 Please welcome Roland Jensen. So good morning, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much comment for me It's a triple pleasure to be here first of all to be invited by the open group to speak here as a non-member But we think it's obviously very important for us also to look at at what's going on in the open group The second pleasure is obviously to be in Paris. Paris is a nice city and the third pleasure is So I work for the Council of the European Union. I'm coming from Luxembourg So I invite you to this sal du Grand Luxembourg. Normally we are the Petit Luxembourg One of the smallest countries in the European Union So it's a pleasure for me to be in this meeting room. She's called the latch the latch Luxembourg. So What's going on on the count? So today I'm director responsible for information and knowledge management at the regular secretary of the Council of European Union. We are dealing with information management knowledge management, but also innovation and projects in this respect That sounds great, and I think it is but a couple of weeks ago So before summer it was still called the directorate for document processing and document management So this shows already where we want to go I think today the council is very much active in legislative proceedings and you cannot imagine Legislative proceedings without any documents and documents will not disappear from today until tomorrow But this indicates already the future that we are fully aware that in the future We cannot only deal with all our stakeholders on the basis of documents We need to go to information and knowledge management So why did we do? To go on that way first of all a couple of words on What basically is the council of the European Union most of you obviously know the Commission of the European Union so the Commission La Commission European the European Commission is the institution which tables proposals for new legislations Which looked at areas where it is necessary to get to European standards to get to European ways of acting together So the European Commission makes a proposal and this proposal is submitted to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament Both being co-legislators Now a couple of years ago the Council of the European Union was more like an intergovernmental Conference except for those areas already in the internal market But more and more and definitely since the Lisbon treaty in 2009 We are a co-legislator as is the European Parliament. So we have to act in a more Legislative mindset if we would compare it with the US for example We would together be the Congress the European Parliament being the House and the Council of the European Union being the Senate So this step from intergovernmental to co-decision already obliged us to think differently To get into a different interaction with the European Parliament and all our stakeholders which as a member states So in the Council of the European Union you have 28 member states being represented by Prime Ministers by technical ministers and so on But we also serve as a general secretary at the European Council the European Council is The forum where you have all Prime Ministers all heads of state and governance coming together where we have since 2009 Standing president so the first standing president the president du conseil européen Was Mr. Van Rompuy now it is Mr. Tusk and obviously this is different institution This institution is not active in legislation in legislative drafting and preparation this institution is Acting in Policy shaping at the highest level and whenever you have a crisis in Europe You will have the European Council meeting and deal with this crisis Be it with the euro be it on migration be it on terrorism what so on and so we have also to serve Our main leaders in this respect and to provide them with the right information with the right knowledge in order to be able to assess to assess Crisis is and whatever is dealt with at this highest level Finally we have more and more requests from the civil society So we are supposed to be transparent Organization all institutions by the way and we have a regulation dealing with this and we have to be able To provide whatever sort of information which falls under the remit of that regulation So we cannot just hide behind facts that well We are not organized enough to find files or whatsoever We need to deliver and you have more and more NGOs looking at us looking seriously at the business of the council of the European Union and waiting for accountability of Of the European Union institutions Yep, so okay So over you over the years the decision-making process changed and I think that's not a circuit I think for ten years now we are running from crisis to crisis at the policy problems get more and more complicated And it's not the secret neither that when we moved from a union of 15 member states to a union of 28 it got much more complex and complicated and today when we look at the way we exchange information on Document-based information flows. It's obviously not the best way in order to deal smoothly timely and efficiently in trans border information Exchange so we had to reflect within the council secretariat. What are the best Processes enabling all our stakeholders to get the right information at the right moment in addition We cannot just limit ourselves to share and to circulate information We have also to think how we valorize this information and how we create knowledge How we create the links between between the different data in order to be of some added value for the member states and for The citizens whenever it comes to European Union policies so after The why so why did we do to do this? I would now go to what are we actually Doing so as a general secretary of the Council of the European Union We have to provide Educated advice to our ministers to delegates whenever they have to deliberate in the different areas And it's not just as I said high-level policy advice for the main leaders It's also sometimes very very technical advice in different files when we speak for example about a European Public prosecutor our colleagues have to know about Judicial procedures in the member states when we speak for for example about how to secure border controls Our colleagues again have to know what are the standards what are the technologies Which could today be applied at external borders of the European Union So we have to be sure at the organization at the heart of all that to be sure that we are able to get the right Information to get the right knowledge. We are permanent structure at European Union level. What does this mean? We have a standing a permanent President of the European Council, but whenever it comes to the chair of the Council of the European Union, we still have these rotating Presidences that means that every six months in other member states of the European Union takes the lead of European Union affairs So it was Luxembourg for example in 2015 followed by the Netherlands today It's Slovakia and so every six months We have a different country with different ministers in the lead and we have to ensure that is Continuity from presidency to presidency because for example when we have to negotiate with European Parliament Despite the fact that to share change where the line of negotiation has to be the same There must be continuity. Otherwise, it will be very complicated and will be chaotic And so as we are this permanent structure We have also to provide the tools in order to enable us to do to do this job In fact, we hold over 60 years of experience in this in this field But today when you look back, it's not easy to get To get through all these experience and knowledge and what we see today is that most of that knowledge is Individual base is in the hands of all our colleagues and whenever someone moves a lot of knowledge gets just moved So we have the sweet as the switch from Individualized personal knowledge to more collective organization based knowledge That's the only way we can ensure that This continuity and that's the only way we will be able to serve in the future in a more and more Digitalized world How can we do this? What are our specificities? How do we work? So we are a small organization if you look at our organization We are not more than 3,000 and amongst these 3,000 you have more than 1,000 translators as we also work in 24 official languages which adds another layer of Complication because all these languages are official languages and every legislation in whatever language has the right Value so our information when it is shared must be shared Within all the official languages and it is just not possible to in your this Our initial role was conceived more as a note taker and archivist obviously in today's world This is no more possible if it would just be like this I could easily imagine that members it's get organized in a way That's the organize themselves directly around us and then our role will just be the one of a note taker So we need to see how we can challenge our role how we can question it and how we can bring Information and experience together in a more and more digitalized world when I say that We are a small organization indeed. We are the smallest Brussels-based organization compared to the European Commission or compared to European Parliament. We are really really small oops But we are somewhere at the center of a lot of Interactions between the institutions, but also between member states If the contact works As I said, we are the smallest organization, but this does not mean that we are the smallest institution That's something I hear very often that when I speak with colleagues from Commission or European Parliament That council yes, we are the smallest institution. Is it is it really so when I look around me in the Commission? Yes, we have one president and 27 Commissioners members we have to serve 28 presidents plus one president of the European Council plus one president of the Commission We have to serve in each member states all ministers This means that we have to serve hundreds of ministers around Europe We have to serve all delegates coming to Brussels to meet Every day we have more than thousand civillian servants coming from all member states in order to discuss Tashinkan issues to find compromises if you add all this together We have to serve several hundreds of political leaders and we have to serve Experts in the front row in the back office in universities and so on to support all these services So we easily have to serve a community of three four hundred thousand Persons and we have to get this information On the right place in the right time in the right languages So you can imagine that we have in today's world to reassess a number a number of issues So how can we add context and connections in all the informations which are Which are going to the secretary of the council How can we link the information between the European Union institutions between the member states? I will say in a couple of minutes all the member states are in an e-government process I did with the government transformation process. We are somewhere in the Midland We cannot just stay aside and look at them without acting or even without a way acting We have definitely to reassess how to manage the need to know We are coming from a world where we only shared information on a strictly need to know basis today It's no more possible But on the other side we cannot just share everything with everyone. That's not possible neither We are still in a negotiation environment So we definitely have to reassess how we get a new approach to a need to know in a more complicated world And we have also to see how we get member states knowledge together As I said we are small organizations So we do not have all the resources to get into all the knowledge we would we would like to have But around us we have a lot of knowledge and whenever there is a new proposal on the on something very technical in a very specific area You have in member states initiatives going on research us development centers Innovators and so on bring their knowledge together providing this knowledge to the national government I believe that this knowledge could easily be shared with other national governments with other Administrations with other stakeholders and we might be in the right position for this to be some sort of an information and Knowledge hub to serve member states where member states could bring their knowledge together And where we could provide something where everyone would take benefit of all the knowledge which is existing around Europe Be it on the technical side be on the on the policy side We heard already just now from From the previous speaker That there are links between cities how to improve digital services regard to the citizens Well, we could do the same on the member states level when we look at the larger policies in order to see What is all the knowledge already existing in the member states and to have difficulty to see this today To bring it together and to share it much more as it done as it is done today So I see the future of our organization definitely In redefining added value products added value services and products in order To make it happen. How can we do this? I think well one key enabler to do this is obviously Um and interoperability Without standards and interoperability it will just not be possible and again when I took over the directorate in 2014 What did I see? I saw that innovation processes were ongoing on the commission side Other processes were ongoing on the european parliament side and in our house similar processes were ongoing And that over 20 years every institution developed their own it approach their own it culture The own it systems and so on Interoperability was not a question because we were still working with documents And so what's the matter if we need just to do some conversions between one institution and another one and even today believe me when you look at the resources Which are spent every year just for the conversions documents between the councils european parliament and the commission It's just amazing and so for the future we launched last year a process at the level of secretary generals They ensure that in the future. We are aiming at interoperable tools based on common standards We need also to focus on the areas where we really can add value So, uh, we we need to get away from a collection based approach in the in the past We just collected the documents we put them in boxes in the archives and we kept them somewhere there We need to get away from this. I think it's no more up to us to provide those collections those collections are everywhere We need to make sure that it is able to link all the information and to find it in an easy and a smooth way and The responsibility the responsibility of the of the content. This should be left To the author and the owner of the information From our perspective now, what are the what are the challenges? Well, obviously it's to build the right systems And that means not the right system just for our house, but the right systems in interaction with the whole panel. I just Explored so we need to do it in partnerships We need to do it in partnerships first of all with the european institutions So with the commission and with european parliament We will hear our colleague from the commission a little bit later developing how uh, how we can Uh, how we can have a similar standards and and frameworks This leads me to the second thing. We need the foster trust We are moving in an unexplored territory territory and If we look together at all this together, so the institutions the member states a globalized world It's not just enough to do it We need to set a framework which triggers some trust and which allow us to do and work together We also heard it just before it's not just enough to introduce computerized it tools If the processes are not fit to do this if people do not trust in these systems It will be very very difficult To use them and when I speak about the frameworks, which could allow us to foster this trust I would just mention three very recent frameworks set up in In may 2016 the council adopted some conclusions on the digital single market technologies and public service modernizations under the dutch presidency and obviously this concerns Every stakeholder dealing with public administrations and e-governments and what the council insist on is saying that We need to go for seamless cross-border and digital public services and there's a huge potential in this we need to explore The council also recognized the importance of ambitious Coherent and consistent standardization policies and of timely and industrial standards for interoperability and finally Welcomes the dialogue between the commission and the european standardization organizations And if the council takes this as guidelines for member states Obviously it also applies for the opinion institutions It applies for the commission for the pre-empowerment and for us and we have to see how We will use in fact these guidelines To meet our stakeholders expectations and to work more efficiently in in this work So second framework Relates to digital and open government again at the end of the dutch presidency There was a conference in amsterdam in june on digital open government the next steps to maturity And it was stressed that by default we should go increasingly to Digital we should go increasingly to open. We should be more user driven and user centered When I say open by default this links me immediately to open data We have already since 2013 european council conclusions stating that by default administrations should go for open data We have the u.s. administrations the obama administrations which include open data as a default setting We still need to have a common approach for european union institutions So for the council for example, we are now dealing with some open data projects But we need to go for policy and obviously the policy on how we will deal with open data Will also be a driver on how we will deal with digital transformation at lutch And finally the third element i see as As very important as a framework is the e-government action plan 2016 2020 You probably all have discovered in in the meantime And again the council calls on proactive contributions to the advancement of standardization agenda On the basis of industry best practices and the latest technologies And also the use on e-i desk services in a digitally enabled Business that facilitates the use of secure remote authentication including mobile identification and trust services Again, this is crucial for us I think we cannot work or we cannot develop the objectives the challenges I just mentioned without looking at standardization without taking full benefit of standardization And we have the same challenge as for example The mary de paris All our stakeholders our delegates citizens will use more and more mobile devices So we need to find secure remote authentication access I think it's not the secret when I say that in a negotiation environment as a european union There must be some sort of confidentiality. So we must be Sure also that our information is kept secure as long as it's needed to be kept secure. And so all this Should enable us to get there So I would also conclude with what Mr. Grigouin just said We cannot just do digital transformation for the beauty of the art It's not because we have the technologies that we have to see how to put them into place It's a question of acceptance. It's a question that the user sees the benefit He or she has from all those technologies So our focus is business driven. We see what are the tools we see what are The possibilities But we need to create that link so that the user immediately feels that this is for me These are edit value services. I I Verifies and I needed to rely on so as we have very limited resources We have to see how to leverage resources and this is definitely possible with standardization and digital Transformation processes and we have to see how to adapt our ways of working In some respect, we are still a bespoke butler for others We are procedural advisor for others. We are knowledge broker And to conclude what does this mean? So as I say, we have to work on three fronts in parallel The first one is internally without our organization. So the general secretary of the council we have to To get completely digitalized workflows and validation processes Including e-signature and whatever is needed for secure for secure workflows We have to get it right inter institutionally. We cannot be isolated between the commission and the european parliament For example, we are working now on an end-to-end legislative drafting platform xml based between commission european parliament and commission This is a tough project as today. We are coming from completely different backgrounds But we need to get there Our comment also will not be another standard which will enable us in order to track and to mark legislative Processing and finally we have to get it right within 28 member states We have to fit in their national e-governments and digital agendas It's not as just as imposing some new standards or tools or whatsoever on member states No, this time we have to do it in interaction. We have to assess also what other needs On the other side of Of of our boundaries Again, I think I can only repeat what I heard we work in silos that You always will have limit limits and boundaries between services But we need to work in a way that we become Boundary less in the way our information circulates and that's our main that's our main Challenge and I think we will do it together with all our stakeholders and today We are not member of the open group, but I expect that this will change in the in the future and That there's definitely also a need to work in this forum And this what this will for sure be an added value for us. Thank you very much Thank you very much for a long if you could dare, please take a seat for some questions I love presentations that talk about The likelihood of joining the open group as a member so that's a wonderful wonderful start and any any Presentation that has boundary less information flow in the title is is good news for us. That's our That's our vision. So thank you very much for For doing that. We've got quite a few questions that have come in while you were talking Let me start straight away. There were two that are very similar To do with security and confidentiality basically And one is how our issues like security and confidentiality handled The other similar one is how do you balance openness? And confidentiality with security That's that's easy tricky and tricky issue so to until now more or less everything was dealt with Along the alliance. So if this level of security is needed for that kind of information So more or less all the information has to fit in that level of security So it's just not possible to work in in a world which goes more and more mobile So we have to find that right balance But as I said as we move from intergovernmental process to more co-legislation process There are a lot of things which are public which need to go public So we need to make a big a greater distinction between those information The content which can already be shared publicly and to take devices for that Which are there and then to see more specifically what needs to be protected and then to protect it in an adequate way But again, I think all these are challenges. For example major companies Finance institutions Law enforcement services, they have the same challenges and in today's world. They are solutions We had the chance to see for example, how in France National general services function and so if it is possible there, it is also possible here It's a question of redesigning the way we assess Well the content and to make a clear distinction with what can be shared publicly openly And to do it easily to facilitate access and then to protect really that city will protect it with the right tools Right as you say the I mentioned our vision of boundaryless information flowing To finish it off boundaryless information flowing it in a secure reliable and timely manner and we always Stress that it doesn't mean that there are no Boundaries that the boundaries are permeable and enable Information to flow as it should in a secure way. Not that not that there are no boundaries. So it's a similar Similar issue both in at the EU level and and commercial level as you say Okay next question the EU And notably France and Germany is showing the world how to integrate refugees Fleeing war-torn countries to pursue liberty and personal freedom Given the complexity of culture multiple languages and technical and And the technical of digital technicality of digital differences Is the idea of an enterprise architecture to convey boundaryless information flow As discussed as a capability to build and govern Um, so basically is is the you know, is the idea of an enterprise architecture to convey that Boundaries information flow named or discussed Well, I think this is an opportunity to me to say that what I say here is not I'm reflecting the position of it usually it's just personally, but here we are entering into into politics I think as I'm also coming from this justice and tomorrow fairs background These are discussions we have already over the last 20 years but definitely if I look There's a lot of knowledge We just got lost over 20 years and if we have this sort of knowledge Capture and share I'm pretty sure that Well, whenever the next crisis will appear we can say okay We had similar settings there. This was the solution this work This didn't work and for sure this will be enabled to work differently also at political level But now to answer your question. Is it clearly mentioned? I said no No, but I think they had not of indications that it drives In that direction if you see a digital open market Well, the common market was one of the for the first building block of the european union Now we are getting to the digital open market and whatever is linked to this digital Common market Well enables the european union to progress So I'm pretty sure that this will be another enabler to make the european union Fit for growth, but it's not mentioned as that today Okay, thank you Let's see Knowledge is based on information, which is based on foundational data How is the eu language in terms of connotation nuance and context? How does that arrive at the same perceived level of knowledge? Um, and and the the comment with it is it seems like the potential for inequality is quite considerable Um, a couple of years ago. We just started a process, uh called European strategy and policy analysis It was called aspas in order to see What sort of perspectives the european union would have and what you say exactly here reminds me discussion We had a couple of months ago where someone said we should not get rid of the uh, long big witty constructives So the constructive ambiguity But I think in today's world our citizens do not expect for mass constructive ambiguity They want for mass a clear language Of course there must always be some work for courts and so on But we need to find a different language in order to make the european union more accessible also to the interested citizen and definitely today It's very complicated if you're interested in european affair to find the right knowledge on our different websites And so I think that's also another challenge So that we enable the citizens to get the information a correct authentic information where it is Um, I was in columbus over samba at at world conference on information and library exchange And there was a guy from wikipedia and he called on the libraries to provide information So one reflection could be why can't we as european institutions, for example, not provide information to wikipedia? So to facilitate all this Okay, yeah a point Standards next question. Um, you talked about standards and interoperability as as key You see standards as beneficial for sharing as as compared to documents, for example And do you see standards as a way to share and reuse knowledge? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's uh, no no doubt about that What we intend to do in the future today When we take a document when we take a commission proposal with 250 pages with all the annexes and we just treat it as one single document How do you want to work on this in terms of knowledge management on the idea would be we go for Content-based we take Area by area articles by articles. So x xml will definitely be the The tool for content exchange in the future and for us we had to look at different standards acumen tools They know that as a legislative tracker is the right thing to do and if other organizations if member states For example in the framework of the isa square program Together with with the commission's building blocks. We will hear in a couple of minutes If we all do this together on the basis of the same standards Well, we will provide knowledge. We will be more efficient with less resources and And and and reserving those resources for other things Music to our ears. Yes. Thank you I think this is the last question What is the approach that you take to handle all the information so it will be updated and in time And are you using a reference model to handle this and connect all the data and knowledge together? That's definitely one of the challenges Today we are not yet able To deliver information in the right time in structured ways So if we want to do something in urgent ways, so it's email exchange And whenever you use email exchange, you will lose things During the process and I think that's one of our challenges to find or the reference model to allow us to be a quick and efficient But still organized so that everything remains captured and available for future Exchanges and and but that's one of one of the main challenges to take. Yes So a reference model may be something that you that you've come to And I misspoke. There is one more one more question How can the council of the EU make sure that the stakeholders trust the tools and methods in time so as not to impact the delay in the delivery of those projects? And part b how is reluctancy to accept those treated? Just one single word partnerships Again over the last years because it's complicated to set up it system compliant with all stakeholders We just developed on our own and we informed. Well, that's it guys Today we have to do this in partnership with the member states So we came to France to see how the SGAE function we were in vienna We were in estonia, which is digitally one of the fittest countries And so we explored and we offer those these sort of partnerships with the most with those who would like to join us So it's it's a win-win situation at the end They might see oh if those guys in Brussels are able to develop this It's almost used for us to develop it in parallel So we can and but it has to be done together It can no more be that In Brussels things are developed and just imposed We have to do this together with the member states with commission with the parliament And and I think at least in Brussels this mindset is now clear And and if you look at those framework contracts as Programs we as isa square and so on That that's one of of the vehicles together Okay, thank you. I think that's all the all the questions So thank you once again all along for your presentation and big round of applause for our speaker, please Thank you