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What is CAP-ED?
Objectives
How does it work?
Achievements
Who will benefit?
The role of IDABC
Technical information
Documentation
What is CAP-ED?
CAP-ED is a web-based common interactive electronic data dictionary for CAP. The system has been in production since 2003, and includes all common CAP code lists and data structures which have been specifically developed for electronic data exchanges between Commission-approved users within the network of institutional partners.
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Objectives
In any large Administration, there is always a high volume of two-way data transfer. For DG Agriculture of the European Commission and EU Member State administrations, this comes, amongst others, in the form of:
At the same time, DG Agriculture regularly communicates information to relevant national ministries or public bodies and publishes information intended for EU citizens. Most of these data exchanges:
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Are based on several diverse codes (e.g. agricultural products, EAGGF budget items, geographic entities, currencies, etc);
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Must respect a specific data structure format;
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Are transmitted using varying media formats: electronic files, faxes, e-mails, etc.
The primary objective of the CAP-ED extranet is therefore to simplify and facilitate electronic data exchanges between CAP actors i.e.:
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DG Agriculture, other Commission DGs or European institutions;
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Member State organisations: paying agencies, coordination bodies and liaison agencies.
This allows for the improvement of interoperability between the IT systems of both DG Agriculture and its counterparts in other EU and national administrations.
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How does it work?
The CAP-ED extranet system acts as a repository for:
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All the common code lists;
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Correspondences between codes;
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Data structures which are relevant to the implementation of electronic date exchanges concerning the CAP.
To take a concrete scenario:
Bjørn, a Swedish civil servant dealing with CAP, regularly has to communicate financial reports to DG Agriculture. His counterpart in Brussels is a non-Swedish-speaking Italian - Angelica. Prior to CAP-ED, Bjørn and Angelica would have found it difficult to communicate with each other effectively and concisely. However, both Bjørn and Angelica have been authorised to use CAP-ED by the Commission and have been issued with individual usernames and passwords to enter the extranet service. The result is: Bjørn searches through the regularly updated CAP-ED database system for the codes he needs to complete his report, which he will send to Angelica. [The system will be regularly updated by DG Agriculture, to be in line with changing reference data.]
Bjørn can decide whether to access the web interface via TESTA or the Internet. [The web interface - accessible both through TESTA and through the Internet - will allow DG Agriculture partners to easily consult or retrieve the information needed to facilitate their CAP-related electronic data transmissions.]
Bjørn is able to search for the required codes using their Swedish descriptions, thanks to the multilingual functionality of CAP-ED. On her side, Angelica is able to understand the meaning of the various codes by using the CAP-ED extranet in Italian. [CAP-ED will provide a linguistically personalised user interface and code content to each authorised user.]
Bjørn and Angelica are therefore able to communicate more effectively and more efficiently through the use of standardised templates which they will both access via the CAP-ED extranet.
Bjørn downloads directly the budget code nomenclature in his IT system, avoiding the need for staff to retype the codes from paper. [CAP-ED has in fact been designed to allow either online consultation or local download.]
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Achievements
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A feasibility study was successfully concluded in October 2001. Achievements included a proposed high-level Functional Model, a system Architecture, an application prototype and a cost estimation of the global system.
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The development and validation stage started in December 2001. Detailed functional and technical analyses have been completed. The development of the first release has been completed. System internal validation was completed at the end of 2002.
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Implementation: started in December 2002. The development is currently finished and the system has entered into production in the second quarter 2003
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Since 2003, the system has evolved by adding new codifications, as well as new administration and user functionalities.
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Who will benefit?
Public Administrations: National civil servants across the EU Member States and European Commission administrators. In the past, many data exchanges with the European Commission were still carried out in an unstructured way via paper, faxes, and e-mail. The absence of easily accessible unique code lists was a major obstacle when trying to encourage structured data exchanges. The CAP-ED system represents a major step towards removing this obstacle. It provides the means for efficiently and accurately transmitting the necessary information alongside multilingual explanations of all terms. The entire CAP-related communication process therefore benefits from CAP-ED, since the shared use of this system:
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Reduces the time needed for information transmission;
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Reduces the workload required for handling the transmitted data;
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Improves the accuracy and reliability of the transmitted data.
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The role of IDABC
The development of the CAP-ED system has been completely funded by the IDA Programme and makes use, where appropriate, of IDA generic services such as TESTA.
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Technical information
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Project start date
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2000
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Project completion date
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2003
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Project status
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Implementation
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IDA budget
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2000 € 88,000
2001 € 282,000
2003 € 60,000
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Responsible service
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DG Agriculture
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Project coordinator
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Timo Koornstra
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Contact
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idabc@ec.europa.eu
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Countries involved
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All EU Member States
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Public website
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http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture
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Documentation:
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Print
CAP-ED GIP- October 2001 (PDF)
