July/August 2015

Did you Know?

The European Commission are moving EU governments into the digital age: EU eGovernments

EDC News: EU eGovernment

One of the 10 priorities in the Juncker regime is to make the EU's single market fit for the digital age by tearing down regulatory walls and moving from 28 national markets to a single one. To address this priority the EC developed the Digital Single Market strategy (COM(2015) 192), which is made up of three policy areas or 'pillars':

• Better online access to digital goods and services

• An environment where digital networks and services can prosper

• Digital as a driver for growth

The Digital Single Market strategy recognises that a key barrier in creating a European Digital economy and society is the difficulty of accessing government related and issued documents. Hence the European Commission created and implemented the eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 COM(2010) 743 (reflecting the four priorities defined by the Malmö Ministerial Declaration 2009), which supports the provision of a new generation of eGovernment services. Its goal is to optimise the conditions for the development of cross-border eGovernment services provided to citizens and businesses regardless of their country of origin. This would require:

• Interoperability: this is the ability of systems and machines to exchange, process and correctly interpret information. The Commission intends to implement the interoperability framework of the ISA programme;

• Identification and authentication: the Commission intends to propose a revision of the eSignature Directive and eIdentification to enhance security, similarly to the STORK project.

• Innovation: it is crucial that first generation eGovernment adapts to developments in the information society in order to increase its efficiency.

A new e-Government Action Plan will be launched in 2016, as also foreseen by the recently adopted Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. The European Commission’s DG Connect will organise a workshop towards this new eGovernment Action Plan. The aim of this workshop is to gather the views and opinions from key stakeholders on their expectations from the new action plan to improve citizens and businesses experience when interacting with public administration and to facilitate their relationship with government.

For more information:

• Digital Agenda in the Europe 2020 strategy

• Evaluation of the eGovernment Action Plan

• Mid-Term Evaluation of the eGovernment Action Plan: Member States

• Digital Cross-border solutions

• EU eGovernment Studies

• Publications (EU Bookshop):

  • eGovernement in Cyprus 2015

  • eGovernment State of Play Cyprus 2015

  • Digital Economy and Society Index 2015, Country Profile: Cyprus

• Press release: “eGovernment improving but citizens ask for more” Brussels, 28 May 2013

• Second workshop on new EU eGovernment Action Plan - 29 September 2015