eHealth
Many EU citizens travel to or work in another Member State, however, their healthcare information is not always accessible in the Member States where they need the treatment. The increased mobility of citizens coupled with the advancements of digital technologies requires both health policies and health systems across the European Union to be more and more interconnected.
What is eHealth about?
eHealth refers to tools and services using information and communication technologies (ICTs) that can improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management. So far the Digital Service Infrastructure for eHealth is planned to support several services:
Cross-border patient summary service
When a citizen makes an unplanned cross-border healthcare visit to a health provider in the EU, the health professional will have access to the person's Patient Summary (EU guidelines).
ePrescriptions and eDispensations
These services support the concept that a patient being abroad can receive the equivalent medication treatment that he would receive in his home country.
- ePrescribing consist in an electronic prescription of medicine by a health professional and its electronic transmission to a pharmacy where the medicine can then be dispensed.
- eDispensing, instead, is defined as the electronic retrieval of a prescription and the dispensing of the medicine to the patient as indicated in the corresponding ePrescription.
In the future, two other services, European Reference Networks and Interoperable Patient registries might be deployed. In particular, the European Reference Networks European reference networks (ERNs) will facilitate access to diagnosis, treatment and provision of affordable, high-quality and cost-effective healthcare.ERNs will also serve as focal points for medical training and research, information dissemination and healthcare evaluation.
The Digital Service Infrastructure for eHealth will be composed by core services at EU level which facilitate the generic services operated by the Member States to exchange of patient data and information on prescriptions with each other. It is foreseen that the Digital Service Infrastructure for eHealth will be fully operational by 2020.
What is the Policy Context?
These services pave the way towards delivering sustainable eHealth systems which would exchange cross-border data and provide services. This initiative is in line and supports the provisions of the cross-border Directive 2011/24/EU.
What's in it for me?
Are you a citizen or a patient?
You may use cross-border services, improved patients safety through continuity of care for example by immediate access to clinical information needed when abroad or enjoying the continuity of care across borders through ePrescriptions.
Are you a health professional?
You will work more efficiently as parts of the patients’ data would already be available.
Are you a researcher?
The digitalisation of health data will provide the possibility for a possibility for a quicker and accessible health data.
Are you a public administration or a private company?
The deployment of eHealth solutions will increase safety and quality of care throughout the EU, For example, ePrescriptions which will also support the documentation of dispensed drugs. In addition, this would facilitate the collecting and consolidating clinical data across borders to support public health policies and research.
Building block reuse
eHealth has committed to reuse the eDelivery and eID building blocks, and has committed to analyse the eSignature building block.
For more info, see also:
- http://ec.europa.eu/health/ehealth/policy/index_en.htm
- http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/eu-policy-ehealth
- Study on the socio-economic impact of interoperable electronic health record (EHR) and ePrescribing systems
- Guidance documents - Call CEF-TC-2015-2 on eHealth Generic Services
- Overview of the national laws on electronic health records in the EU Member States
CEF Building Blocks Presented at Swedish National Financial Management Authority, Stockholm
On 22 May 2017, the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV) the entity responsible for developing public-sector financial management, organised a full-day national seminar about eDelivery in Stockholm, Sweden.
The event brought together representatives from Government Offices, municipalities and other Swedish entities.
As Digital becomes the 'new normal', there are common challenges that all EU Member States face when trying to deliver better online services. The adoption of the CEF building blocks (eDelivery, eID, eSignature, eInvoicing and eTranslation) not only helps accelerate the creation of new online services that work across-borders, but also lowers their cost, reduces duplication and promotes simplification.
The opportunities generated by implementing the CEF building blocks in national and European projects are too great to be overlooked. Sweden is aware of this and wants to move forward in a coordinated fashion. In this spirit, this event helped promote cooperation among different sectoral initiatives already making use of eDelivery in Sweden - eProcurement, Business Registers (part of the BRIS project), Social Security (part of the EESSI project), etc.
Finally, staff from the European Commission presented the services offered by the European Commission to support the adoption of the building blocks and also the grant-funding available under the CEF programme.
The European Commission is providing up to €0.5 million to support the adoption of eDelivery in Europe. CEF funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The call has recently opened, but be careful not to wait too long, as applications close on 21 September 2017. Find out all you need to know here.
Download the slides from the presentation:
To discover how CEF eDelivery is Connecting Europe check out the eDelivery home page.
European Commission Invests in AS4 to Accelerate the Digital Single Market
European Commission 2017
The European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital programme has launched calls for proposals that aim to further increase the number of implementations of eDelivery based on the AS4 open technical specification, as profiled in the e-SENS Large Scale Pilot. The call is open to users of e-SENS AS4 (public administrations or businesses) but also to providers of AS4 software and services. The purpose of this initiative is to further enlarge the ecosystem of market solutions for eDelivery, indirectly supporting electronic data and document exchange initiatives in a wide variety of sectors.
CEF Digital 2018 allows cross-border interaction between public administrations, businesses and citizens, by deploying digital service infrastructures (DSIs). CEF Digital 2018 contributes to the creation of a European ecosystem of interoperable and interconnected digital services that sustain the Digital Single Market (DSM).
The CEF eDelivery building block is one of the current CEF building blocks supporting the Digital Single Market. The Core part of eDelivery is a message exchange building block called e-SENS AS4, a modern and highly secure and reliable messaging technology to exchanging of sensitive data on citizens, businesses and public administrations securely.
The selection of e-SENS AS4 to power message exchange reflects a principle to build eDelivery using open technical specifications and standards, using state-of-the-art market solutions, rather than bespoke public sector solutions. AS4 is an advanced open industry technical specification, developed at OASIS. The security features of e-SENS AS4, which is a usage profile of AS4, are state-of-the-art and implement guidance provided by experts at the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA).
Today, e-SENS AS4 is already deployed in Member States and in the European Commission, and is used for use cases as diverse as cross-border eJustice, eProcurement, business registries interconnection and providing information on tobacco products, e-cigarettes and refill containers. A first reference to AS4 in EU regulation was as a common solution for interoperability and data exchange in the gas sector. More recently, e-SENS AS4 was specified in a Commission Decision as a common protocol to be used by air carriers when transferring Passenger Name Record (PNR) data to Passenger Information Units. In addition to these examples, work is ongoing on a growing number of similar large scale, not yet publicly disclosed, eDelivery deployments.
The vision for e-SENS AS4 and eDelivery is to allow users to deploy any e-SENS AS4 interoperable solution, whether commercial or open source, to communicate to other users, irrespective of their choice of solution. This depends heavily on there being a healthy competitive ecosystem of e-SENS AS4 conformant solutions, in which businesses and public administrations have a choice of solutions to choose from. The European Commission is actively facilitating and enlarging this ecosystem by providing a conformance testing service for e-SENS AS4 and by the CEF eDelivery grants.
The European Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) is responsible for implementing an estimated €300 million of the CEF Telecom budget in the form of grants during the same period. Recently, INEA launched a new round of CEF calls for grants, two of which are of particular interest for AS4 solution providers: the one of eDelivery and the one of eProcurement. The calls are open now.
The eDelivery grants emphatically include support to software vendors that want to upgrade an existing solution to support the e-SENS AS4 Profile. Products that successfully pass CEF conformance testing will be listed in CEF's online list of conformant vendors, which prospective users looking for eDelivery solutions look to when researching potential suppliers.
Vendors of AS4 products that already implement the ENTSOG AS4 usage profile should expect few if any issues in verifying conformance to e-SENS AS4, as the latter is a derivative of the former and has the same technical core, including its security features. For these and other products, CEF grants further reduce the already likely limited investment required for passing conformance tests, and open up new opportunities and markets for their products.
The scope of the eDelivery grants also emphatically includes interoperability testing with other solutions. These tests will help vendors identify, and fix, interoperability issues that could otherwise disrupt their customers using those products to use eDelivery with their counterparties. Proposers can combine upgrades of solutions to e-SENS AS4 conformance and interoperability testing with other solutions, whether already conformant or in the process of becoming conformant, in a single proposal.
Information on the INEA grants is available online:
Webinar Series: CEF eInvoicing - What's in it for you?
On 31 May 2017, a live Webinar, followed by an interactive Q&A session, will provide information on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing building block.
This webinar is the first in a series which will look benefits of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing building block and Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement.
This event is an opportunity to familiarise yourself with the basics of electronic invoicing in public procurement, as well as the services made available by CEF eInvoicing to support public and private entities to comply with the Directive 2014/55/EU and the European standard on eInvoicing (due to be published in 2017).
Participants in this webinar will learn about:
- The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the CEF eInvoicing building block
- Background (PEPPOL and eSENS Large Scale Projects) and context of CEF eInvoicing
- The eInvoicing Directive and the forthcoming European standard on eInvoicing
- Resources and services made available via CEF eInvoicing
- Grant funding available to support eInvoicing respecting the (forthcoming) standard
Each of these topics covers the essentials around CEF eInvoicing and the (forthcoming) European standard on eInvoicing. Subsequent webinars in this series will take a more detailed look at the following:
- Funding and grants for eInvoicing
Wednesday, 5 July 2017
10:00 - 11:30 (CET)
- The European standard (eInvoicing Directive) and its content
Monday, 11 September 2017
10:00 - 11:30 (CET)
- Infrastructure based on the eDelivery DSI architecture
September 2017 (date tbc)
- eInvoicing from a user's perspective (incl. ordering & payments)
October 2017 (date tbc)
- Examples of Early Adopters of large scale eInvoicing
November 2017 (date tbc)
- Basic XML using examples from the EN-syntaxes plus mapping & conversion
December 2017 (date tbc)
- XML validation mechanisms
January 2018 (date tbc)
- In-depth OASIS UBL 2.1 & UN/CEFACT CII
February 2018 (date tbc)
In addition to these webinars, the European Commission offers implementation workshops exploring the benefits of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing building block and Directive 2014/55/EU. Implementation workshops are a key service of the CEF eInvoicing building block and provided at no cost.
CEF eDelivery Presented at the ENTSOG Workshop on Data Communication Harmonization for Gas Transmission
European Commission, 2017
On 16 May 2017, the European Commission presented the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery building block at the ENTSOG Workshop on Data Communication Harmonization for Gas Transmission.
The CEF eDelivery building Block helps users to exchange electronic data and documents with one another in a reliable and trusted way.
The e-SENS AS4 profile promoted by CEF eDelivery and the one of ENTSOG are very similar. Both initiatives are therefore analysing how to align and find synergies moving forward.
This will result in more collaboration opportunities in the near future.
The role of ENTSOG (the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas) is to facilitate and enhance cooperation between national gas transmission system operators across Europe in order to ensure the development of a pan-European transmission system in line with European Union energy goals.
To see how CEF eDelivery, and other building blocks (eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation), are Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018 now.
Download the Presentation here.
CEF eInvoicing Implementation Workshops: Discover how eInvoicing is Connecting Europe
European Commission, 2017
The European Commission is offering implementation workshops exploring the benefits of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing building block and Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement.
According to Directive 2014/55/EU, by the end of 2018 Member States will need to ensure that contracting authorities and contracting entities receive and process electronic invoices. The Directive also mandates the development of a European standard on eInvoicing to be published in the second quarter of 2017.
The CEF eInvoicing building block offers a range of services to support Public Entities in their eInvoicing projects, and facilitate interoperability between contracting parties in Europe. The provision of implementation workshops is one of these services.
The implementation workshops may be requested by Public Entities or Businesses that need to implement the European standard on eInvoicing. They are provided in English and are offered on-site (in your country) or remotely (online). The contents can be tailored to the specific needs of those requesting them, with a duration ranging from half a day to two days. In addition, the workshops are available at no cost but on a first-come first-served basis. However, the host Member State would be in charge of logistics (including provision of facilities) and to identify and invite participants from both private and public sector.
Different implementation workshops are available to promote the uptake of electronic invoicing, the European standard and other relevant CEF building blocks. The workshop modules on CEF eInvoicing will assess the needs for implementation of the European standard on eInvoicing in the national contexts and will focus on the information below:
- Lessons learned and success stories from early adopters of eInvoicing solutions, presenting the benefits of eInvoicing from a user's perspective;
- The European standard, its compliant syntaxes and their conversion and validation mechanisms;
- Grant funding for eInvoicing projects;
- Other resources and tools from the CEF eInvoicing building block (e.g. the eInvoicing Readiness Checker).
The workshops will be offered between May 2017 and March 2018.
To request an implementation workshop on CEF eInvoicing and discuss further practical details, please send an email to CEF-BUILDING-BLOCKS@ec.europa.eu.
CEF Building Blocks at the ICT Spring Conference, Luxembourg
The European Commission presented the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) building blocks at the ICT Spring Conference 9-10 May in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
The ICT Spring Global Tech Conference hosted an array of International Professionals, projects and businesses. The two-day event, held annually in Luxembourg City, offered participants an opportunity to deepen their digital knowledge, discover the fast-growing FinTech Industry, and explored the impact of space technologies on terrestrial businesses, through exhibitions and demonstrations of the latest tech trends and innovations.
To support the creation of a Digital Single Market, one of the ten Political Priorities of the European Commission, CEF is funding a set of generic and reusable Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI), also known as building blocks.
The CEF building blocks (eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature & eTranslation) offer basic capabilities that can be used in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders.
To discover how the CEF building blocks are Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018 now.
CEF eDelivery to be Presented at the eGov Day in Luxembourg
On 16 May 2017 the European Commission will present the eDelivery building block of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) at the annual eGov Day organised by the Centre des technologies de l’information de l’Etat (CTIE) in Luxembourg.
CEF eDelivery helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens, in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted way.
The CEF eDelivery building block is based on the AS4 messaging protocol, open and free for all, developed by the OASIS standards development organisation. To ease its adoption in Europe, eDelivery uses the AS4 implementation guidelines defined by the Member States in the e-SENS Large Scale Pilot. Organisations must install an Access Point, or use a Service Provider, to exchange information with the AS4 messaging protocol.
CEF eDelivery is one of the building blocks of the European Commission's Connecting Europe Facility alongside CEF eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation. These building blocks are reusable specifications, software and services that will form part of a wide variety of IT systems in different policy domains of the EU.
Download the presentations now (FR):
To discover how the European Commission and EU Member States are Connecting Europe visit CEF Digital 2018 now.
Grant Funding for CEF eDelivery Available Now!
Supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the Call for Proposals (CEF-TC-2017-2) provides grant funding of up to €0.5 million to support the adoption of eDelivery in Europe. CEF funding is provided to help you adopt eDelivery in your organisation, covering up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The call has just opened, but be careful not to wait too long, as applications close on 21 September 2017.
What is CEF eDelivery?
CEF eDelivery helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens, in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted way. CEF eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications. It is based on a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies.
CEF eDelivery is based on the AS4 messaging protocol, open and free for all, developed by the OASIS standards development organisation. To ease its adoption in Europe, eDelivery uses the AS4 implementation guidelines defined by the Member States in the e-SENS Large Scale Pilot. Organisations must install an Access Point, or use a Service Provider, to exchange information with the AS4 messaging protocol.
Who Can Apply?
Proposals may be submitted by:
- One or more Member States;
- With the agreement of the Member State(s) or EEA countr(y)ies concerned, international organisations, Joint Undertakings,9 or public or private undertakings or bodies established in Member States;
- Countries in the European Economic Area (EEA);
How does CEF Funding Support those Implementing CEF eDelivery?
The activities supported under this call should, as far as possible:
- Comply with the requirements set in the eIDAS Regulation to allow their use for the provisioning of electronic registered delivery services, including qualified ones;
- Comply with the requirements set in relation to deployment and/or operation of access points within other sectorial European Regulations (e.g. eInvoicing, transport, environment, energy, health, public e-procurement, justice…);
This will be done by supporting the setting up of additional access points and service metadata publishers (SMP) throughout Europe that link to the EU Core Service Platform. This supports the cross-border exchange of electronic documents between both public and private sectors, as well as between such entities and citizens and businesses.
An Access Point is an implementation of the e-SENS AS4 Profile developed by e-SENS. The SMP is an implementation of the SMP profile developed by e-SENS on top of the OASIS SMP Specification. The specifications of CEF eDelivery are profiles, meaning that several options of the original technical specifications were narrowed down in order to increase consistency and interoperability, as well as simplify deployment.
What is the Process?
* Find related documents here.
** To help you find consortium partners, we have created a LinkedIn group, here.
(Re)Discover CEF Digital 2018: Briefing Note
European Commission 2017
The European Commission has published a Briefing Note for the eDelivery building block of the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU's main financial instrument for trans-European networks.
The European Commission will also make an indicative €0.5 million available to support the uptake of CEF eDelivery. Visit the Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) for more information.
Save the date: 2017-2 CEF Telecom call virtual Info Day - 16 May
Innovation & Networks Executive Agency, 2017
The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) will organise a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom virtual Info Day on Tuesday 16 May 2017 to outline the four priorities of the second 2017 CEF Telecom call according to the 2017 Working Programme.
The event will take place via live webstreaming and participants can register here.
The Virtual Info Daywill present the funding opportunities under the following priorities of the 2017 CEF Telecom calls:
- Cyber Security
- CEF eDelivery
- eHealth
- eProcurement
The event will also explain the policy context of the calls. It will give information about the evaluation process and will provide valuable tips & tricks on writing a good proposal.
The draft agenda and further information is available on the event’s page.
Interested stakeholders are advised to already mark the date and time in their agendas and to regularly monitor the event page and @inea_eu or the hahstag #CEFTelecomDay on Twitter for updates. The webstreaming links as well as the procedure for the Q&A sessions will be published at a later stage.
To discover in more detail how CEF eDelivery, the Cyber Security. eHealth & eProcuremrent Digital Service Infrastructure are Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018.
CEF Telecom: EU invests almost €30 million to improve Digital Service Infrastructures
The evaluation of the third 2016 CEF Telecom call for proposals (CEF-TC-2016-3) has concluded, and 38 projects in the areas of CEF eTranslation, Cyber Security, CEF eInvoicing and Europeana have been selected to receive co-funding from the European Union. The funding comes from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme in the telecommunications sector. The successful projects include participation of entities from 27 EU Member States (plus Norway, Iceland and Serbia).
CEF Telecom funding supports projects of common interest that will deploy Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) across the EU. These actions will contribute to enhancing networked cross-border services, improving the daily lives of citizens, businesses and public administrations and the development of a Digital Single Market.
The results of the 2016-3 CEF Telecom call are as follows:
- CEF eTranslation: €6 million will be granted to 6 proposals with applicants from 16 EU Member States and Iceland, to improve the quality and coverage of automated translation especially in the public sector - thereby facilitating cross-border information exchange for citizens, businesses and administrations
- Cyber Security: the 14 selected proposals receiving €10.8 million in funding and with applicants from 14 EU Member States will create, maintain or expand national capacities to run a range of cybersecurity services, in order to allow Member States to participate on an equal footing in the existing cooperation mechanisms
- CEF eInvoicing: 15 proposals worth €10.4 million with applicants from 21 EU Member States and Norway have been selected in order to support the uptake of electronic invoicing solutions among public administrations and the upcoming European standard on e-Invoicing, contributing to the digital transformation of eProcurement
- Europeana: 3 proposals with applicants from 15 EU Member States and Serbia will receive €2 million to help showcase the cultural treasures of Europe via the Europeana platform.
The list of projects selected for funding is available here
The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) manages the calls for proposals and follows up the technical and financial implementation of the projects with the beneficiaries, providing technical expertise and high quality programme implementation. INEA will now conclude individual Grant Agreements with the selected beneficiaries.
Follow INEA on Twitter @inea_eu & LinkedIn to stay informed about the latest call developments.
About Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs)
- CEF Telecom funding supports projects of common interest for the deployment of Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) across the EU. These are based on mature technical and organisational solutions to support exchanges and collaboration between citizens, businesses and public authorities. The objective is to create European networks of digital services that will make the Digital Single Market work in practice.
- The CEF Digital 2018 programme supports basic and re-usable digital services, known as building blocks, as well as more complex digital services. The building blocks can be combined with each other and integrated with more complex services.
- Building blocks supported so far include: CEF eID, CEF eSignature, CEF eInvoicing, CEF eDelivery, and CEF eTranslation. Consult the full catalogue of reusable digital services.
- More complex digital services being supported include areas such as Safer Internet, access to reusable public sector information, cyber security, eHealth, and online dispute resolution.
- The list of digital services supported by CEF is available in the Annex of the Telecom Regulation.
More information
2016-3 List of selected proposals