IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Over 250 participants from all EU Member States debated the priorities for e-Government in Europe during a conference entitled “Cross-border eGovernment services for administrations, businesses and citizens” in Brussels last week. New EU e-Government services will open up access and cut red tape for the free movement of people, goods and services across Europe. Though some hurdles must still be overcome to reach this ambitious goal, a blueprint for the future technical infrastructure of eGovernment in Europe was presented at the conference. The European Commission also presented its new IDABC programme, which aims to improve the efficiency of European public administrations.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen commented: “Businesses and citizens are the core target groups for the new EU eGovernment services. In order to revitalise the Lisbon agenda we need modern public services that eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy”.

The discussions at the conference focussed on:

• Means to seize public procurement opportunities in other Member States.
• A reduction of the flow of the paper documents to improve the efficiency of trade procedures. Paper administration is estimated as one of the major challenges to the international trade. According to World Trade Organization (WTO) 7 – 10 % of the total value of the global commerce (i.e. about 400 billions USD) is spent in the process of document exchange that accompany the respective deals.
• How e-Government will make life easier for mobile workers to deal with their social security rights (insurances, pension rights etc.). Citizens abroad (tourism, working, studying, etc.), would have easy access to health services.

The Your Europe web portal was presented as a first step towards this new generation of e-Government services. Your Europe offers already now easily accessible information and services to those mobile citizens and businesses who wish to take full advantage of their European rights and opportunities.

IDABC is a Community programme managed by the European Commission's Enterprise and Industry Directorate General. It uses the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies to encourage and support the delivery of cross-border public sector services to citizens and enterprises in Europe, to improve efficiency and collaboration between European public administrations and to contribute to making Europe an attractive place to live, work and invest.

To achieve its objectives, IDABC issues recommendations, develops solutions and provides services that enable national and European administrations to communicate electronically and offer modern public services to businesses and citizens in Europe. The programme also provides financing to projects that address European policy requirements and improve cooperation between administrations across Europe.

Quelle: Publictechnology, 21.02.2005