The survey, conducted in all 15 EU Member States plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland was released on 26 January 2004. It shows online availability of public services to businesses and citizens have grown by 7% in 2003 whereas overall growth over the last two years reached 22%, meaning growth was slower in 2003 than 2002. The ratings followed an evolutionary framework ranging from simple availability of online information to fully interactive services.
Disparities between services to businesses and citizens are still great, although the gap has stopped widening: the indicator 'full online availability' reached a score of 63% for businesses but only 32% for citizens.
Country rankings also show interesting results. Sweden ('online sophistication') and Denmark ('full online availability') continue to top the two main indicators. But they are now closely followed by countries like Austria and Belgium who have experienced high growth rates in 2003.
The study was based on measurements executed in October 2003 and is the fourth of its kind. It took into account availability of online public services to citizens such as income taxes, job search, education and car registration. Services to business included social contribution for employees, corporate tax and public procurement. Overall, data on 20 basic public services was included in the survey.
Links:
- Time-saving overviews:
- LinksDossier: e-government
- Official documents:
- Other related links:
- Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: The Growth Of E-Government Slows Across Europe (Press release, 26 January 2004)
- United Nations: World public sector report 2003: e-government at the crossroads (October 2003)
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Checklist for e-government leaders (September 2003)
- Press articles: ENN
