The ‘Advancing eGovernment’ conference, hosted by the German government in Berlin on 1 March 2007, came up with six ideas for boosting eGovernment co-operation right across Europe.
The representatives of the EU Member States, industry, academia and civil society recommended that, in the coming years, co-operation in this field between the Commission and Member State governments should primarily focus on:
- Ensuring that procedures can be handled electronically across various administrative levels and national borders in a secure and interoperable manner;
- Developing and introducing interoperable electronic identity management which can provide secure borderless authentication for access to various public services;
- Ensuring secure communication between citizens, businesses and the authorities within eGovernment processes. The Member States support the standardisation of the relevant protocols;
- Overcoming technical barriers to the exchange of documents and data between authorities, businesses and citizens. The public administration must not exclude anyone from participating in an electronic procedure owing to the use of a specific product. In future, electronic documents should be exchanged fully, on the basis of open document exchange formats;
- Delivering inclusive eGovernment for the benefit of all Europeans. Member States should step up efforts to achieve the 2010 target of 100% accessibility of electronic services; and
- Examining new ways to facilitate dialogue with citizens using emerging advanced tools (e.g. Web2.0).
