ACTIVITIES :: eGovernment :: Policy:: Action Plan

Action Plan 2006 - 2010

The eGovernment Action Plan was designed to help governments meet demands concerning the services they provide to citizens and businesses. Today, governments face major challenges such as ageing, climate change or terrorism and citizens are demanding better services, better security and better democracy, while businesses demand less bureaucracy and more efficiency.

Moreover, as the European Union continues to enlarge and embrace greater diversity, new needs and demands are arising such as for seamless public services across borders, essential to increase citizens’ opportunities for mobility and for business in Europe.

The eGovernment Action Plan is an integral part of the i2010 initiative for jobs and growth in the information society, to make a major contribution to the Lisbon Agenda and other European Community policies.

This Action Plan draws, in particular, on the Ministerial Declaration adopted at the 3rd Ministerial eGovernment Conference, which set clear expectations for widespread, measurable benefits from eGovernment in 2010.

eGovernment for all

In the 2005 Manchester Declaration, governments from the EU’s Member States committed themselves to using ICT to transform public services for citizens and businesses. The European Commission’s eGovernment Action Plan sets out concrete steps at EU level to help Member States to realise  their commitments by 2010. Ministers recommitted themselves to reaching their goals in 2007, in the Lisbon Declaration.
The Action Plan focuses on five main priorities:

Foremost among these is the aim of making eGovernment inclusive, so that ‘no citizen is left behind’. Although there are various groups in society who lack either the ability or the facilities to access ICT services, eGovernment systems need to be set up particularly to benefit such people, who are at risk of being left behind, especially by providing different methods of access. By 2010, all citizens should benefit from trusted, innovative eGovernment services which are easy to access.

Another priority is to make efficiency and effectiveness in eGovernment a reality so as to improve transparency and accountability of government services, increase user satisfaction, and lighten the administrative burden on businesses and citizens

The Action Plan aims to make high-impact services for citizens and businesses more widely available, such as electronic procurement services for businesses, services for mobile citizens (including better job searching across Europe), or social security services (for example pension records and electronic benefit applications). eGovernment will be critical to enable service providers to take advantage of market opportunities outside their home country, under the EU’s Services Directive.

The plan also seeks to put in place key enablers which provide the foundation for eGovernment systems to work together, and to build the connections between ICT systems in different public organisations and countries. Interoperable systems, electronic identity management, document authentication and archiving technologies are all critical for public services to co-operate and share data. Open Source Software (OSS) can provide a cost-effective method to support such interoperability and co-operation.

In order to reinforce governance in Europe, the Action Plan will help to strengthen citizen participation and democratic decision-making (eParticipation) by using new technologies to develop interfaces between democratic institutions, public bodies and citizens, in particular through new forms of social organisation such as on-line voting, consultation and polling.