Council of Europe outlines e-governance strategy

The Council of Europe has adopted a recommendation on e-governance on 15 December 2004. The Council recommends that member states "Work together with the appropriate international, national, regional and local stakeholders, to develop a shared vision of e-governance that upholds human rights, democracy and the rule of law." Member states should use e-governance to strengthen democratic institutions at all levels and make them more accessible, transparent, accountable and responsive. E-governance is not one-sided, but should provide opportunities for all to participate in the process of decision-making. Finally member states should use information and communication technologies to "improve public administration and services by making them more accessible, user-centred, transparent, efficient and cost-effective, thus contributing to the economic and cultural vitality of society." The recommendation also promotes open standards and open source software: "(the e-governance strategy) provides for an ICT policy based on technology neutrality, open standards and on the assessment of possibilities offered by different software models, including open source models." Many countries are currently developing digital identification schemes and are designing new databases to collate multiple sources of government information about citizens. The recommendation does not interfere with one of the hottest debates; about the voluntary co-operation of citizens. The text suggests it might be optional to use digital media to use government services: "widen the choices available to users for communicating and transacting with government by providing additional channels". But opt-in is not explicitly mentioned when it comes to privacy. Privacy is mentioned only as the need to be "aware of the potential risks related, in particular, to the abuse of personal data" and as the need to enhance "citizens' confidence in democratic processes, public authorities and public services, including through protecting personal data." Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on electronic governance (15.12.2004)