The European Commission has today unveiled a new push to reinforce EU citizens’ rights with a series of actions to tackle obstacles that citizens still face in their everyday life. The 2013 EU Citizenship Report sets out 12 concrete ways to help Europeans make better use of their EU rights, from looking for a job in another EU country to ensuring stronger participation in the democratic life of the Union. Key proposals include making it easier for people to work and do training in another EU country; reducing excessive paperwork for EU citizens living and travelling in the EU; and eliminating barriers to cross-border shopping. During the European Year of Citizens the EU Citizenship Report is the Commission's answer to the numerous calls from EU citizens who have shared problems they have experienced when travelling, moving to or shopping in another EU country.

Submit your proposal for one of the 150 stands available to showcase the latest findings in advanced research, technologies, new systems, innovation in services & business and ICT products just coming to market. Deadline: 7 June 2013 - 16.00.

Do you have a specific topic to propose for discussion? Bid for a dedicated networking slot at the event! Propose a topic for a Horizon 2020-related networking session. Deadline: 10 May

The European Commission welcomes endorsement by the EU Council's 'Coreper' committee (EU Committee of Member States' Permanent Representatives) of the Commission's effort to open-up public sector data for re-use across Europe.

Cross-border Digital Public Services: what's in it for citizens? For Industry? For Member States? Articles, interviews, video and info graphics to learn more about our Large Scale Pilot Projects: e-CODEX, SPOCS, STORK 2.0, epSOS, PEPPOL, the forthcoming eSENS, and the Connecting Europe Facility initiative...

The European Commission JRC-IPTS is conducting jointly with DG-CONNECT the MIREIA (Measuring the Impact of eInclusion Intermediary Actors) project which aims at better understanding the role of e-Inclusion intermediary actors and to create adequate instruments to facilitate the demonstration of their outcomes and their contribution to the achievement of European e-Inclusion policy goals. Within the framework of this research, Telecentre-Europe, commissioned by JRC-IPTS, is conducting an online survey that aims to provide a 'map' of eInclusion actors that operate in Europe, gathering and analysing relevant data and documentation that will enable us to illustrate the diverse typologies and role of key eInclusion intermediary organizations and the socio-economic impact of their activities at European level. This exercise and its outcomes will help the e-Inclusion sector leveraging its resources and would provide vital insights for policy makers to understand the importance of e-Inclusion organisations that are on the forefront of the digital inclusion and empowerment. In practical terms, e-Inclusion Intermediary organisations will have to answer a short online survey, open until 28th February 2013. The survey is available in 15 European languages.

The award is open to all public organizations including Governments and public-private partnerships involved in delivering services to citizens around the globe. Your institution is welcome to nominate projects that have improved delivery of public services for the 2013 Public Service Awards. Please be advised that the nomination form must be completed online on the UNPAN portal at: www.unpan.org/applyunpsa2013 where a thorough explanation of the nomination process and the online application form are available. For more information on UNPSA, including application manual, previous winners and guidelines, please click here http://www.unpan.org/unpsa . The winners of the UNPSA are recognized every year on 23 June during the celebration of the United Nations Public Service Day. The Awards for 2013 will be bestowed in the following five categories: 1. Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service 2. Improving the Delivery of Public Services 3. Fostering Participation in Policy-Making Decisions through Innovative Mechanisms 4. Promoting Whole-Of-Government Approaches in the Information Age 5. Promoting Gender-Responsive Delivery of Public Services

DG CONNECT, European Commission in collaboration with ePractice.eu hosted on 6 November 2012 an event on Transparency in Government Decision Making and the targets that could be defined to improve and promote Transparency at a pan-European scale. The nine presentations, the debate, the interviews and the four working groups of the knowledge café have provided significant feedback on how transparency is perceived at the moment in the EU, what are the main goals for the administrations, how the basic barriers can be tackled and how it is possible to construct measurable targets for transparency. These contributions tried to fill in the gap concerning the scarce availability of information of what has been done so far and how is transparency understood. Read and watch the videos to know more!

This Competition is launched by the European Commission in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos. The aim is to find the best social innovation solutions to help people move towards work or into new types of work. Over 25 million Europeans are out of work. On top of that, many people are stuck in low-paid jobs or sense that they have few opportunities on the job market – sometimes because of their gender, age or a handicap. This Competition invites any European to come up with new solutions to create new opportunities for work, and for better work. Not doing anything about unemployment and under-employment is not just cruel and wasteful; the corrosive effects of high unemployment will cast a shadow over the economy and our society for years to come. The Competition, launched on 1 October 2012 with as deadline 21 December 2012, includes a strong mentoring component for shortlisted entries. Eventually the three best proposals (indicative maximum) will each be awarded with a prize of 20,000 euros in May 2013. A second prize competition will be launched in 2014.

Each of us uses an eID on daily basis, e.g. when signing in to an email account, Facebook profile, Internet banking, or to access services of public authorities. For such online transactions, we need to identify and authenticate ourselves. Currently, various types of hardware and software are used for this purpose, with varying levels of security. More than ever before, this confronts us with questions about privacy protection when sending personal information over the Internet. All these issues are the subject of this survey for which your attention and collaboration is required. This survey is organized by SSEDIC, a EU-supported research group that advises the European Commission in defining its policy on Electronic Identity for the coming years. A summary of the results will be made public via our website: www.eid-ssedic.eu

At the last PSB meeting in September the proposals from Latvia and Croatia and its beneficiaries to enter the project as Participating Nations (PN) in epSOS were accepted. Formal stepsfor the accession of the new beneficiaries can now be initiated.

The United Nations Public Service Award is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. Nominations are now being accepted for the 10th UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) in the following categories: • Preventing and combating corruption in the public service • Improving the delivery of public services • Fostering participation in policymaking decisions through innovative mechanisms • Advancing knowledge management in government • Promoting gender responsive delivery of public services. Nominations will be accepted from 24 September - 7 December 2012.

At a high-level conference in Brussels, business leaders and policy-makers strongly supported the creation of a Connecting Europe Facility as proposed by the European Commission for the European Union's new financing period 2014-2020. With up to 50 billion euros the Connecting Europe Facility could become a key instrument for targeted infrastructure investment at European level to ensure the smooth functioning of the Single Market and boost sustainable growth, jobs and competitiveness across the European Union.

The European Commission's new strategy for "Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe" outlines actions to deliver a net gain of 2.5 million new European jobs, and an annual boost of EUR 160 billion to EU GDP (around 1%), by 2020. The strategy is designed to speed up and increase the use of cloud computing across the economy. 'Cloud computing' refers to the storage of data (such as text files, pictures and video) and software on remote computers, which users access over the internet on the device of their choice. This is faster, cheaper, more flexible and potentially more secure than on-site IT solutions. Many popular services such as Facebook, Spotify and web-based email use cloud computing technologies but the real economic benefits come through widespread use of cloud solutions by businesses and the public sector.

CALL FOR PAPERS, Case Studies, Work in Progress/Posters, PhD Research, Round Table Proposals, non-academic Contributions and Product Demonstrations - 13th European Conference on eGovernment – ECEG 2013 Important dates Abstract submission deadline: 22 November 2012 Notification of abstract acceptance: 29 November 2012 Final copy of full paper due for review: 10 January 2013 Notification of paper acceptance (with any requested changes): 21 March 2013 Earlybird registration closes: 4 April 2013 Final paper due (with changes): 18 April 2013 Final author registration date: 9 May 2013

With these new sites it makes in total 42 Spanish epSOS Points of Care (PoC): 33 PoC can be found on the Balearic Islands and 9 in Valencia. With those new Spanish pilot sites epSOS offers now already 70 PoC in 5 countries piloting Patient Summary & ePrescription services. Further Points of Care will follow soon, stay tuned!

The European Prize for Innovation in Public Administration will be awarded to the nine most innovative initiatives run by public authorities from across Europe that are bringing improvements to citizens' lives, helping firms and stimulating research and education. The prizes will reward excellence and innovation in successful, already running, and innovative public initiatives managed by any national, regional or local public administrations from EU Member States or Associated Countries of the Research Framework Programme. They will have made significant improvements in citizens' lives by strategies, services, networks, processes and infrastructure offered by public Administrations troughout Europe. The contest will close on 15 February 2013.

Passengers stranded at airports or awaiting missing luggage may now use a smartphone application to check their rights immediately and on the spot. Just in time for the summer holidays, the European Commission has launched an application for smartphones which covers air and rail transport and works on four mobile platforms: Apple iPhone and iPad, Google Android, RIM Blackberry and Microsoft Windows Phone 7. The app is available in 22 EU languages. It currently covers air and rail transport and will be extended to bus / coach and marine travel in 2013 when these rights come into force.

The European Commission will award prizes to the winners of the eInclusion awards at the Digital Agenda Assembly being held in Brussels on 21st and 22nd June 2011. A part of the Digital Agenda on Enhancing digital skills proposes a series of measures to promote take-up of digital technologies by potentially disadvantaged groups, such as elderly, lower-skilled, unemployed or people with disability. The latest Digital Agenda scoreboard shows that 25% of the EU population still lacks IT skills and only 53% are confident that their computer and Internet skills are sufficient if they need to change or find a new job within a year. The eInclusion awards were established by the European Commission in order to discover organisations and individuals across Europe who champion new technology and harness the potential of the Internet as a means of improving prospects, increasing employability and meeting today’s complex social and economic challenges.

There is only one week left for the next meeting of the Digital Agenda Assembly (Brussels, 21-22 June) and more than 1000 members keep discussing on the online discussion platform which Neelie Kroes launched on 19 April in preparation both for the aforementioned meeting as well as the review of the Digital Agenda for Europe later in the year. The 40 members making the most interesting contributions have been invited to the Assembly in Brussels. Amongst others, there is an active online discussion group of High Speed Connections , featuring a lively debate on how next generation broadband could contribute to create jobs also in rural areas. In the Security group a survey is ongoing for identifying the most appropriate incentives to ICT security investment . A recent discussion on Social Media , analyses the way the European Parliament has attracted thousands of followers and fans on most popular networks. The group on Data hosts many lively discussions from the reuse of “Open Apps” to the importance of sensor data. If you are interested in these or other issues discussed in the platform, join and contribute to the debate !