IMI

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

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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- 351 bilateral
  relationships to manage
• (105 in EU15)

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How information systems help to solve the problem

• 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

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How information systems help to solve the problem

• 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

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What is the articulation between IMI and specific
directives?

• 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

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The IMI system Horizontal and vertical
applications
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Administrative cooperation The legal obligations

• 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 28-36 in particular articles 34.1,
  36and recital 112

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The IMI system Basic features

• Find partner authority in another Member State
• Select from list of questions based on
  legislative provisions
• Target deadline for reply
• Automatic email alerts
• 23 languages

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The IMI system Additional features

• Attach documents or images electronically
• Print reports in any of the EU languages
• Email national contact point, service provider or
  other authorities from within the application
• Link additional authorities to request
• Manage requests request status, deadlines,
  request overview

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Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as
they wish
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Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as
they wish
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Flexibility for MSs to organise themselves as
they wish
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Organisation of Competent Authoritiesand
monitoring the exchange of informationin IMI

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Obligatory entities in IMI Competent
Authorities National IMI Coordinator
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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

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Why do we need aNational 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

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Basic model with obligatory entities of IMI(CAs
and a NIMIC)
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Optional entities in IMI Delegated IMI
Coordinators
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Why have Delegated IMI Coordinators?

• A MS can choose to appoint a number ofDelegated
  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

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Coordination of Competent Authorities in IMI
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MS can choose how coordination is organised

• A Delegated IMI Coordinator could be responsible
  for
• a legislative area (e.g. Professional
  Qualificatons)
• a geographical area (e.g. Autonomous Community
  in Spain)
• an administrative division (e.g. Ministry for
  Labour)
• a combination of the above (e.g. German Land
  PQ)

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Model with DIMIC organisation by legislative
area Hypothetical example (Austria)
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Model with DIMIC organisation by geographical
area Hypothetical example (Austria)
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IMI project

• 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

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The flow of a request in IMI
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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
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The Requesting Competent Authority enters data
about the professional
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The Requesting Competent Authority selects the
questions it wants to ask How to select them?
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Question selection Displayingthe subsections
in the Question Set
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Question selection Displayingthe full list of
questions
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Question selection Displayingonly the relevant
part of the Question Set
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Question selection Displayingonly the relevant
part of the Question Set
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Question selection Displayingonly the relevant
part of the Question Set
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Question selection Search for questionsusing a
keyword (training)
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Question selection Search for questionsusing a
keyword (training)
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Question selection Search for questions using a
combination of keywords (training duration)
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The Requesting Competent Authority selects the
questions it wants to ask
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The Requesting Competent Authority decides to
send the request
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Request sent
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The Responding CA checks the received request and
decides to accept it
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Request accepted
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After acceptance the Responding CAcan see full
details of the request
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The Responding CA can also check the part of the
directive to which a question refers
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The Responding Competent Authority provides the
information requested
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Information provided
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The Requesting Competent Authority checks and
accepts the provided information
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Provided information accepted
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Data protection in IMI
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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

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Processing of personal data
Most personal data processing actstake place in
the IMI system

• either in order to populate the system with
  information about Competent Authorities
• or during information exchanges between Competent
  Authorities

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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

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Protection of IMI datafrom unauthorized access
Within the system data is protected in a number
of ways

• 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

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Roadmap for Implementation
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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

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

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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

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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)

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THE IMI SYSTEMQUESTION SETS
QUESTION SETS
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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

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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

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THE IMI SYSTEM - TRANSLATIONS
TRANSLATIONS
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TRANSLATIONS (1)
TRANSLATION INTO 23 LANGUAGES
Antrag senden

• All translations by DG Translation (DGT)
• All software labels to be translated
• Questions derived from the PQ Directive to be
  translated

Enviar la peticion
Enviar pedido
Envoyer la requete
Send request
Verzend verzoek
Trasmettere la richiesta
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THE IMI SYSTEM
COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA
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COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA (1)
TRAINING OF NIMICs/DIMICs

• DG MARKT will train National and Delegated IMI
  Coordinators in how to register Competent
  Authorities in IMI
• (23-25 October 2007)

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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

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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)

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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 gt)
• Commission may be able to travel to MS to
  participate if requested

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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

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THE IMI SYSTEM
TRANSLATIONS
SOFTWARE
COMPETENT AUTHORITY DATA
QUESTION SETS
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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 2007 -gt)

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• For further information or questions please
  contact the following e-mail address
• markt-imi_at_ec.europa.eu