Evolution of records management/archives at the Council of the European Union, with the objective of progressing towards Information Governance. Presented at the meeting of the Section of International Organizations of the International Council on Archives (Frankfurt 2015)
Towards a new working method: from central filing to information governance
1. ｜0｜
Gustavo Castaner
Towards a new working method
From central filing to information
governance
SIO Meeting, Frankfurt, 11 June 2015
Council of the European Union
General Secretariat
Directorate-General F, Communication and Document Management
Directorate 2, Document Management
Unit 2 B, Records Management and Central Archives
22 May 2015
3. ｜2｜
• The General Secretariat of
the Council (GSC) is the
body of staff responsible for
assisting 2 EU institutions:
– the European Council
– the Council of the EU,
including its presidencies,
the Permanent
Representatives
Committee (Coreper) and
the other Council
committees and working
parties
The GSC, a Secretariat serving two
institutions
4. ｜3｜
• Institutional role
– Adopts legislative acts (Regulations, Directives,
etc.), in many cases in "co-decision" with the
European Parliament;
– Helps coordinate Member States' policies ;
– It develops the common foreign and security
policy, on the basis of strategic guidelines set by
the European Council;
– Concludes international agreements on behalf of
the Union;
– Adopts the Union's budget, together with the
European Parliament.
The Council of the European Union (I)
5. ｜4｜
• “Hybrid” Structure. Member
States Government
Representatives + General
Secretariat of the Council (GSC)
• Administration:
– 1 Secretary General: Uwe
Corsepius (since December
2009). Jeppe Tranholm-
Mikkelsen (since July 2015)
– 7 Directorates-General +
Legal Service
– 3.200 staff, nearly half of
them translators and
interpreters
The Council of the European Union (II)
6. ｜5｜
• The European Council defines the
general political direction and
priorities of the European Union.
With the entry into force of the Treaty
of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, it
became an institution. Its President is
Donald Tusk.
• The European Council consists of
the Heads of State or Government of
the Member States, together with its
President and the President of the
Commission. The High
Representative of the Union for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
takes part in its work.
• The European Council meets twice
every six months, convened by its
President. When the situation so
requires, the President will convene
a special meeting of the European
Council.
The European Council
7. ｜6｜
• The Council has been
traditionally the most
conservative of the three
main EU institutions
• Since the 50s the archives
of the institution were
managed through a central
filing method, revamped in
1997
A very conservative environment
8. ｜7｜
• Modern recordkeeping
requirements and peer
pressure (the Commission
has developed a complete
records management
program since 2002) has
forced the GSC to
acknowledge the need to
change the working method
Need to align with international
standards and best practices
9. ｜8｜
• All the debate on the need
for a records management
policy at the Council has
been tinged by the so
perceived unique nature of
the Council’s documents: the
so called decisionmaking
documents (ST,PE,CM) that
have been traditionally
considered as the “true”
documents of the Council in
its legislative role in the
framework of the Codecision
Procedure
Our specificity: Council
Decisionmaking documents
10. ｜9｜
• In the GSC the
modernization effort has
been led by the Policy DGs
(5 out of the total 8 that deal
with the core business of the
house, Council Decision
Making). Together with IT
and official document
production and distribution
they have developed since
2010 CODEMAP, an
ambitious portfolio of
projects aimed at improving
document management.
A modernization effort led by the Policy
DGs
11. ｜10｜
• Since 2013 a renewed
debate has taken place
about the scope and
limitations of the CODEMAP
approach.
• The result of this debate was
the denomination change to
DFM (Document and File
Management) with an
enlarged perimeter covering
all files and documents
managed by the GSC, not
just those handled by the
Policy DGs
From CODEMAP to DFM
Document and File
Management
Approach
Council
Decision
Making
Process
Approach
POLICY ADMINISTRATION
12. ｜11｜
• The first result of the DFM
initiative, after a lengthy
discussion, has been the
drafting of a Policy on
Document and File
Management for the whole
GSC. It is the equivalent of
the Commission Decision
2002/47, that launched the
whole e-Domec project
The DFM Policy
13. ｜12｜
• Since May 2015 several
units of 3 Policy DGs will
conduct a pilot test of a new
document management IT
tool called Agora, focused
on production and
distribution of CDM files
• Agora functionalities are still
fairly limited and will have to
be developed to cover the
document lifecycle
Agora Pilot
14. ｜13｜
1. SUPPORT DECISION
MAKING
2. PROVIDE LEGAL,
POLICY & PROCEDURAL
ADVICE
3. GOVERNANCE,
COORDINATION AND
MANAGEMENT
4. RELATIONS WITH THE
HOST-STATES, OTHER
INSTITUTIONS AND
BODIES ; LITIGATION
5. ORGANISE MEETINGS
AND EVENTS
6. LINGUISTIC SUPPORT
7. COMMUNICATION
8. FINANCIAL
RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
9. HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
10. KNOWLEDGE AND
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
11. FACILITY
MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONAL
SERVICES
• During 2014 a Filing Plan
Task Force produced a first
draft of the three first levels
of a corporate functional
filing plan.
• As part of its reflection, the
Task Force urged for the
central coordination of the
parallel strands that had
been typical of the
CODEMAP project
Filing Plan
Filing Plan main Headings
15. ｜14｜
• As part of the debate on the
DFM Policy, responsibility for
lead and implementation of
the DFM initiative switched
from high-level Steering
Committee to DG F
• DG F has created a
Knowledge and Information
Team (KIT) to provide the
necessary vision and
coordination for all DFM
efforts with conceptual work
on process architecture,
records management,
training, communication and
research
Governance change and central
coordination
16. ｜15｜
• Current approach very much
focused on documents – Still
appropriate?
• New information consumption
and creation behavior –
Consequences for our
administration?
• Increasing mobility – What
about the amassed knowledge?
• Digital information – How to
preserve our institutional
memory?
We need new
concepts/ideas/approaches to
meet our objectives and fulfil
our legal obligations
From DFM to KIG
17. ｜16｜
• From the Archives we
propose the filing plan as a
tool for interoperability and
filing consistently across
specific business systems:
AGORA for Policy DGs,
SYSPER for HR, SAP for
Finance, SharePoint…
Our IT Vision
IT Tool (Filing Plan + Retention)
POLICY ADMINISTRATION
18. ｜17｜
• We aim at January 2016 to
stop creating central files
and move to a proper
records management
system
• The main responsibility of
the RMCA unit will be
supporting this transition.
Further development of the
filing plan and drafting
retention schedules will be
two main elements of this
process
From central filing to records
management
19. ｜18｜
Archives’ digitisation & Research
Status & Perspectives
• Digitisation from microfiches
o Feasibility study
o Logistics / budgeting
o Framework Contract UCA 004/08 & UCA
065/10 (2009-2013)
o Digitisation at contractor premises
o Historical collections: 1952-1974
• Digitisation from paper
originals
o Application development start 2012
o Digitisation at Council premises
o Historical collections: from 1975 on,
enlargements, …
20. ｜19｜
Archives’ digitisation & Research
Status & Perspectives
• Equipment
• Interoperability
• Security & safety management
• Storage management
• Use of international standards
• Quality management
• Human Resources
• Costs
21. ｜20｜
Archives’ digitisation & Research
Status & Perspectives
• Cooperation with IT/technical services
• Legal obstacles
• Digital preservation & planning
• Online access
23. ｜22｜
• As you have seen by this
presentation, the RMCA unit
has many fronts opened, but
looks optimistically to an
increasing engagement and
importance of records
management and archives
in the GSC.
• Best practices in peer
organizations are good
guidance to achieve optimal
results with the resources
available
A landscape in transformation
