The Commission says that, at a time of highly constrained public resources, ICT can help the public sector develop innovative ways of delivering its services to citizens while unleashing efficiencies and driving down costs. It notes that implementation of the first European eGovernment Action Plan has seen Member State governments exchange good practice, and resulted in a number of large-scale pilot projects which are developing concrete solutions for rolling out cross-border eGovernment services. The availability of innovative technologies such as social networks has increased the expectations of citizens in terms of responsiveness when accessing all kinds of services on line. However, cross-border eGovernment services are few and, even where eGovernment services are offered, the majority of EU citizens are reluctant to use them. There is, the Commission says, therefore:
“clearly a need to move towards a more open model of design, production and delivery of online services, taking advantage of the possibility offered by collaboration between citizens, entrepreneurs and civil society. The combination of new technologies, open specifications, innovative architectures and the availability of public sector information can deliver greater value to citizens with fewer resources.”
The Commission is therefore proposing a second eGovernment Action Plan which aims to realise “the ambitious vision” contained in the Declaration made at the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference (the “Malmö Declaration”). According to this ambitious vision, by 2015 European public administrations will be ”recognised for being open, flexible and collaborative in their relations with citizens and businesses. They use eGovernment to increase their efficiency and effectiveness and to constantly improve public services in a way that caters for user’s different needs and maximises public value, thus supporting the transition of Europe to a leading knowledge-based economy.”
(Publications.parliament.uk)
