An EU funded project managed by

the European Union Office in Kosovo

Training of e-parliament system

Activity 2.3.4
Ms. Anita Dudina,
Director of the Information Department, Latvian Parliament
Ms. Eszter Kertsz,
Expert Adviser, former Head of ICT Department, Hungarian National Assembly
Ms. Judit Jradi
Adviser of the Committee on European Affairs, Hungarian National Assembly

13-15 March, 2017

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 IT tools supporting the work of
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo the Assembly
At present there are three platforms available for every users of
the Assembly of Kosovo:

The intranet platform which provides the link to the e-

parliament system, too.

E-parliament system which builds database mainly for the legal

tracking system and provides support for the different
directorates.

Assembly website provides information for the public and

ensures the transparency of the activities of the Assembly (New
website is under development).

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 IT tools supporting the work of
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo the Assembly

INTRANET

PARLIAMENTARY WEBSITE
E-PARLIAMENT

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
Communication yesterday
the European Union Office in Kosovo

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
Communication today
the European Union Office in Kosovo

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
The e-parliament system
the European Union Office in Kosovo

Aims
to support the legislative procedure and parliamentary work in
general by
- instant information- and document-sharing
- providing a stable system that could be further developed on
the basis of needs (tailor-made, specified to parliamentary
processes)
Challenges
- main clients in the parliament are changing every 4 years
- data-input requires team work
- information literacy
- language skills
TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Complexity (1)
The IT system of e-parliament is based on a complex
central database solution which contains data, events
and meta-data:
- MPs data
- Data of parliamentary parties
- Parliamentary Officers
- Committees
- Documents of legislative process
- Minutes of Plenary and Committees meetings
- Votes
- Civil Society Organisations
- Statistics

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Complexity (2)
The basis condition to create adequate relationship
between the elements of the data-base is to fulfil all
necessary input data in time

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 The e-parliament system in the
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo Assembly of Kosovo

Development of the e-parliament is finished; the

contract terminated in May 2016.
E-parliament system works.
Data input started.
Most of the technical difficulties and organisational
challenges has been identified; now possible solutions
and working methods should be worked out.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
Current stage of implementation
the European Union Office in Kosovo

Division of tasks and allocation of responsibilities

relating to the data-input into the system are laid down
(Instruction on the publication of documents on the
website and intranet (e-Parliament) of the Assembly of
the Republic of Kosovo) although some further
clarifications are necessary;
Training about data edit system for the staff, start to
input descriptive data and documents into the system;
Test phase is completed, user-right management is
solved;
Guidelines and user manuals are provided.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 Division of tasks
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Roles and responsibilities
Directorate for Plenary and Procedural Issues:
- Central role in the administration of parliamentary documents
and information;
- Main tool for register data in the database is the input form that
contains numerous fields or spaces to enter data;
- The staff member of the Table Office registers the documents of
the Presidency and the Plenary.
Directorate for Committees:
- Documents of the majority of the Parliamentary Committees has
been started to be uploaded into the e-parliament system;
- Different staff members of a given committee has different tasks
and responsibilities during the information-input process.
IT Directorate:
- Training, support, maintenance

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 Challenges of implementation
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo (1)
One of the biggest challenges is to secure the real
time import of documents;
Currently the information input is rather slow and
uneven in general;
The input of descriptive data (metadata) is not a
regular practice, because staff members are
overloaded with other tasks or they do not have
comprehensive knowledge of the work-flow system;
The interdependent elements, events deficiencies in
the system.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

 Challenges of implementation
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo (2)
Staff members working with legislative procedures of the
Assembly can hardly use e-parliament systems services
at its full extent due to
- the various activities of the different Directorates
relating to data-input;
- limited access to uploaded documents;
- the lack of complete data entry.
The lack of continuity of development and tracking of e-
parliament system;
IT-support faces human resources shortage.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Further steps to be taken
Support and maintenance of e-parliament system should be
strengthened,
Formalised allocation of tasks and responsibilities has to be
finalised,
Trainings for different levels
Coordination and process control of e-parliament system is
very important
Full access for staff and MPs
Monitoring of the system
Strategic planning
Further development
Interconnection between e-parliament and website of the
Assembly
TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Recommendation (1)
Management
The directors must ensure that the e-parliament system is able
to follow each stage of the legislation process.
The cooperation of the Directorates should avoid parallel data
registration using the common repository of the central
database.
General introduction to the use of the intranet system which
was installed within the e-parliament project.
Further trainings should be provided for the Assembly staff.
Peculiar attention could be paid on the software licensing,
standard development methodologies and the ownership of
all the program source codes specifically developed for the
parliament.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Recommendation (2)
Staff level
Important to involve all relevant Directorates in the project
groups responsible for the e-parliament project.
The staff of the relevant Directorates has to be responsible for
the timely and precise input of the legislative information.
The training for the main users (staff, MPs) is very important
for the better understanding of the functions of the IT system
and the e-parliament project.
The number and the skills of the current IT staff need to
improve, new tasks need extra resources. New qualifications
will be needed.
The specialisation of the IT positions is necessary.

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly

An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Recommendation (3)
Content of the new website
An automatic update of the website via background
database solution;
Glossary of parliamentary terms and procedures
The website should provide standardized file formats
for downloading, editing and printing parliamentary
documents and publications;
For faster publication and to make easy to search of the
plenary votes, data exchange is required between the
currently separated electronic voting system and the e-
parliament system.
TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo
Recommendation (4)
Mid-term further development
Strategic planning
Support and Maintenance Contract with INOVATIVI for the
following years, until e-parliament system functions to full
capacity
Full translation of e-parliament platform and database forms
into the official languages of Kosovo
Revision of the number of mandatory fields for
metadata/descriptive data
Expanded level of access (e.g. introducing new option in the
Receiving Unit field of the forms - ALL)
Introduction of data collection on specific subject from e-
parliament system for publication on the Intranet
Interconnection between e-parliament database and
Assemblys website.
TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly
An EU funded project managed by
the European Union Office in Kosovo

Thank you for your attention!

TWINNING PROJECT - Further Support to the Kosovo Assembly