DATUMDIARIENR1

2001-05-06
Anders Johanson
Chairman of the wg e-Government / Date: 2001-05-007-05-20016 / Page: 1(7)
Document: 1:1

Working group e-GovernmenteGOVERNMENT WORKING GROUP

Report of the work

Permanent web site - proposal

Work program - proposal

Content:

1.The creation of the working group on e-Government…...p.1

2.Report on the work………………………………………p.2

3.Permanent web site -– proposal…………………………..p.4

4.Work program – proposal………………………………..p.6

1. The creation of the working group on e-Government

The Director Generals responsible for public administration in the Member States of the European Unions decided in their meeting in Strasbourg, November 9-10, 20001 to establish a working group on the use of information technologies by administrations (“working group e-government”).

The Director Generals asserted the necessity of providing a better structure for co-operation, which should rely on efficient exchange of information. They addressed the group to:

-list important measures taken by each Member State on e-Government

-reflect on e-Government benchmarks

-analyse the impact of information technologies (ICT) on the organisation and quality of work within administrations

-propose means of sharing best practices and useful comparisons on action undertaken by Member States, concerning procedures intended for citizens and companies

-propose a solution for a permanent web site

2.Report on the work

The working group had its first meeting in Paris in December 2000 and has met twice in Stockholm during the Swedish Presidency. 13 Member States and the Commission have joined the working group meetings.

The Swedish Presidency has engaged EIPA to conduct a study based on a survey about the situation in the Member States concerning a) important measures taken b) best practices of e-services c) pan-European e-services. The report is newly published on the web site and will be distributed to the delegates in the European Director-Generals meeting in Uppsala. The working group is now analysing what can be learned from the report.

The working group reports as follows.

Important measures taken by each Member State on e-Government

It is clear from the meetings as from the survey that

-Member States have taken significant steps in creating governmental e-services for citizens and enterprises.

-Most Member States and the EU itself have either created or will introduce, before the end of the year, a portal site which offers users a single point of entry into the network of web sites of all the public institutions of athe country.

-In most countries information about legislation has been introduced on the web.

-Many countries are putting the most important governmental forms online to the public.

-European governments have all become aware that ICT may well create a “digital divide”, not only on a global scale but also within nations. In several countries this awareness has resulted results in proactive policies to increase accessibility to all.

-In the most advanced countries it seems that a rapid transition to generalised electronic services delivery are a top priority on the agenda of public e-Ggovernment policies.

-Several Mmember States is setting up a government strategy on electronic public procurement.

-Secure electronic communication with electronic identification and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) concerns the government in all Mmember States.

Reflections on e-Government benchmarks

In the EIPA study seven tables are reflecting the situation in each mMember State, regarding already existing or planned e-services.

As the discussions have shown there are many differences for instance in legislation and governance from one State to another. This limits the value of the comparisons. Much further work has to be done to define such indicators that could add value to benchmarking processes.

The eEurope 2002 action plan contains a specification line dedicated to Government online. In this context the Commission is preparing a survey to benchmark Mmember States activities in making public services available online, by measuring which of the common basic public services are currently online in the different Member States, what level of online sophistication the public services on the Internet have and, consequently, to what extent basic public services are available.

Some members of the Director Generals work group on e-Government have contributed to the Commissions work on defining the basic public services.

Pan-European e-services offered to facilitate freedom of movement

The third part of the EIPA study is about pan-European e-services to facilitate freedom of movement in the EU. The study reveals that there are only limited interest so far and very few applications in the Member States´ e-gGovernment actions today. The working group foresee that these matters will be of vital concerns in the next few years not only in the European institutions but also in Member State’s administrations. The working group could be used to contribute to these new issues.

It can be noted that the Swedish Presidency in co-operation with the Commission is arranging an upcoming IDA conference “e-Government in the service of European citizens and enterprises – what is required at the European level” (Sandhamn, Stockholm on 13-14 June).

The impact of information technologies (ICT) on the organisation and quality of work within administrations

The working group has so far not been discussing the organisational impacts of ICT and the quality of work. In the last work group meeting several delegates proposed thate these matters to be prioritised in the forthcoming work program.

(see chapter 4)

Additional commentsOthers

The perspectives and expectations from delegates in the working group areis still somewhat divergent. The expectations concerns a spectrum of aspects such as front office – back office, organisational –technical, quality of work – e-democracy.

3. Permanent web site - proposal

The working group proposes that the CIRCA system will be the permanent web site for information sharing and that the troiïka of the e-Government and the secretariat groups get the mandate to work for that:

  • Tthe use of CIRCA starts with the Belgium Presidency. The material from the French and Swedish Presidencies should be merged into the system.
  • Tthe troïika together with the Commission form activities to ensure all practicalities.
  • The use of the CIRCA system should be the main tool for sharing information in the working group community of the Director Generals

e all practicalities.

the use of the CIRCA system should be the main tool for sharing information in the working group community of the Director Generals.

The reasons for this proposal are as follows:.
To be able to share information on the activities of the working groups formed by the Director Generals for public administrations in the EU, France created a web site during the French Presidency in the autumn of 2000 . The content (information) was in January 2001 transformed to the new web site created by the Swedish Presidency.
This web site is in use today. The content as well as the technical aspects are managed by Sweden.

The Director Generals have asked their working group on e-Ggovernment to find and propose a permanent web site for the next few years. The idea is to have a web, which content, as easy as possible, could be managed by actors in the Director Generals’ working groups. A shift from one Presidency to the subsequent should not cause any difficulties to the users in navigating the web or searching for information. The web site should have the function as an information library where documents from all previous Presidencies can be obtained easily. The site should above all be a continuously used tool for sharing information.

The Commission (Directorate-General, Personnel and Administration) invited the Director Generals’ working group on e-Ggovernment for an information and demonstration meeting (February 23) on the Commission’s CIRCA system in order to discuss the use of the system as a base for the Director Generals’ permanent web site.

The CIRCA system (Communication and Information Resource Centre Administration) is developed under the IDA Programme (Interchange of Data between Administrations) in the European Commission.

It consists of a physical and logical sites (administrated by the Commission) and a number of interest groups (administrated by the owner of the information/content). The Interest Group Leader(information master) assign membership, maintain the library structure, maintain information pages and create news groups. The CIRCA administrators of the logical and physical sites (web masters) take care of technical and non-content matters.

The working group on e-Government identifiesy the following advantages using the Commissions CIRCA system as an EU, DG Public Administration DG web site:

  • CIRCA is widely used in the European institutions
  • There are technical staff in place maintaining and running CIRCA
  • The functionality is good
  • It is possible to Profileratingproliferating the actual Presidency on the home page is possible
  • Usage is free of charge
  • The Commission will introduce each new Presidency to the work of Interest Group Leaders
  • This solution gives each working group and Presidency time to focus on the challenge to develop and stimulate the information content
  • Ensure working group members to share information via one permanent webbweb system.

4. Work program - proposal

The group should give special attention on the impact of information and communications technologies on the organisation and quality of work within administrations of Mmember States and on sharing/reflecting on good examples of implementation of e-services in the Mmember States.

The group propose the following actions:

1.

To present an updated list of recentimportant important measures on e- Government taken in Mmember States as well as at European level, at the end of each Presidency (S, B, ES)

  1. To conduct e-Government study reports on:

Spanish Presidency (idea):

A study on the impact of ICT on the organisation

and quality of work within administrations of the mMember States

Belgian Presidency (planned):

Electronic identification and PKI

Swedish Presidency (will be reported in May 2001):

Important measures taken

Best practices of e-services in the mMember States

Pan European e-services

French Presidency (reported Nov 2000):

ConvergencesConvergence and differences in practise,

Member States summaries

The intentions are that the working group should be actively involved in the preparation and in the assessment of the results.

3.

  1. Promote the sharing of best practices on e-Government issues in two workshops on specific e-Government themes, open to others than working group delegates.

Themes:

1. Sharing best e-Government practices and recommendations

2.e-services in public administrations, impact of organisation

and quality of work

3. e-democracy, best practices and early steps

The e-Ggovernment workshops could be arranged by the e-gGovernment troiïka during the Belgianum and Spanish pPresidencies. The workshops should result in conclusions and some recommendations about the characteristics of successful e-Government services.

4. Arrange mini seminars on specific e-Government themes as part of the meetings of the working group.

The purpose is to share experiences and to clarify the need of further attention or actions in the domains of the Director Generals responsible for public administrations.

5.Report to the Director Generals during the Spanish Presidency on how e-Ggovernment issues should be dealt with within a co-operative programme involving other working groups reporting to the Director Generals.

An early step is to identify the other international groups that are dealing with e-Governmental issues.

6.Prepare a proposal to promote the exchange ofon e-Government advisors

The exchange could involve exchange program mMember States as well as cCandidate States.

6.7.Support the secretariat to start up a permanent web site, based on the Commissions CIRCA-system, for exchange of information among the working groups of the Director Generals responsible for public administration.

The web site will be evaluated by the working groups after two years.

The information content on the web site will be administrated by the secretariat, and technically administrated by the Commission.

STATSKONTORET

Statskontoret/E-gov report Uppsala ver 1.doc