The development of computerisation within the Council of Europe

Doc. 7493
23 February 1996

REPORT[1]
Rapporteur: Mr COX, United Kingdom, Socialist Group

Summary

            The Council of Europe currently has a computing and telecommunication infrastructure which is no longer sufficient and suited to meet the needs of the new information and communication policy of the Organisation. Therefore, it is urgent to provide the Organisation with the appropriate computing equipment to address the new situation.

            Thus, in the draft recommendation, the Parliamentary Assembly requests the Committee of Ministers to allocate a special budgetary vote for computerisation investments and to invite the Secretary General to ensure that adequate human and financial resources are granted to the computer services of the Council of Europe.

I. Draft recommendation

1.         Computing facilities and electronic data processing have become essential today  in the management of the Council of Europe.

2.         In this respect, the Assembly would like to point out that it has considered this question on several occasions, inter alia in Resolution 696 (1979) on the use of data‑processing for parliamentary work and in Recommendation 866 (1979) on data protection and data‑processing facilities for the Council of Europe.

3.         In recent years the Council of Europe has installed an infrastructure permitting a decentralised, inter-communicating and high performing computer system to be developed.

4.         While welcoming this rapid progress, the Assembly regrets that the Council of Europe's computer network is hardly open to its external partners.

5.         It takes the view, in practice, that the information it disseminates to the public and to its partners (national parliaments, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, associations, universities, libraries, etc.) ought to be available on electronic information distribution networks.

6.         The Assembly regrets that administrative, financial and human resources allotted to the development of computerisation at the Council of Europe, no longer suffice for regular and progressive investment.

7.         The Assembly therefore considers that it has become essential for the Council of Europe to be given a genuine information and communications policy involving efficient computerised management facilities appropriate to its needs.

8.         The Assembly consequently recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i.          provide in the 1997 Council of Europe budget a specific vote for computerisation investments and consider the possibility of drawing up a computer investment   programme spanning several years;

ii.          invite the Secretary General to act as quickly as possible:

a.         to create a Council of Europe information server accessible to the organisation's various partners;

b.         to allocate the Computer and Telecommunications Division the human and budgetary resources required for the development of computerisation at the Council of Europe;

c.         to complement these measures by a training programme for the staff to ensure the optimal use of computer tools.

II. Explanatory memorandum

by Mr COX

1. Introduction

1.         I would like to begin by pointing out that on several past occasions the Parliamentary Assembly has concerned itself with the use of information technology, both at the Council of Europe and in its members' parliaments. Without exhaustively listing the texts adopted, mention should be made of two which are fundamental to the Assembly's pronouncements in the matter.

2.         In Resolution 696 (1979) on the use of data-processing for parliamentary work, the Assembly considered that "national and European parliamentary assemblies should be technically equipped to play a more effective role vis-�-vis the executive branches of government both at national and European levels, and to this end should strengthen their information capabilities by having recourse to computer, communications and data-processing technologies".

3.         Furthermore, in its Recommendation 866 (1979) on data protection and data-processing facilities for the Council of Europe, also adopted in June 1979, the Parliamentary Assembly drew on the report of the Round Table on the use of Data Processing for Parliamentary Work, which it had organised in Strasbourg on 18 and 19 May 1978, to recommend "the introduction of data-processing facilities ... indispensable ... (to) making the texts of its conventions, agreements, parliamentary and ministerial recommendations and resolutions, etc., (more readily) available to national parliaments and public administrations".

4.         Since then, and particularly over the last thirteen years, the Council of Europe has introduced a computer system and drawn up three information strategies thanks to which a decentralised communicating infrastructure has been set up together with the office automation and communications services needed to make the system viable. As a result, progress has been achieved with information management and administrative applications.

5.         The Council of Europe's computing network at present covers Strasbourg sites (Palais de l'Europe, B Building, the Human Rights Building, the Boecklin Annex, the Youth Centre, the Pharmacopoeia and the New Human Rights Building), and also premises outside Strasbourg, for example the Paris and Brussels Offices, the Lisbon North-South Centre and various information centres (Budapest, Warsaw, Moscow, Sofia, Prague and Bratislava). Work is proceeding for the linkage of the Bucharest and Vilnius documentation centres.

6.         In order to take account of the increasing developments in this field and respond to new challenges and a need for more efficient management, in October 1993 the Secretary General set up an Orientation Committee on Computer Systems (COSI). In 1993 this body adopted the 1994-96 Information Management Strategy which the Secretary General transmitted to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly. The strategy centres on these four aspects:

7.         However, shortage of resources has meant that only a fraction of the information strategy has so far been implemented. Appendix I sets out the Council of Europe computer expenditure from 1989 to 1995.

8.         In view of the foregoing comments, the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme concludes that at this stage, on the eve of a further enlargement, it would be expedient to present a report on the subject. This report is intended firstly to assess the Organisation's current needs as to its information technology and secondly to put forward proposals for upgrading its information technology status to the level of the partners with whom it has daily dealings.

9.         The committee has submitted the present report to chairmen of the Assembly's committees requesting them to comment ont it. The observations of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities and the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations are given in Appendix II to the present report.

2. Present situation: altogether unsatisfactory

a.         The Council as a whole

10.        Virtually all staff members are now equipped with a terminal connected to the computer network, but the documentation produced by the various departments is available only on hard copy.

11.        Computer facilities have so far been used more to improve the quality of the product on hard copy than to manage the Organisation's information flows more efficiently. Fuller utilisation of the resources of the computer network, such as file transfer and E-mail, should limit repetitive key entry work and delays in document transmission.

12.        On the whole, it appears imperative for the Organisation's staff to be connected to existing documentary networks and to have rapid, automatic access to the relevant press articles, documentation on the political, social and economic situation in European and other countries, the various publications produced by other international organisations or NGOs, and reports and records of national parliaments. This would improve performance.

13.        It must be observed that the Organisation has yet to adopt a coherent policy on document production, archive management and information distribution. For instance, it lacks a sufficiently wide-ranging data base to set up an electronic storage and retrieval system for all Council of Europe documents, one which would initially be accessible to users on the Council's computer network and subsequently to outside users.

14.        Pursuant to a decision by the Secretary General, a viewdata server known as "Infocentre" was commissioned in 1993. It provides users of the computer network, described in paragraph 5 above, with information ranging from the chart of signatures and ratifications of conventions to a selection of AFP and Reuter press agency wires. The information supplied by "Infocentre" is listed in Appendix III.

15.        At present, users of the Council's network can not access the international communications networks and the outside databases. The seriousness of this deficiency is heightened by the fact that the bulk of information processed in the Council of Europe has increased considerably in recent years, particularly with the arrival of the new member states and the new applications for membership.

16.        The security of the Council of Europe's computing network (security of equipment, basic software, application, research and planning) is ensured by the Computer and Telecommunications Division. However, the maintenance of computer security, including protection against various types of interference (pirating, viruses, etc.) necessitates additional staff specially qualified in this field.

b.         The Parliamentary Assembly

17.        The Parliamentary Assembly is daily confronted with the changes brought about by enlargement. They have given rise to needs which are particularly pressing as most national parliaments and parliamentarians are already equipped with computer facilities.

18.        The Office of the Clerk of the Parliamentary Assembly is on the Council of Europe computer network and thus shares all its benefits and drawbacks with the Organisation as a whole. Owing to the large number of outside partners, it needs to be equipped with coherent facilities and systems in order to improve internal and external dissemination of its information.

19.        The Office of the Clerk of the Parliamentary Assembly is in charge of drawing up and producing at short notice, under the analytical form and in extenso, in French and English, the minutes of the debates of the plenary session. Until the introduction of the computer network, these minutes were typed on typewriters and only available the following day.

20.        Computers gradually replaced typewriters. Data entry, correcting, sharing and recording of information gained in flexibility, rapidity, comfort and efficiency.

21.        Concerning the production of the minutes in English, the Table Office of the Office of the Clerk of the Parliamentary Assembly was able to profit from the experience of the United Kingdom Parliament by receiving, free of charge, a copy of the computer programme set up by this parliament but which had to be adapted to the specific features of the working methods of the Assembly. This programme has been named Assembly Debate and Reporting System (ADRS). A consultant has been engaged to set up this adaptation work. ADRS is now functioning in a quasi autonomous way. The same expert adapted the system for the production of the French minutes  (ADRSII). It is planned, in the near future, to produce the German and the Italian minutes in the same manner.

22.        Through this project, the Parliamentary Assembly is able to put at its partners' disposal the minutes of its debates by electronical way.

23.        External partners increasingly demand speedy access to documents and texts adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly. The present inability to fully meet this legitimate demand is damaging to the Organisation.

24.        In January 1996, the Office of the Clerk of the Assembly, installed on an experimental basis, an information server (Internet WWW server) which gave access to various public documents (calendar of meetings, Assembly list, adopted texts) both in English and French.  A minimum of investments into data processing is needed to ensure smooth performance of the server and its quality output.

c.         Comparison with the European Parliament

25.        Since 1990, the European Parliament set up and developed a computer network-based telematic tool, namely Ovide and Epistel (Ovide is the MP's communication tool, Epistel, its public face, the window of journalists and other public opinion leaders). This system provides users with access to calendars and agendas, to committees' and parliamentary delegations' news and to full reports of debates almost in real time. General access to data is also available through online link with Internet and French Minitel (3615 CEE).

26.        In 1995, the European Parliament dedicated 2,13% from its budget (17 millions on 800 ecus) to computerisation (except telecommunications).

d.         Budgetary and staff resources

27.        I would stress that despite growth in user numbers, the financial resources allocated for computerising the Organisation and the human resources made available to the Computer and Telecommunications Division (DIT) remain inadequate (see Appendix I).

28.        The under-endowment concerns two fundamentals, firstly budgetary resources as investment funds were halved in 1995, and secondly staff resources which are distinctly inadequate.

29.        Where budgetary resources are concerned, the practice followed in recent years � release of appropriations for computerisation at the end of the year by transferring surpluses from other departments � is incompatible with the finalisation of coherent computing projects. The Council's Board of Auditors has drawn attention to this situation on several occasions, stressing the imbalance between the resources earmarked for applications and infrastructure respectively. This imbalance has been greatly exacerbated by a steady increase in the number of permanent and temporary staff members using computer facilities, as well as by innumerable staff movements due to the commissioning of new buildings. The situation worsened in 1995 with the outright cancellation of the investment budget except as regards the projects in hand and the replacement of some obsolete hardware, the continuation of which is indispensable.

30.        Still more disturbing, the 1996 budget voted by the Committee of Ministers does not include either development appropriations or appropriations to equip new staff taking up newly created posts, which will aggravate the current situation in which several hundred permanent and temporary staff have no access to computer facilities. Lastly, and most seriously of all, even the minimal appropriations needed for the renewal of obsolete hardware and software have been removed from the 1996 budget, which will cause a significant deterioration of current services before the end of the year unless emergency measures are taken.

31.        Where human resources are concerned, of the thirty-six permanent posts allocated to the DIT, only about fifteen staff members are directly involved in the information systems, the remainder being assigned to non-computing work (administration, switchboard, secretarial duties, installations, etc.).

32.        Nevertheless, in order to cope with the growth in user numbers and the increased demands of maintaining a standard of information processing and integration within the Organisation, plus the need for communication with the outside world, a progressive but rapid increase in the human resources allocated to the DIT is imperative. The table reproduced in Appendix IV shows the human resources (permanent staff) constituting the nucleus which the DIT needs mainly for supervising the various projects in question, and also sets out the objectives for 1995-96.

3. Proposals for the future

a.         As to structures

33.        The Parliamentary Assembly should be able, via electronic links, to disseminate the information which it produces and have ready access to information from the national parliaments, the various international parliamentary assemblies and other outside sources.

34.        A high-performance computing system co-ordinated with the national parliaments would enable the Parliamentary Assembly and its partners to pool information on legislative and other activities in the member states, and also on Council of Europe activities. This would expedite information exchange, also saving valuable time, and would make for greater uniformity of legislative activity in the member states.

35.        However, to achieve this the Parliamentary Assembly would also need to be equipped with a specialised information, data retrieval and documentation system to provide parliamentarians with the requisite information for their work and for accessing existing data banks.

36.        Indeed, the Council of Europe does not yet have the necessary information systems to achieve its mission. This is all the more surprising since important computer investments have been made over the last years. The technological approach chosen is modern, performing and has enabled client-server applications to be installed on an internal network of 1 300 computers from Moscow to Lisbon. This situation is paradoxical as the Council of Europe does not make the difference between an information system and computer tools.

b.         As to the budget

37.        In order to improve planning of computer development in the Council of Europe, we should not only increase budgetary resources but also include a new separate vote in the budget, earmarked for computing investment. As things stand the budget for investment expenditure on computing and communications networks comes under Vote VIII � Investment Expenditure, a vote which also covers expenditure on buildings, technical resource management and fitting out of the reproduction workshop, whereas the budget for current operational expenditure on computing and telecommunications installations and equipment comes under Vote I � Expenditure Relating to Computing and Telecommunications.

38.        There is also a clear need to establish long-range programming of investments in computing since projects in this area are normally planned in the medium and long term.

4. Conclusions

39.        It is clear from the foregoing that the Council of Europe must secure the requisite financial and human resources to realise its policy aims now that a further enlargement is imminent.

40.        The Council of Europe is an enterprise depending heavily on information, a veritable raw material constantly being created, gathered, processed and distributed. The new challenges such as the process of opening up to the countries of central and eastern Europe are increasing its dependence on high-performance information and communication systems.

41.        The Council of Europe currently has a modern computing and telecommunications infrastructure, built up thanks to a sound technical approach. The maintenance of this infrastructure calls for human and financial resources now in short supply as they have not kept pace with the increase in workload. It is therefore urgent to close this gap by reinforcing the DIT and reversing the decline in recent computing investment budgets.

42.        Yet it will not suffice merely to increase these resources, whatever their scale. Computing must form the basis of a new Council of Europe information and communication policy. If the information systems are suited to the requirements, they will enable the Council to attain its political objectives, but will be a bottomless pit engulfing users' motivation if mismanaged.

43.        All organisations, whether private or public, have reached the critical point where basic information technology, once developed, has been required to fulfil a strategic role. In such cases the solutions are no longer technical. We must learn to steer a course under new conditions and dare to change our habits and structures. The Council of Europe must now make its computer facilities the key instrument enabling it to respond more adequately to the challenges facing it and to the expectations of its partners.

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II

A. Observations from the Committee on the Environment,

Regional Planning and Local Authorities

(Letter from Mr Parisi, Chairman of the committee)

            Following the request from the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme, the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities held an exchange of views on the draft report on the development of computerisation within the Council of Europe, and has asked me to inform you of its comments.

            The committee closely examined the matters raised in the report, particularly the situation regarding computer facilities in the Office of the Clerk of the Assembly, and completely agreed with the analysis of this situation. As the rapporteurs rightly stressed, it is essential for the Assembly to have access to information from outside sources and, likewise, for it to be able to send out information on its work.

            This would seem to be not just a question of efficiency, but also an important political factor: providing the departments of the Office of the Clerk with rapid access to the information sources of national parliaments and, in turn, providing these national parliaments with rapid access to the documents of the Parliamentary Assembly and other sectors of the Council of Europe would undoubtedly help the  Parliamentary Assembly to perform its specific role of directly influencing the national parliaments to which its members belong more effectively. This would seem to be particularly important at a time when the European Union has decided to pay particular attention to relations between the European Parliament and national parliaments, which it wants to strengthen.

            The committee is therefore in complete agreement with the view of the rapporteurs, and the committee members will show their support accordingly during the Assembly debate.

B. Observations from the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations

(Memorandum by Sir Donald Thompson, United Kingdom)

Introduction

            The Budget Committee document points out the difficulties faced in the development of computerisation within the Council of Europe due to the enlargement of the membership, the establishment of information centres, the increasing workload and the handling of the Computer Division's budget. 

            It further observes that the largest use of the computer is still the production of information in paper form but that this information is not available in electronic form for use within the Council of Europe or for distribution to parliaments, other organisations or the press. The users in the Council have no means of access to information from other sources increasingly being made available in electronic form, noting that the Council "has yet to adopt a coherent policy".

            It goes on to state that the present situation is "altogether unsatisfactory" and concludes that investment in the Computer and Telecommunication (DIT) resources must be increased in a strategic manner but also calls for a change in the habits and structures of the Council.

            The document makes proposals for the continuation of the strategy put in place by the Council of Europe's Computer and Telecommunications Division (DIT). They are based on:

            Key points: This paper recommends the best way of meeting the various needs of all the Council of Europe users.

            The report clearly indicates that at the present moment PCs are used as sophisticated typewriters rather than a tool for transmitting information.  Herein lies the first of the two key problems:

General tools or specific solutions?

            Whilst general office automation tools are suitable for some tasks, such as routine correspondence and simple financial work, the special requirements of an international parliamentary assembly needs specific solutions.  The report notes the success of the Assembly Debate and Reporting System (ADRS), a specific tool, which has enabled the Assembly to be considerably more efficient in its daily work.

            The report mentions the need for electronic links to disseminate and receive information. There are benefits that could be obtained by the use of electronic mail (E‑mail), especially internationally via the Internet, for messaging and information transfer.  The use of E-mail within the Council of Europe is presently limited to a small number of users with even fewer having access to external E-mail and that does not provide full access to Internet facilities.

            While E-mail is undoubtedly useful as a general purpose messaging tool, the same limitations in applying a general tool to specific needs will remain. Without specific user task support, it will not meet the goal of strategic information handling and will just be used as a fax substitute.

            Properly configured and with the right facilities, E-mail has the potential to deliver considerable improvements in the speed and efficiency in the work, not only of the Parliamentary Assembly and its committees, but also of the Council of Europe.  Transmitting documents of the Assembly to delegations through E-mail will both eliminate the delays and reduce the substantial costs that are involved in the printing and despatching of the paper documents.

Centralised or decentralised system?

            The aims of the Organisation should be clearly defined. It would seem that at present the Council of Europe is following the familiar pattern of increasing demands on central services which obliges the service provider to attempt to standardise the system throughout, to simplify installation and support, resulting in a monolithic system that becomes harder and harder to keep up to date. Centrally managed plans always take many years to implement and are frequently based on the lowest common denominator. This would not suit an organisation like ours, with departments with widely differing tasks and information needs and areas of influence outside the Council.

            One approach that could meet the needs of disparate departments and groups of users in a flexible and timely manner is decentralisation.  Decentralisation can work at many levels, but one could imagine the central provision to be confined to the network infrastructure and external communications and for departments to be responsible for their own computing resources and special applications.

            The "grand plan" should limit itself to simple guidelines which can provide the framework in which departmental plans can be formulated. The guidelines would concentrate on only those items necessary to achieve compatibility with the network infrastructure and external communications and to achieve data interchange between departments � co-ordination rather than control.

            Support of one's own resources provides better responsiveness, and the support staff, by working full time in one department, learn what the users needs are. By having a more detailed knowledge and understanding they are able to deal with problems more quickly and assist more users than a central support staff.

Conclusions

            The Parliamentary and Public Relations Committee recently held a colloquy on electronic democracy and its report will be debated in the Assembly at the next January Session.  The potentials of the "superhighway" are vast and unless the Council of Europe can come up with a suitable computerisation policy to allow for the information flow at the highest possible level as quickly as possible, chances are that the important work done in the Council would be consigned to oblivion.

            The lack of facilities available in the Assembly to communicate either with the parliaments or with the outside world is beginning to be felt more acutely.  Electronic mail has the potential to be used as the basis for the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly and its committees.  On the one hand, the committee activities in particular, with their extensive flow of information between countries, would benefit greatly from a system that used international Internet electronic mail to assist the secretariat. On the other hand, it is imperative to connect political groups and delegations (when they are in Strasbourg during the sessions) with the Office of the Clerk and the Press and Information Centre.

            Not only would the proper use of technology improve the flow of information and give a more accurate vision of the whole spectrum of the Council of Europe's activities on problems facing society, but also, that it would be done at a convenient cost.

            As the work of the Council becomes stronger and more widely based, the press must be informed of decisions which will have pan-European impact. A decentralised system will allow each department to alert the media network.

APPENDIX III

Classifications available through the viewdata service

Infocentre

1.         Current affairs

            �        Council of Europe press releases
            �        AFP/Reuter: thematic selection of wires; how to proceed
            �        Nato/WEU: press releases and reports
            �        OSCE: press releases and reports
            �        Open Media Research Institute Daily Digest (ex-Radio Free Europe)
            �        International Institute for Democracy "Clearing House Review"

2.         Council of Europe activities

            �        Vienna Summit
            �        Central and eastern Europe: state of relations with the Council

            ─          Parliamentary Assembly:

            Assembly list

                        -           Political groups
                        -           Bureau and committees
                        -           Sub-committees
                        -           National delegations

            Assembly sessions

                        -           Summary report

            �        Conventions

            Chart of signatures and ratifications of European treaties

                        -           Conventions/treaties
                        -           Conventions/country
                        -           Treaties texts [1 to 35]

            �        Facts and figures

APPENDIX IV

Human resources

Current situation

1994 Objective

1995/1996 Objective

 

A

B

C

Total

A

B

C

Total

A

B

C

Total

MANAGEMENT

Head of Division,  Deputy Head of Division

1

 

 

1

2

 

 

2

2

 

 

2

ADMINISTRATION

Budget, requests,

supplies

1

3

 

4

1

3

 

4

1

4

 

5

USER SERVICES

Micro-computing, applications, user support, switchboard

1

11

 

12

1

14

 

15

2

15

 

17

APPLICATIONS

Project management, application development, application maintenance, project support

1

4

 

5

5

7

 

12

5

10

 

1

COMPUTING AND TELEINFORMATIC OPERATIONS

System engineering,

network engineering,

technical activities

3

2

7

12

3

3

7

13

3

4

7

14

SECRETARIAT

 

2

 

2

 

 

2

 

2

 

3

 

3

TOTAL

7

22

7

36

12

29

7

48

13

36

7

56

Reporting committee: Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme.

Budgetary implications for the Assembly: none at this stage.

Reference to committee: none.

Draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the committee on 24 January 1996.

Members of the committee:  Mr Schreiner (Chairman), Mr Cox (Vice-Chairman),  Mr Theis (Vice-Chairman), Mr Behrendt, Mrs Belohorsk�, MM. Bokov, Boucheron, Bugli, Mrs Calner, MM. Cherep, E�rsi, Goovaerts, Gui�, Sir John Hunt, MM. J�nsson, Kaalund, Kol�_, Mrs Luhtanen, MM. Mattina, Mautner-Markhof, Motiu, Muravschi, Mrs van Nieuwenhoven, MM. Pante__jevs, Pattison, Pavlidis, Piatkowski, Plattner, Popovski, Pukl, Ragno, Mrs Ringstad, Mr Siebert.

N.B.     The names of members who took part in the meeting are printed in italics.

Secretary to the committee: Ms Nollinger.

[1]. By the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme.