IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Electronic invoicing constitutes a priority in the context of simplifying public administration. It is a modern, convenient, economical and reliable tool that not only allows public authorities to make savings on operating costs but also companies to reduce their administrative burdens.

To be able to access the electronic public administration services, users must authenticate themselves and their access permission must be verified. Currently, there are several parallel systems to do this. The Federal Government will soon create an integrated system suitable for all user groups and all eGovernment applications. This system will be safer, more user-friendly and more efficient for the public administration.

Digital security firm Gemalto has enabled Belgian mobile ID scheme itsme to enroll 350,000 users and securely process one million transactions per month for both private and public online services – making it one of the most successful mobile ID applications in Europe within one year of launch. As well as bringing greater convenience to consumers, itsme provides merchants, government, and financial institutions with strong, multi-factor authentication that is fully compliant with PSD2, GDPR and is certified for eIDAS.

itsme was developed by Belgian Mobile ID, a consortium of Belgium's leading banks and mobile network operators, in close collaboration with Gemalto. It has been officially recognized by the Belgian government as a way for citizens to connect to numerous online public services, including taxation, pensions and health, as well as online banking and mobile operator services. In its first year the app is already being used widely, with the average user completing six banking transactions and three e-Government transactions each month.

Brussels residents and visitors will soon be able to share their opinions and recommendations on the city in three of the capital’s districts through the application "Brussels By Us." The Regional State Secretary for Digital Transition Bianca Debaets (CD&V), the Computer Center for the Brussels Region (CIRB) and VUB university’s SMIT research laboratory presented Friday their citizen participation project.

The Northern District, the pedestrian sector and the university U-Square site, on the Ixelles barracks grounds, are the three districts elected for testing. Each site has its own features, public and challenges.

Belgium spends more than its neighbors on public services.

Echo reported on Friday (10 June) that substantial savings can be made in public services according to the Belgian Federation of Enterprises (FEB).

FEB represents more than 50 000 companies in Belgium, accounting for 75% of employment in the private sector.

Coming2Belgium is aimed not only at foreigners who wish to settle in Belgium for a while, but also at Belgian citizens who come back to their home country after residing abroad for a long time. On the contrary, the online service has not been designed for holidaymakers or people planning a short stay.

eID DSS is a web service that enables its users to place signatures on all common file formats such as XML, ODF and OOXML as well as to validate signed files.

eHealthBox is a free service that will allow receipt of official announcements, forms or specific notifications. In addition to simplifying the administrative burden and reducing paper waste, the value of eHealthBox mainly lies in the speed and authenticity with which information is communicated, and the secure access to this information. The project is currently limited in its functions, as only public partner institutions are able to publish their documents for consultation.

This new application is the result of collaboration between the Federal Department of Justice and the Administrative Simplification Agency. The Minister of Administrative Simplification, Olivier Chastel, positively commented on this initiative: "The online communication between citizens and registries simplifies the work. eRegistry is easy to use and so from now on the long trips to the Registry Office belong to the past. Citizens will spare the plethora of paper-based administrative burdens.”

The federal public service has made a list of data sets accessible as open data on the portal aimed at enabling developers to create useful applications for businesses or citizens by using the information provided. Specifically, the site mostly contains links to data supplied by authorities, public bodies and organisations targeting developers and open data researchers. Each federal department or federal government institution itself determines the terms and conditions governing access to and use of the data.

Digital Planning Application is a project of the Flemish Government which aims to digitise the application for planning permission for building construction work in the Flanders region so that they can be made over the Internet. Currently the application process is done using paper forms. This is a complex procedure, however, and depending on the situation it may require as many as eight separate copies of the form being sent to different agencies.

These services, which make use of the National Register of Natural Persons (Rijksregister) services, are a major addition to the services that are already provided by the MAGDA (Maximale Gegevensdeling Tussen Administraties or Maximum Data sharing between Administrations) Platform. They are the first examples of services that make use of the improved capabilities of the MAGDA 2.0 SOA infrastructure, which was put into production last year (2011).

The upgraded website, which is based on the eID pictogram, meets the needs of current and future holders of the national eID, which is obligatory for Belgian citizens over the age of 12. The eID serves as proof of identity, enables secure access to online government applications, and is used to sign electronic contracts and to request official documents or forms online.

Following the announcement of a waste-management trial in Melbourne, Genk is to get Scene Analytics to crack down on vehicle noise.

Nokia has announced a trial smart city program designed to combat vehicle-based noise pollution in the Belgian city of Genk — by analyzing audio and video using its machine learning analytics platform.

The purpose of the Belgian Workers' Compensation Fund (Fonds des Accidents de Travail - FAT, in French) is to collect data about all accidents concerning both the private and the public sector. This collection constitutes a European requirement. Public service data are currently provided in several - often outdated - ways, thus greatly reducing the quality and the completeness of information.

The portal's overall objective is to make PSI more widely usable and accessible; however, re-usable information per se is not directly available on the site. Thus, information is organised into virtual file cards providing: a description of available information; conditions governing re-use; the name of the administration; and contact details. Furthermore, it aims to centralise the available information so as to facilitate (information) search for data operators and to encourage profitable PSI re-use. Priority is given to data search.

The Belgian parliament has approved legislation on electronic identification

The new law is aimed at making it easier for the public to contact public authorities and access e-government services, reports TelecomPaper.

The law also implements the eiDAS regulation on facilitating cross-border access to public services in the EU.

To trick fraudsters, the Home Office has introduced three circular arcs on the card - just beneath the identity photos - where you will find the name of the country in the official languages spoken in Belgium - French, Dutch and German, as well as in English. But instead of 'Belgien' in German, the ID card incorrectly uses the name 'Belgine' and instead of 'Belgium' in English, the card reads 'Belguim'. Vanneste has promised other errors will be printed on the card to "further confuse fraudsters". With any luck, these will not be revealed.