Professor Reinhard Posch on eGovernment - Main contents

In this guest blog, Reinhard Posch, Professor at TU Graz and CIO Federal Government Austria, writes that eGovernment will help to increase Europe's competitiveness in the mid- and longterm.

Altough public debates are mostly focussed on how to fix problems and resond to crisis in short term, we should not loose sight of long term strategies: eGovernment being one of them.

I really believe that we highly need a visionary Action Plan that enables long term developments and increases coherence and competitiveness of Europe. Cooperation of administrations and innovative approaches delivering interoperable, seamless and easy-to-use services to all Europeans is key.

No one should be left behind and a strategy and an Action Plan for eGovernment, as adopted by the EU Commission a few weeks ago, must therefore observe the gradual transition to a digital first policy especially against the background that some parts of Europe still face situations where up to 40% are excluded from the internet socially or physically.

Strong signals and visible benefits are needed to change the minds of politically responsible people to see the cross border being a first level target. In this context the Action Plan can also be a contribution to reverse the tendencies of localization and developments for silos. At the same time, I realise that it is necessary to build confidence in the fact that the large scale can be managed and will bring benefits.

In my view, a clear Action Plan is needed in eGovernment - like any effort in the area of administration - is not a value by itself but a horizontal effort with a high mid- and long term potential. It focusses on increasing the competitiveness of Europe. Therefore, it will be a great challenge to prove that "cross border" and "compliant with strategies" doesn't only come at no cost on a longer term calculation but also clearly shows the benefits for all.

As the Action Plan is in many ways a strategic endeavor, I see the "eGovernment Action Plan Steering Board" to be of high relevance. The positioning of this board and its members in the Member States and on a European level will be a key factor for success and benefit of this Action Plan. Clear political effort by the Commission and the Member States will be needed as the Action Plan does not envisage mandatory elements yet.

What I see as the biggest challenge is to foster the alignment of relevant legislation. As an example, the explicit cross border by default can be helpful in this context. There is a clear timeline to it as Member States are only open to changes as long as they have not made up their mind or have made investments in a specific direction. We need the Steering Board as a platform in place to elaborate and communicate supporting principles in time.

The Action Plan rightly points to data protection that can be a real driver on one side, but also sets the frame for the potential of the general - once only principle, especially in the context of cross-border services. While the need for broad support of eIDAS is obvious, some areas will need to be elaborated and communicated to industry - especially to non EU- based industry - more clearly as the qualified web server certificates has shown. This is just one aspect where I do hope this action plan will help the strategic positioning of Europe.

While the vision and the underlying principles as well as the general policy priorities of the Action Plan are forming a sound basis for a holistic approach, the concrete actions included in the Action Plan still need to develop their complete profile. Their specific added value to the overall picture needs to be made crystal-clear in order to get on board all necessary stakeholders for a successful implementation. I see this process as a main challenge still in front of us. Although the actions are targeted to the Commission, the strong involvement of Member States and all stakeholders is required - thus the Action Plan will literally need action.