Ref. Ares(2020)7898951 - 23/12/2020
PREAMBLE
EASE (Electronic Access to European Commission Documents) is a project to ensure
that the Commission is equipped with modern, electronic and integrated IT tools
allowing the submission and handling of the requests for public access to documents.
EASE supports the goal to bring the EU decision-making process closer to its citizens.
The future system will :
x Improve the workflows linked to the submission, processing and preparation of
replies to requests for access to European Commission documents
x Rationalise internal workflows and enhance consistency between replies.
x will cover the public interface for communicating with applicants, the internal
Workflows within the European Commission, and the consultations of other EU
Institutions, Member States and third parties, from the first request of the
applicant to the final decision of the Commission.
Regdoc is the Commission’s Register of Documents; it is a public application that allows
citizens to look for Commission documents. Together with the document, it displays
metadata of the document. In case the document is not publicly available, a web-based
form can be filled-in by the citizen. The current application will be rewritten in the
coming years but this project is currebtly in a very early stage so no specific
documentation exists yet.
The “Study on the use of artificial intelligence techniques for the electronic access to
Commission documents” should examine the different possibilities to start using artificial
intelligence (AI) and data analytics and visualisation techniques in information systems
such as EASE and RegDoc. The introduction of these techniques is meant to enhance the
EASE project in the first place, but SG would like to implement these tools also for the
new RegDoc project as well as for the other registers. An example of an AI technique is
Doris, a text-mining tool, used in the information system Better Regulation Portal.
More information on the two projects can be found in the annexed documents:
x EASE - Project Charter
x Study on the Secretariat-General Registers - FinalReport
1. SCOPE AND PURPOSE
SG and DG DIGIT have agreed to collaborate in the context described in the preamble.
The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding is to set out the conditions for this
collaboration. The MoU defines the high level scope of the work to be done by DG
DIGIT and the required associated resources.
2. SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED
In order to support the introduction of AI techniques in the domain of electronic access to
Commission documents, SG and DIGIT agree that the following activities need to be
carried out:
x Identification and analysis of a set use cases where AI techniques can be applied,
based on the functionalities foreseen for the two systems (EASE and RegDoc).
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x Delivery of a prototype, implementing one of the use cases, which aims at
validating the feasibility of the approach.
For this purpose, DG DIGIT will deliver to SG:
x Four high-level use cases where AI techniques can be applied in the context of
the EASE and RegDoc projects, based on the description of the foreseen
functionalities described in the documents in annex. Each high-level use case will
include at least:
o A description of how AI can support the specific functionality in terms of
main benefits that the technology can bring to the users.
o A description of the specific AI technique that will be used to implement
or support the functionality;
o A high-level estimate of the effort required to: develop (or apply) the
relevant technique, train the related algorithms (if applicable) and deploy
the solution in production. The effort should also take into consideration
the resources required from SG, which will support the development
process by providing business knowledge or validating the outcome of the
AI technique.
o The list of use cases shall be provided in English, electronically, in
Microsoft Office 2016 tools.
x A prototype implementing one of the four identified use cases. The specific use
case will be selected through a joint workshop between SG and DIGIT. The
purpose of this workshop would be to perform an analytical feasibility assessment
on each of the four identified use cases and select the most suitable one.
Specifically, the delivered prototype will contain:
o The implementation of the AI technique selected for the use case,
including, if applicable (such as in case of machine learning techniques),
an algorithm trained on the data sets provided by SG; this prototype
should be a working tool;
o A user interace, detailed enough for the user to validate the outcome of the
application of the AI technique;
o The technical infrastructure supporting the execution of the AI technology
(e.g. cloud environment);
o The necessary documentation describing the technical aspects of the PoC.
o The proof of concept shall be delivered in source code that can be used
within the scope of the EASE project. The documentation on the PoC
shall be delivered in English, electronically, in Microsoft Office 2016
tools.
SG will support the delivery of the above by providing to DIGT:
x The data sets (e.g. documents, spreadsheet, structured data stored in databases), to
which the artificial intelligence techniques have to be applied;
x The needed business knowledge required by DIGIT to better understand the
business context, the expected results and content of the provided data sets;
x Access to the users (in SG or elsewhere) who will need to test and validate the
outcome of the prototype.
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DG DIGIT will ensure close collaboration with SG during the design and the
implementation of the system. Input from SG is considered as essential for ensuring the
right level of expertise in this business domain and in carrying out intermediary reviews
of the artifacts developed, as well as performing the human quality control of the output
of the prototype.
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