IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Although Europe's national public administrations are moving in the right direction, there is still disparity between countries. There is also room for improvement in take up of eProcurement. As part of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Union aims for one out of two citizens and four out of five businesses to be using eGovernment services by 2015 (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200). The Report's findings give useful feedback on the objectives of the eGovernment Action Plan launched by the Commission in December 2010 to work with Member States' public authorities to expand and improve the services which they offer via the Internet (see IP/10/1718 and MEMO/10/681).

Northern European countries led the use of the internet for health, followed by Eastern and Southern Europe.

Of 7,022 interviewed over the telephone in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Greece and Portugal, over half said they use the internet for health research.

There has been real progress on the whole, according to the Commission report published on 19 November, following the adoption in Malmö, Sweden, of a political declaration by EU ministers in charge of e-government. Some 71% of basic services are fully available online through portals or websites, compared with 59% in 2007. Other member states are still lagging behind, particularly those in central and eastern Europe and Greece.

Introduction

The public sector plays a major role in Europe's social and economic development. It provides for welfare to citizens, socio-economic cohesion and a competitive market environment.

In a speech entitled 'Build, Connect, Grow: The road towards borderless eGovernment' made yesterday at the 6th Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Poland, Kroes complained that government services are not as easy to use as they should be.

It's a pleasure to address you all today, on the crucial issue of the Cloud. The question I'd like to answer this afternoon is: why do we need a European Cloud strategy? And I'm going to take that question in three parts.

First, why the Cloud?

That's a very good question. Often I meet people who don't really know what it is. Fundamentally, the Cloud is a different model for providing IT infrastructure, platforms or software. Where those things are provided centrally, and distributed to end users over a network; like over the Internet network.

Die Direktive setzt die hohen Anforderungen an die Ausgeber von elektronischem Geld außer Kraft, die in einer ersten Regelung aus dem Jahre 2000 festgelegt worden waren. Künftig muss ein Finanzdienstleister, der elektronisches Geld ausgeben will, nur noch ein Eigenkapital von 350.000 Euro nachweisen. Dafür dürfen die Geldbeträge, die elektronische Geräte wie Computer, Smartcard oder Mobiltelefon lokal speichern oder auf dem Nutzerkonto in einer zentralen Datenbank gespeichert sind, den Gesamtbetrag von 250 Euro nicht überschreiten. Insgesamt darf ein einzelner Anwender nicht mehr als 2500 Euro elektronisches Geld im Verlauf eines Kalenderjahres transferieren.

Die EU plant einen Relaunch ihres Web-Auftrittes. Ende März 2004 wird die Website "EUROPA" eine Vielzahl neuer benutzerfreundlicher Dienste und Serviceleistungen anbieten. Animierte Grafiken, interaktive Spiele, einfache Navigation und verbesserte Suchfunktionen sollen noch mehr User dazu einladen, sich online zu informieren.

Der neue EU-Bookshop des Amts für Veröffentlichungen bietet einen zentralen und [kostenfreien] Zugang zu den Veröffentlichungen der Organe, Agenturen und sonstigen Institutionen der EU.

Bisher mussten die Publikationen relativ mühsam von den Websites der zuständigen Organe zusammengesammelt werden.

The new smartcards will initially contain information such as the bearer's PPS (Personal Public Services) number and will certify that they are eligible to receive medical treatment as an EU citizen.

Of the central government respondents in a survey conducted by market advisory firm IDC, 22 per cent said that they will grow spending for new initiatives, while less than ten per cent of them expect to grow spending on maintenance and upgrades. Demand for external services is also expected to grow, with 28 per cent of central government and 18 per cent of local government executives indicating that the share of IT that they source from external vendors will grow in 2005.

Healthcare is a priority for the majority of European citizens and with common issues such as an ageing society and rapid technological changes, Europe-wide cooperation has become necessary and inevitable. The Commission's proposals are therefore aimed at increasing EU cooperation for the benefit of both the patient and the healthcare profession.

Georgian and international experts are working together to develop an e-Georgia Development Strategy and turn Georgia into an IT-based governance state.

We are actively working on the e-Georgia Development Strategy. This document is a guideline based on international and local experiences and best standards in practice,” said chairman of Georgia’s Data Exchange Agency (DEA) Irakli Gvenetadze.

The Strategy unites all state institutions and identifies the necessary activities, the implementation of which can turn Georgia into a sustainable e-Governance model state,” he added.

Online communications and effective use of online data collection and outbound email are central to future tactical implementation of the plan. The 50 actions set out in the plan aim at improving the Commission’s capacity and skills to communicate European policies.