IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Seven southern EU member states including France, Italy, Spain and Malta are positioning themselves as Europe’s leaders on developing blockchain technology to be used by governments.

A grouping known as the “Mediterranean seven” on Tuesday called on Brussels to help promote ‘Distributive Ledger Technology’ (DLT) that is most associated with cryptocurrencies but is increasingly being used by governments to offer services to citizens.

"The Cybercrime Centre will give a strong boost to the EU's capacity to fight cybercrime and defend an internet that is free, open and secure. Cybercriminals are smart and quick in using new technologies for criminal purposes; the EC3 will help us become even smarter and quicker to help prevent and fight their crimes," said European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who will be officially opening the facility.

Few of emerging Europe’s countries feature in the 2019 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, with the globe’s top five remain unchanged (US, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland).

Estonia ranked 29th, followed by Lithuania (30th) and Slovenia (32nd). Slovakia (47th), Croatia (51st) and Ukraine (60th) are the other countries in the emerging Europe region to feature.

In February 2015, the European Commission's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) ranked Denmark, Sweden and Finland at first, second and fourth place respectively in a list of the European Union's most digital nations, based on 2013 and 2014 data.

Only the Netherlands could foil a Nordic 1, 2, 3 atop the list – and, as Norway and Iceland are not in the European Union (EU), they didn't feature.

As a global standards consortium, OASIS has long participated in European standards policy-making discussions relevant to information and communication technology (ICT). OASIS standards are widely used within European governments and industry as an important source for consensus ICT standards development. Nevertheless, prior European community regulation was unclear on the authority of public administrations to incorporate industry consortia standards into official work programs. The wide acceptance of standards from OASIS and other consortia for e-Government work in Europe led to the reconsideration of these rules.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal hopes that electronic trust services between the European Union and Ukraine will be mutually recognized in the coming years.

He wrote about this on his Telegram channel after a meeting with Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age.

On 27 September 2018 the Council adopted a regulation setting up a single digital gateway. The new gateway will provide access to online information and procedures, assistance and problem solving services to individuals and companies.

The Council today adopted a regulation setting up a single digital gateway. This follows an agreement reached with the European Parliament in June. The new gateway will provide access to online information and procedures, assistance and problem solving services to individuals and companies.

It’s a Monday morning, and Murphy’s Law is in full effect. The alarm was set an hour later than intended and the spouse, child and dog have penetrated your inner calm like an invading army breaching castle walls. All before 8 am. You approach the heavy oak front door and swing it wide with reckless abandon, hoping to gain precious seconds back — a ploy that increases the likelihood of making it to the office on time by 0.1%.

But something miraculous happens when the threshold to the world is crossed: the spring air is crisp and clean. Birds sing and chirp and flutter from one hibiscus tree to the next. The sound of traffic is characterized by a gentle hum as vehicles come your way and now speed away in a most organized fashion. Cyclists almost outnumber cars as the morning rush reaches its daily crescendo.

Today, EU Ambassador to ASEAN Igor Driesmans, Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Ekkaphab Phanthavong, and United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Executive Secretary Preeti Sinha kicked off the Smart Green ASEAN Cities programme.

Out of ASEAN’s population of over 630 million, nearly 300 million people live in urban areas and more than 25% live in cities with over one million inhabitants. In the next 15 years, ASEAN’s urban areas are expected to accommodate another 100 million people.

Health IT is not sufficiently funded and supported at most European healthcare provider organizations, according to a HIMSS Analytics survey of health IT professionals.

The HIMSS Analytics Annual European eHealth Survey garnered responses from 559 eHealth professionals from more than 15 European countries. Close to half of the respondents (42 percent) were from health facilities, 11 percent were from governmental health authorities, 18 percent were IT software vendors and 28 percent represented “other.”

Ukraine and the European Union launched the cybersecurity and digital transformation dialogue.

The first round of the dialogue was held on June 3, Ukrinform reports with reference to the of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

''Ukraine and the EU reaffirmed their commitment to global, open, stable and secure cyberspace where the rule of law is fully respected, where the same rights that individuals have offline are also protected online, and where the security, economic growth, prosperity, and integrity of free and democratic societies is promoted and preserved. The EU expressed its solidarity with and support to Ukraine, which is facing cyber-attacks that seek to undermine its key infrastructure,” reads the statement.

The European Union and Ukraine signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of e-governance on Thursday, December 13, the Mission of Ukraine to the EU has reported on its Facebook page.

"Head of the State Agency for E-Governance of Ukraine Oleksandr Ryzhenko and Director-General [of the Directorate-General] for Informatics at the European Commission Gertrud Ingestad have signed an Administrative Arrangement on cooperation in the field of e-government development. For the first time, Ukraine will have access to the EU's ISA² program, which deals with the development of common standards for the provision of electronic services," the statement reads.

HCM City needs Europe’s experience and solutions to create smart cities, a conference heard Friday.

Speaking at the “Cyber security, Internet of Things and Connected Services towards a smart city” conference, organised by the European Chamber of Commerce in Việt Nam (EuroCham), Võ Quang Huệ, vice chairman of EuroCham, said: “The Smart Cities subject is one of great importance for EuroCham Việt Nam. EuroCham believes its members have a lot to offer for Việt Nam’s sustainable development.

The proposed Directive will also have an impact along the supply-chain. In the process, the "data minimisation principle" will effectively rule out the use of big-data analytics by organisations operating in the European Union, while fines of up to €100m or five per cent of global turnover will also add sharp teeth to the regulations.

A lot, obviously, has changed since then. And the challenge of regulating data as those shifts have taken place - the growth of the internet, social media, cloud computing and big data, for example - has been compounded by the different ways in which the Data Protection Directive has been implemented across the 28 countries of the EU.

At the EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum – TeleCities spring conference in Tallinn, supported by the City of Tallinn, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s public sector group presented the findings of its second European benchmark survey into eCitizenship for All 2004, an annual joint initiative of EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum - TeleCities and Deloitte.

The aim is to generate data for European healthcare systems so that telemedicine can be adopted as part of regular care for chronically ill patients. Renewing Health is a highly ambitious clinical trial that will involve close to 8 000 patients in the intervention groups with cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or diabetes from the nine participating regions.

European Member States have adopted the “European Co-operation on eHealth” declaration in a closed ministerial meeting held at eHealth Week 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

According to the declaration, ICT for Health (eHealth) is a tool designed to “improve quality and patient safety, to modernise national healthcare systems, to increase their efficiency and to make them better adapted to the individual needs of citizens and health professionals.”

„Europa für Sie“ will die Suche nach Informationen erleichtern, die für EU-weit tätige Unternehmen wichtig sind und somit den Unternehmen Zeit sparen und unnötige Ärgernisse vermeiden. Außerdem stellt das Portal einen ersten Schritt in Richtung Europäische eGovernment-Dienste dar und hilft den Unternehmen dabei, sich über eine einzige Anlaufstelle eine Orientierung zu verschaffen. „Diese Initiative der Kommission erleichtert den Alltag der Unternehmen und reduziert den grenzübergreifenden verwaltungstechnischen Aufwand“, erklärte Kommissionsvizepräsident Günter Verheugen bei der Vorstellung des Portals.