ETIS-LINK - Thematic Network for European Transport policy Information System Development
Overview
Background & policy context:
With regard to transport, the free flow of goods and people in the European Union brings with it a need to explicitly consider and include the European dimension in transport planning, monitoring, and evaluation at all levels – European, Member State, regional and local.
The European dimension is important because both the implementation and realisation of benefits achieved through policy measures is only possible at the European level.
For example, the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) requires collaboration among the European Commission and Member States, among different levels of government (European, national, regional, and local), and between public and private authorities.
Consideration of the European dimension requires consistent data on the flow of goods and people, covering all Member States and potential New Member States. Past work supported by the European Commission has pointed out the need for such a pan-European database, and the difficulties that are faced in evaluating policy without such a database.
To remedy this, the Commission has launched a cluster of projects to develop a European Transport Information System (ETIS).
Objectives:
Given the need for a tool to support policymakers, the European Commission has launched three projects within the ETIS cluster.
These projects, ETIS-BASE, ETIS-AGENT, and ETIS-LINK, aim to propose the methods and the tools for the development of a European Transport policy Information System.
The project will demonstrate the system applications through the development of a pilot system that will support the policies related to the development of the trans-European transport network. This pilot system will consist of a reference database (developed by ETIS-BASE) and a system interface (developed by ETIS-AGENT) capable of delivering information on a set of selected transport indicators for the TEN corridors.
A complete ETIS will provide:
- Data and information covering the EU 25
- A consistent and complete set of data
- Metadata
- Tools for accessing, retrieving and using this data and information
- Ready access to the most important indicators for monitoring certain policies.
In this context the role of ETIS-LINK is to guide and steer the development of the system and to promote the ETIS concept to potential users. It will help ensure the quality and usefulness of the system, smooth and swift consensus among the involved parties, and an effective up-take of the results by the Commission, Member States and other users.
ETIS LINK is doing so by assisting the steering committee, coordinating the developments of the three ETIS projects, organizing conferences and workshops, and disseminating the project results.
It will help ensure the quality and usefulness of the system, aiming at smooth and swift consensus among the parties involved, and support an effective up-take of the results by the Commission, Member States and other users.
Methodology:
ETIS-LINK:
- organises and supports an independent external Steering Group that strategically steers ETIS development.
- supports the development of the ETIS data base, the ETIS interface and integrate the work of other ETIS projects.
- involves potential ETIS users in the development process – attracting them by its potential, endeavouring to ensure their needs are taken into account, and working with a user group on the testing of the system.
- focuses on issues surrounding the implementation and sustainability of ETIS that are not being dealt with by the developers (e.g., legal, financial, organisational, and maintenance issues).
In practice this includes amongst others, the coordination of the three ETIS projects, the support of the Steering Group, the organisation of conferences and workshops, and the dissemination of the project results in edited newsletters and the project homepage (www.etis-link.info).
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