To promote awareness and knowledge exchange on EU Digital Agenda, e-Government Center continues the series of interviews and presentations about Digital Agenda for Europe and best e-Government practices from the EU member states.

 

In this context we present you Francisco Garcia Moran that will tell us more about EU experience

 

 

What are the key objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe and the EU e-Governament Action Plan and what is the European Commission doing to advance in its implementation

The European Commission launched in March 2010 the Europe 2020 Strategy  to exit the crisis and prepare the EU economy for the challenges of the next decade. Europe 2020 sets out a vision to achieve high levels of employment, a low carbon economy, productivity and social cohesion, to be implemented through concrete actions at EU and national levels. This battle for growth and jobs requires ownership at top political level and mobilisation from all actors across Europe.

The Digital Agenda for Europe is one of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, set out to define the key enabling role that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will have to play if Europe wants to succeed in its ambitions for 2020.

The objective of this Agenda is to chart a course to maximise the social and economic potential of ICT, most notably the internet, a vital medium of economic and societal activity: for doing business, working, playing, communicating and expressing ourselves freely. Successful delivery of this Agenda will spur innovation, economic growth and improvements in daily life for both citizens and businesses. Wider deployment and more effective use of digital technologies will thus enable Europe to address its key challenges and will provide Europeans with a better quality of life through, for example, better health care, safer and more efficient transport solutions, cleaner environment, new media opportunities and easier access to public services and cultural content. 

The potential of ICT can be mobilised through a well-functioning virtuous cycle of activity. Attractive content and services need to be made available in an interoperable and borderless internet environment. This stimulates demand for higher speeds and capacity, which in turn creates the business case for investments in faster networks. The deployment and take-up of faster networks in turn opens the way for innovative services exploiting higher speeds. This process is illustrated in the outer ring of Figure 1 (below).

Figure 1: Virtuous cycle of the digital economy

 

Based on consultation with stakeholders and on the insights contained in both the Granada Declaration and the European Parliament Resolution, the Commission has identified the seven most significant obstacles. These are listed in the inner ring of Figure 1, and briefly described below. On their own or in combination, these obstacles seriously undermine efforts to exploit ICT, making clear the need for a comprehensive and united policy response at the European level. They show that Europe is lagging behind its industrial partners. In 2010 there were four times as many music downloads in the US as in the EU because of the lack of legal offers and fragmented markets; 30% of Europeans had still never used the internet; Europe had only 1% penetration of fibre-based high-speed networks whereas Japan was at 12% and South Korea was at 15%; and EU spending on ICT research and development was only 40% of US levels.

 

• Fragmented digital markets 
• Lack of interoperability
• Rising cybercrime and risk of low trust in networks
• Lack of investment in networks
• Insufficient research and innovation efforts
• Lack of digital literacy and skills 
• Missed opportunities in addressing societal challenges

 

The Digital Agenda for Europe frames its key actions around the need to systematically tackle these seven problem areas, which as a horizontal initiative spans, the three growth dimensions set out in Europe 2020. These problem areas are developed in more detail in the individual sections below, demonstrating the pressing need for the actions identified as a set of positive agendas to boost Europe’s social and economic performance. The Commission will remain vigilant for the emergence of additional obstacles and will react accordingly.

The Digital Agenda will require a sustained level of commitment at both EU and Member State levels (including at regional level). It cannot succeed without a major contribution by other stakeholders, including young “digital natives” who have much to teach us. This Agenda is a snapshot of actual and foreseeable problems and opportunities, and will evolve in the light of experience and of the rapid changes in technology and society.

The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015  (Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable & innovative Government)

The Digital Agenda for Europe  sets eGovernment within a comprehensive set of measures aimed at exploiting the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT) across Europe. At a time of highly constrained public resources, ICT can help the public sector develop innovative ways of delivering its services to citizens while unleashing efficiencies and driving down costs.

The implementation of the first European eGovernment Action Plan  saw governments across all Member States exchange good practice, and resulted in a number of large-scale pilot projects which are developing concrete solutions for rolling out cross-border eGovernment services . An online community of practitioners , established in 2002, provided a focus for debate among 80.000 participants on the potential to provide innovative solutions in areas such as eGovernment, health services, and inclusion. Progress has also been made in the re-use of public sector information , and an electronic public procurement platform developed to allow companies from across Europe to offer their services to governments outside their home country . EU-wide electronic identity systems are coming into existence, which will enable people to access public services electronically across the EU.

The availability of innovative technologies such as social networks has increased the expectations of citizens in terms of responsiveness when accessing all kinds of services on line. However, cross-border eGovernment services are few and, even where eGovernment services are offered, the majority of EU citizens are reluctant to use them . There is clearly a need to move towards a more open model of design, production and delivery of online services, taking advantage of the possibility offered by collaboration between citizens, entrepreneurs and civil society. The combination of new technologies, open specifications, innovative architectures and the availability of public sector information can deliver greater value to citizens with fewer resources.

The Commission is therefore proposing a second eGovernment Action Plan which aims to realise the ambitious vision contained in the declaration made at the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference (the 'Malmö Declaration' ), which was also supported by industry and by a citizens' panel .

According to this ambitious vision, by 2015 European public administrations will be "recognised for being open, flexible and collaborative in their relations with citizens and businesses. They use eGovernment to increase their efficiency and effectiveness and to constantly improve public services in a way that caters for user's different needs and maximises public value, thus supporting the transition of Europe to a leading knowledge- based economy."

Governments need to provide better public services with fewer resources. Each of the political priorities identified in Malmö, works towards that aim, as well as providing new and better ways to engage with citizens. The emergence of innovative technologies such as "service-oriented architectures" (SOA), or "clouds" of services, together with more open specifications which allow for greater sharing, re-use and interoperability reinforce the ability of ICT to play a key role in this quest for efficiency in the public sector.

As part of the Commission-wide effort to promote a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy for the European Union, as outlined in the Europe 2020 Strategy , this Action Plan contributes towards fulfilling two key objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe, in particular :

-By 2015, a number of key cross-border services will be available on line - enabling entrepreneurs to set up and run a business anywhere in Europe independently of their original location, and allowing citizens to study, work, reside and retire anywhere in the European Union.

-By 2015, 50% of EU citizens will have used eGovernment services.

EU e-Government Agenda (especial focus on eID, Interoperability, Cloud Strategy, projects like Stork, PEPPOL, etc.)

Various actions related to the four political priorities identified in Malmö are proposed below, together with the planned timing. These can be categorised in three groups, depending on the actors involved and the competence defined in the Treaty:

-       Where Member States are leading and rely on their own resources, the Commission will help by supporting and coordinating activities. The measures proposed will focus on setting targets with the Member States and on how to achieve these targets by means of measures such as exchanging best practice and information, conducting studies and benchmarking.

-Where the Commission and the Member States work jointly to develop, deploy or improve cross-border services, the Commission will take the lead in activities where joint resources are used, while the Member States will bear the final responsibility for implementing activities using their own resources. The measures proposed will include research and development, pilot projects, collaborative development of services by Member States and transfer of knowledge to the market.

-Where the Commission can create enabling conditions, the measures proposed will include adopting legal instruments, setting standards, formulating common frameworks, implementing generic tools, providing (re-usable) technical building blocks and ensuring interoperability.

One of the major activities in the EU eGovernment Agenda is related to what is called the Large Scale Projects (LSPs). They are developed under the motto

They develop practical solutions tested in real government service cases across Europe.

Many public services such as personal documents, tax claims, company registration or VAT are available online but this is not always the case across borders. Just like digital services in the private sector, cross-border digital public services are building blocks to a Connected Continent [6] and a real Digital Single Market [7].

The LSPs have been developed and run under the ICT Policy Support Programme [8] in five main areas; eID, eProcurement, eBusiness, eHealth and eJustice to engage public authorities, service providers and research centres across the EU.

Seven LSPs are piloting a number of solutions, or building blocks, that enable cross-border digital services in the above-mentioned policy areas. Each block consists of a number of components (common code), uses a number of standards and specifications, and all share a key characteristic: they are intended to be taken up as part of online services which make these online services ‘cross-border enabled’. To expand the LSPs and to make the building blocks re-usable in other policy areas is one of the challenges for the future in order to fully implement cross-border digital public services.

Four such LSPs are still currently running:

 

• e-SENS [9] - moving services forward.
• e-CODEX [10] - making justice faster (video) [11].
• epSOS [12] - making healthcare better (video) [13].
• STORK 2.0 [14] - making access smarter through a single European electronic identification and authentication area (video [15]).

 

and three are completed:

 

• SPOCS [16] (making business easier) has finished, and offers its Starter-Kit [17] (video [18]).
• PEPPOL [19] (eProcurement) has been transferred to the non-profit international association OpenPEPPOL AISBL [20] to sustain the developed structures and results (video [21]).
• STORK [22] (making access smarter) has been finished but results are taken-up by STORK 2.0.

These solutions are bringing down the digital borders in Europe, many years after the physical barriers were already removed.

 

Cloud Computing

In September 2012, the European Commission adopted a strategy for "Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe". The strategy outlines actions to deliver a net gain of 2.5 million new European jobs, and an annual boost of €160 billion to the European Union GDP (around 1%), by 2020. The strategy is designed to speed up and increase the use of cloud computing across all economic sectors. This strategy is the result of an analysis of the overall policy, regulatory and technology landscapes and of a wide consultation with stakeholders, to identify ways to maximise the potential offered by the cloud. This document sets out the most important and urgent additional actions. It represents a political commitment of the Commission and serves as a call on all stakeholders to participate in implementing these actions. Working groups are already engaged on this.

The strategy includes three key actions:

• Safe and Fair Contract Terms and Conditions

The Commission's proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law addresses many of the obstacles stemming from diverging national sales law rules by providing contractual parties with a uniform set of rules. The proposal includes rules adapted to the supply of "digital content" that cover some aspects of cloud computing.

The aim of the cloud computing strategy is to develop model contract terms that would regulate issues not covered by the Common European Sales Law such as:

• data preservation after termination of the contract,
• data disclosure and integrity,
• data location and transfer,
• ownership of the data,
• direct and indirect liability change of service by cloud providers and subcontracting.

Identifying and disseminating best practices in respect of model contract terms will accelerate the take-up of cloud computing by increasing the trust of prospective consumers.

• Cutting through the Jungle of Standards

Cutting through the jungle of technical standards so that cloud users enjoy interoperability, data portability and reversibility is one of the aims of the strategy. Necessary standards need to be identified by 2013.

The Commission will work with the support of ENISA and other relevant bodies to assist the development of EU-wide voluntary certification schemes and establish a list of such schemes by 2014.

• Establishing a European Cloud Partnership

The European Cloud Partnership (ECP) [6] brings together industry experts and public sector users to work on common procurement requirements for cloud computing in an open and fully transparent way.

The public sector has a key role to play in shaping the cloud computing market. But with the public sector market fragmented, its requirements have little impact, services integration is low and citizens do not get the best value for money.

The European Cloud Partnership (ECP) brings together industry expects and public sector users to work on common procurement requirements for cloud computing in an open and fully transparent way. The ECP aims at driving the first steps towards better public procurement of cloud services in Europe, based on common definitions of requirements and possibly eventually going as far as joint procurement across borders. This should make the public sector more effective, i.e. save money and do more with less, while it would also stimulate a European cloud industry.

Pooling public requirements could bring higher efficiency and common sectorial requirements (e.g. eHealth, social care, assisted living, eGovernment services) would reduce costs and enable interoperability. The private sector would also benefit from higher quality services, more competition, rapid standardisation and better interoperability and market opportunities for high-tech SMEs.

 

Part of the ECP is the Cloud-for-Europe (C4E) initiative, aiming at helping Europe's public authorities procure cloud products and services, so as to build trust in European cloud computing.

Key priority projects of the EC to to promote mobility of EU citizens in the EU Digital Market

Citizens of Europe should be able to move and reside freely across Europe . In this area Member States and the Commission will work together to develop services for increasing the mobility of people who want to move between European countries for e.g. study, work, health care, residence and/or retirement.

The envisaged actions should ensure the development of interoperable services enabling citizens to communicate, perform transactions, and send and receive electronic documents and information to and from public administrations across the EU. These will allow for delivering secure cross-border exchange and safe storage of electronic information (eDelivery of documents and information). People shall be able to access personal documents such as birth certificates from all over Europe, be eligible for and receive pension rights when retiring in another country than the one where they worked, or electronically enrol in any European university.

The Commission will support exchanges of best practice and coordinate the efforts of Member States to jointly develop and set up interoperable eDelivery services.

Member States will provide cross-border and interoperable eDelivery services for citizens, e.g. so that they can study, work, reside, receive health care and retire anywhere in the European Union.

Obviously, all the Large Scale Projects mentioned above are contributing, directly or indirectly to the development, implementation and operation of cross-border services and hence contributing to the mobility of citizen and business in the EU.

Comment on Moldova’s efforts to catch up through Mobile eID, MCloud Platform, MPay – electronic payment gateway, Interoperability Platform

I started working with Moldova a few years ago when the World Bank set up a group to help Moldova to start its eGovernment activities. Since then, I have been in close contact with the Moldavian government and have seen the set-up of the Centrul de Guvernare Electronica (CGE) , which I believe has been the cornerstone of the enormous progress Moldova has made in the area of eGovernment in just a few years. I have met several times with the team both in Chisinau and in Brussels and have had open discussions on strategy, priorities, architecture and the list of infrastructure services to support eGovernment services efficiently.

Mobile eID was the first strategic choice and an important enabler for the deployment of eGovernment services. If citizens cannot be identified and authenticated properly, no real electronic service, other than the primitive publishing information or downloading forms, can be provided. Adopting a Mobile approach, in partnership with telecom providers, is the only way to make quick progress in this area and make a winner of it. I have to say that I am very satisfied to see that the objective has been achieved.

eGovernment services have to be effective and efficient and have to help to increase user satisfaction while lowering costs in public administrations. Consolidating infrastructures and services and enabling administration to easily get infrastructure and platform services on demand is the best approach and an important step forward to achieve the above mentioned 

objectives. The public sector MCloud has been set up with those objectives in mind and is gradually gathering interest among the government organizations and agencies. The presentations I had the opportunity to attend during my last visit to Moldova,  beginning of 2013, showed a very user friendly and scalable platform built around state of the art components and systems in the Cloud Computing domain.

In time collection of taxes is essential for the sustainability of public finances. On the other hand, if citizens, and particularly businesses, have to queue at the public administration desks to pay, it means time and resources loss and negative impact on costs and competitiveness. Facilitating the electronic payment of taxes can contribute to overcome the problems mentioned above. The MPay platform, developed in collaboration with the telecom companies and the banks, is the right answer to the problem and again using the mobile to facilitate payments is the best approach since it has become pervasive.

eGovernment services are seldom the result of processes carried out by a single administrative organization. They have to be, from the point of view of the users, seamless and crossing the organizational borders. Citizens and business have to be freed of the burden of having to provide over and over again information that is already in the registries, databases and archives of Government entities. In order to achieve this objective, the different information systems that are contributing to the provision of a digital service have to interoperate. The Interoperability Platform is the right answer to the challenge mentioned above. Having had the opportunity to review the specifications before tendering and the result of the selection process I am sure that the standard-based interoperability platform that has been selected meets the requirements to achieve the government wide interoperability objectives.

 

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With an experience of than 30 years working on IT, IT infrastructure and IT solutions related fields, Francisco García Morán holds now the position of European Commission's Chief IT Advisor at European Commission.

Francisco García Morán hods a Degree in Mathematics "Numerical Analysis and Applied Statistics", University of Sevilla, Spain Degree in Computer Science, Polytechnic University of Madrid "Spain", Oct.77 to June 81. He joined the European Commission (EC) in November 1986.