E-Government in cross-border regions

E-Government in Cross-Border Regions

"E-government" and "Cross-Border regions" are expressions that we do not often see in the same sentence. Not because they do not go well together, but due to the complexity of mingling these quite specific elements.

But there is a clear need to consider them together.

In the Communication "Boosting Growth and Cohesion in EU Border Regions", following on the inputs received from the territories, the Commission has highlighted its importance. It is easy to see the potential: individuals and companies in cross-border regions often need to interact with two public administrations in parallel. When these are not interconnected, users have to duplicate their efforts, and administration costs, in meeting their obligations and needs vis-à-vis public services.

To avoid this extra-burden, the Commission is pushing for the implementation of the Once-Only-Principle, according to which the same document should only have to be provided to public administrations once. In this sense the e-Government Action Plan (developed by DG CNECT) and related European legislation, are supporting countries to digitise and interconnect public services.

However, cross-border regions do have specific needs when it comes to digitising and interconnecting public services. The mere fact that corresponding services are provided by different administrations under different legal frameworks increases the complexity of this challenge.

E-government in cross-border regions implies that two different groups of entities come together. On the one hand public administrations on cross-border regions. On the other hand technical solutions providers, ICT companies and developers. For this last group, it is also a great business opportunity. E-Government in cross-border regions is in its infancy and there are many needs – and therefore market opportunities – which are not yet met.

To showcase this market opportunity to the technological world, where better to go than to "The best technology conference on the planet" – the Websummit? That is what the Border Focal Point team has done. In a joint action between DG REGIO and DG CNECT, and showcasing not only the corner stones of e-government, but also some good examples of projects in cross-border regions, a specific session was organised on the 8 November in Lisbon. We hope this will be inspiring to other cross-border regions and tech providers in launching new opportunities for cooperation.

To find more on e-Government in cross-border regions: https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/border-regions/egovernment