The European Commission has released in its Communication dated August 2st, 2009, COM (2009) 432 final, the final evaluation of eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the multi-year program (2003-2006) for the monitoring plan eEurope 2005, the dissemination of good practices and improving network security and information (Modinis). In this Communication, the Commission considers that, despite the existence of some weaknesses, the overall results are positive.

Commission's Communication is based on the legal mandate set out in the Decision establishing Modinis Program and reflects the final evaluation of the results obtained in implementing the measures onvolved in eEurope 2005 Action Plan and Modinis Program. Given the close relationship between Modinis and eEurope, it was decided to conduct simultaneous assessments and prepare a joint report with the results.

The Commission considers that this is a positive report confirming both the effectiveness and the utility of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and its main funding programme Modinis. In this final evaluation, the Commission points out that some weaknesses have been identified but these have not had a major effect on the overall programme implementation, and they have been addressed in the follow-up initiative, i2010 and one of its main funding instruments, the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT-PSP).

In June 2005, the Commission adopted the initiative ‘i2010: A European information society for growth and employment’. The successor to eEurope, i2010 is a comprehensive strategy for deploying all EU policy instruments to encourage the development of the digital economy. It builds on ICT policies, regulation, and research and innovation to contribute to the Lisbon goals.

In this report, the Commission also highlights that much progress has been made in the past three years: a new regulatory framework for audiovisual media services is in place; the reform of the regulation of e-communications has been launched; regulation to create a single market for mobile phone use across borders is in operation; initiatives to boost online content in Europe have been adopted; major new R&D and innovation funding initiatives are up and running; ground-breaking public private partnerships (Joint Technology Initiatives) have been launched; flagship initiatives on intelligent cars, European Digital Libraries and ICTs for sustainability are on track as are initiatives on eInclusion, eGovernment and eHealth.

eEurope 2005 Action Plan Evaluation results

The Commission welcomes the results of the independent evaluation6 and its overall positive findings in terms of the relevance, efficiency and impact of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan. According to the type of impacts which have identified, the eEurope 2005 Action Plan can thus be seen as:

• A platform to exert influence
• A major initiator and driver of national IS-policy
• A reference point for national IS-policy
• A push factor for certain areas of IS
• An incentive to better coordinate national IS-policy

Based on the results of the assessment, the Commission considers that the eEurope 2005 Action Plan was an important factor helping to keep ICT on the political agenda at a time where interest in the subject was waning.Furthermore, the eEurope Advisory Group is seen as having played an important role for exchanging experience and enhancing mutual learning on a European level. It helped Member States get a broader overview of the challenges posed by the IS and of the solutions adopted by others.

The evaluators consider, however, that the stakeholders group of the eEurope Advisory group ("second section") did not fulfil its advisory role in a satisfactory manner. Principally this was a standing group which was unable to provide the range of expertise needed for the wide ranging agenda of eEurope. To overcome the shortcomings identified by the evaluators, but to retain the benefits of pooling of expertise the second section was replaced by an ad hoc mechanism for stakeholder consultations

Modinis evaluation results

The Commission welcomes the positive assessment of Modinis as an enabler of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the consistency between the policy initiative and the spending programme. The evaluators consider Modinis successful in providing European value added to Member States' activities, in particular through the benchmarking activities, but also through conferences and the preparation for the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).

Moreover, the Commission takes note of the recommendations made by the evaluation team, and points out that some of the limitations that have been identified related to Modinis development were motivated by the way the Programme was adopted, and that the recommendations are already being applied in the implementation of ICT-PSP. The activities in Modinis are now part of the "horizontal actions” of ICT-PSP.