Survey sees growth in e-government across Europe, Austria leads the way
The number of online public services in Europe continues to increase, rising by eight per cent in 2006, while the level of interactivity of these services also scores high, according to the Commission's latest e-government survey. Austria tops the podium of service providers, followed by Malta and Estonia. The survey, carried out by consultants Capgemini, is the sixth benchmarking exercise on the progress of online public services across the 25 Member States of the EU, as well as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. It found that of the 12,590 public services recorded, 92 per cent had a website, a rise of eight per cent compared to figures from 2001. Services were also measured according to four levels of interactivity: 'information'; 'one-way interaction'; 'two-way interaction'; and lastly 'transaction', meaning a service which is fully online. The survey found that a total of 75 per cent of the services had reached the mature level of two-way interaction, while almost 50 per cent of the public services are fully available online. And while the online-sophistication of the new EU Member States was about six per cent below the overall EU average, the survey found that they had exceeded the global score from the 2005 survey. This suggests that new Member States are benefiting from the learning and availability of information and communication technologies (ICT)-enabled services and are 'leapfrogging' in terms of progress. Reacting to the survey findings, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said: 'Online service delivery is now a mature service delivery model in the EU, and a new paradigm of 'intelligent', user-oriented e-services is beginning to emerge.' According to estimates, the Commissioner said that the economic impact of e-government research and development programmes may be as high as 1.54 per cent of EU GDP by 2010, provided that research and deployment initiatives are supported. 'I hope that these results further encourage Member States to implement the [i2010 eGovernment Action], as they have committed themselves to doing recently in the Council,' she added. But some countries need no further encouragement to implement such services. Ahead of the pack in all the 20 'basic' services measured is Austria, whose services, the survey finds, reach a level of full interactivity and sophistication. This success, the survey says, is built on established enablers such as a clear and explicit vision and strategy, a legal e-government framework, top leadership, and the country's innovative eID system and 'Citizen Card' (Bürgerkarte). The latter is a smart card embedded with an electronic signature and a digital certificate that enables citizens to securely access electronic public services and complete administrative procedures electronically. The originality of the Austrian e-ID concept is that there is not just one single type of 'Citizen Card'. In principle, any card which makes it possible to sign electronically in a secure form and to store personal data is suitable for use as a 'Citizen Card'. In addition, a 'light' Citizen Card service can also be used with mobile phones, enabling Austrian citizens to digitally sign documents and securely transact with government via mobile phone. While the deployment of services in Austria is ample, up-take by citizens seems to be a point of interest for further action, suggests the survey. According to Eurostat data, the use of e-government services by citizens in Austria is above the EU average at 29 per cent compared to 22 per cent, but stays far below Scandinavian countries where more than 50 per cent of citizens say they use online services. Equally, the take-up of e-services by businesses is high at 75 per cent, compared to the EU average of 57 per cent, but again stays behind take-up in Scandinavian countries. Taking second and third place in the survey's ranking are two new EU Member States. Malta achieved the most outstanding progress recorded ever and moved from 16th to second place, while Estonia has moved from eighth to third place and successfully entered the top three, at the same level as Sweden. Other new Member States that have also made significant progress include Hungary, which rose nine places to 14th in the ranking, and Slovenia, which entered the top 10, moving from 15th to seventh place.
Countries
Austria