 On 7 September 2011, 2382 public sector organisations from 43 different nationalities or from the EU institutions were registered as CAF users in the CAF Database.The CAF Model is derived from the EFQM Excellence Model and shares the same 9 criteria.In 1998, discussions amongst the Directors-General of the Public Administration of the EU Member States in the European Public Administration Network (EUPAN) revealed that there was a need for a common European quality framework that could be used across the public sector as a tool for organisational self-assessment.