Europe's e-services portal is confronting "huge practical difficulties" and will not be available until next year, the EU's e-government programme has admitted. The portal, which is an ambitious attempt to set up the first "pan European" online services, has been in development for over a year as a pilot but is not to become fully operational until key obstacles can be overcome. When the project first began the EU had a publicly available url for the portal, but it has now been closed down.
In its October 2003 strategy update, the EU's Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) programme says it recognises that one of the stated political aims is to set up a portal for e-government services which work across Europe.
"But behind the political will, it should be noted that there are huge practical difficulties involved in coordinating such a type of portal. All EU national administration websites are structured in their own unique way, providing different levels of information on their public services, according to their importance and availability locally."
One example given is that while most national governments provide information about income tax online, they do not offer advice if an individual is paying tax in another country.
Creating a portal designed to provide such information, incorporating the differences between national administrations as well as overcoming language barriers "is a highly complex task", says the report.
The IDA's strategy paper says the portal will be kept as a pilot until 2004 for "learning and demonstration" purposes. But it does say that eventually it will become operational and will be the "the reference public portal for citizens and enterprises interested in cross-border activities within the enlarged EU."
Quelle: Kablenet, 21.10.2003
