Priorities for e-government set at IDA conference
E-government services must cater for Europe's linguistic diversity and be delivered as close as possible to the customer. These were the key conclusions of the recent IDA (interchange of data between administrations) conference in Brussels, which focussed on the needs of cross-border users of e-government services. 'If the requirements of cross-border users [...] are not taken into account when designing e-government services, they may even create unintentional barriers to the continued development of the single market. For enterprises, this could mean a relative loss of competitiveness and increased costs for citizens,' said Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen. Over 250 participants shared views and ideas on the delivery of e-government services, and concluded that they should be delivered at a local level, where citizens and enterprises feel more 'connected' to administrations. They also emphasised the importance of reflecting Europe's linguistic diversity by providing websites in multiple European languages. The conference was timed to coincide with the launch of a new web portal called Public-Services.eu. The site is designed to provide information to citizens and enterprises that plan to live, work or do business in another European country. For citizens, advice on issues such as health care, driving licences, schools, retirement, banking and employment is available on the site. For enterprises, services focus on accounting regulations, funding opportunities, human resources, employment law, international trade, duties and procedures. The results of an IDA open consultation on the theme of e-government were also published at the event. They warned that the barriers to pan-European government e-services are not exclusively technological or linguistic. Issues such as user unfamiliarity with administrative procedures in other Member States and a perceived lack of transparency also need to be tackled. An e-government Observatory report highlighted further possible pitfalls in the process, pointing out the differences between the demand for services as envisaged by enterprises and the implementation of services as planned by public administration.