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All the European Union Member States and EFTA countries have signed the ‘government Declaration’ in Tallin last week. The declaration was signed during the Ministerial Meeting which took place in the framework of the eGovernement Ministerial Conference. This was chaired by Minister Urve Palo, representing the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU and in the presence of Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.Chief among these plans is an agreement to move forward with development of a digital identification system that can be used by residents to access a wide range of new online public and private services. The agreement calls on the EU to create a framework for ensuring the implementation of electronic IDs, while also ensuring protection of privacy and security of the data.
“All Europeans should be able to access online services in other Member States just as they do at home, and electronic transactions have to become significantly easier in the internal market,” said Andrus Ansip, vice president for the Digital Single Market.
The Member States reaffirmed their commitment to progress in linking up their public eServices and implement the eIDAS regulation and the once-only principle in order to provide efficient and secure digital public services that will make citizens and businesses lives easier.
Since the ‘Malmö Declaration‘ signed in 2009, progress has been made to modernise public administrations across Europe and deliver cross border eServices, eProcurement and electronic identification (eID)
The push for greater e-government adoption is being led by the government of Estonia, which is currently the chair of the European Commission, a position that rotates among member states. Estonia has gained a reputation as a pioneer of e-government services by creating a digital identity card that allows residents to do things like pay taxes, vote, and request various government services online. In addition, lawyers, courts, and banks are also able to leverage the system to authenticate the identity of people for various transactions.
All European Union Member States and EFTA countries signed the ‘government Declaration’ in Tallinn at the Ministerial meeting which took place alongside the government Ministerial Conference on 6 October 2017. The unanimous agreement took place in the presence of Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market. This marks a new political commitment at EU level on priorities that will ensure high quality, user-centric digital public services for citizens as well as seamless cross-border public services for businesses.
The eGovernment Declaration follows the Malmo Declaration signed in 2009 and the launch of the eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020, which both recognise that service-oriented, reliable and innovative government at all levels are essential to develop a dynamic, productive and European society. Since 2009, luckily several key milestones have been achieved, such as eProcurement, the deployment of key cross border services funded by the Connecting Europe Facility programme and the electronic identification (eID).
The ‘Tallinn Declaration’ provides an important impetus for Member States and the Commission, both collectively and individually, to continue to invest in accelerating the modernisation of the public sector.
In the annex of the Declaration, Ministers in charge of policy and coordination of digital public services in the countries recognise the needs and expectations of citizens and businesses as they interact with public administrations. They commit to designing and delivering their services, guided by the principles of user-centricity (such as digital interaction, reduction of the administrative burden, digital delivery of public services, citizens engagement, redress and complaint mechanisms)
Source: The European Commission