EU accession countries sign up to electronic aid:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Six EU accession countries have joined the pan-European electronic infrastructure that the EU institutions and member states use to exchange data for applying EU law and enforcing single market rules to help them take up and implement EU legislation. Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Malta, Estonia and Cyprus have signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission, formalising their participation in the project, known as the IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations) programme. IDA is also used to supply e-government services across borders and is seen as an essential support to the speedy implementation of modern e-government solutions, as foreseen in the "eEurope 2005 Action Plan". Hungary will be the next to sign a memorandum of understanding and the remaining accession countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia and three candidate countries, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, will follow in 2003.