The Council acknowledge the importance of e-government and the importance of the contribution of the public sector in achieving the Lisbon goals by facilitating and contributing to the European economic growth and innovation and the need to invest in the modernisation of public administrations, and in doing so, take full advantage of the use of information and communication technologies combined with organisational change and new skills. It recognises the importance for Member States, Acceding States and the Commission to identify demand-oriented pan-European eGovernment services on the basis of a study involving all relevant sectors and make available gradually, on the basis of existing services and work going on at national and European level, a number of selected pan-European eGovernment services to companies and citizens throughout the European Union, in order to contribute to advancing the Internal Market and European Citizenship.
To further develop eGovernment, the Council invites the European Commission, the Member States and the Acceding Countries: - to launch in 2004 a set of pan-European eGovernment pilot projects with benefits to citizens and companies throughout the European Union, with a view to evaluating necessities, obstacles and solutions. These pilot projects regarding the provision of cross-border services and support should be related inter alia to company registration and electronic public procurement, in order to contribute to the competitiveness of European businesses, particularly SMEs;
- to explore, by the end 2004, possible interoperable European solutions for citizens' and companies authentication for eGovernment in the Internal Market, in order to facilitate mobility in Europe and providing cross-border services on line;
- to ensure that the creation, development and implementation of these services should be accompanied by joint actions to build up experience and validate advanced solutions concerning common approaches to key aspects of seamless pan-European eGovernment service provision such as accessibility, user identification, security, interoperability, including data definitions and procedures. As far as appropriate, pan-European eGovernment services should be integrated and interactive.
- to identify remaining legal and regulatory barriers to eGovernment and to begin the process of developing a way forward to eliminate them;
- to explore the potential in eGovernment innovation at national level as well as creating expertise centres, and to pool excellence in eGovernment through cooperation on a voluntary basis at European level with the support of the Commission, in particular to address priority issues as identified in the eGovernment Communication, such as trust and security including authentication, broadband and multi-platform service provision, and combined technological, organisational innovation and open standards.
- to identify remaining legal, regulatory and organisational barriers to eGovernment at European level, on the basis of the proposed studies and pilot projects, and to suggest solutions in order to overcome them;
- to reinforce in 2004 coordination processes in order to ensure common priorities across and greater synergy between eGovernment-related EU programs, which allows for close cooperation with Member States and Acceding States and which takes into account the needs of the public administrations;
- to provide practical guidance to Member States, Acceding States and relevant stakeholders on access to existing financing instruments, and to explore other financing modalities, including, where appropriate, public-private partnerships, that promote the development of eGovernment and social and regional cohesion within European Union;
- to continue the assessment of economic and social impact of pan-European eGovernment services within the context of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan, as well as of the existing or planned programs and to propose a roadmap for further advancing pan- European eGovernment services;
- to support, as far as appropriate, the development of synergies between national research and innovation efforts in eGovernment, using the instruments of the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development;
- to investigate, further to the analysis of the Communication “On the Role of eGovernment for Europe’s Future”, overall expenditure on eGovernment for the modernisation of public administrations and present a report summarising the situation in 2004;
- to make available, in 2004 and based on existing efforts, a framework for the exchange of best practices, in order to increase possible synergies and to promote and facilitate the reuse of implemented eGovernment solutions;
- to review, following from the analysis in the Communication “On the Role of eGovernment for Europe’s Future”, the benefits and economics of eGovernment (the cost of ‘non-eGovernment’) and to propose on this basis benefits, performance and usage-based indicators to Council in the course of 2004.
Quelle: PublicTechnology, 25.11.2003
