMI  (23-25 October 2007)

IMI 68 COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA (2) REGISTRATION OF COMPETENT AUTHORITIES  Following training, NIMICs can register DIMICs where these have been nominated  IMI Coordinators (NIMIC or DIMIC as appropriate) to register Competent Authorities for the 4 pilot professions  Short Informal Titles provided will be extracted from IMI for translation

IMI 69 COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA (3) TRAINING OF IMI “SUPER-USERs”  DG MARKT will train “super-users” from Member States in all IMI system functions  (13-15 November 2007)

IMI 70 COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA (4) TRAINING OF COMPETENT AUTHORITIES  Each Member State (“super-user”) to train its Competent Authorities in how to exchange requests in IMI  (November 2007 –>)  Commission may be able to travel to MS to participate if requested

IMI 71 COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA HELP FACILITY  Each NIMIC to provide IMI Help facility for its Member State  DG MARKT to provide a central helpdesk for IMI queries

IMI 72 THE IMI SYSTEM SOFTWARE TRANSLATIONS COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA QUESTION SETS

IMI 73 THE IMI SYSTEM INFORMATION EXCHANGE  Competent Authorities for the 4 professions (Doctors, Pharmacists, Accountants and Physiotherapists) can begin to exchange information requests through the IMI system (November >)

IMI 74 For further information or questions please contact the following address: