eGOVERNMENT: COMMISSION CALLS FOR AMBITIOUS OBJECTIVES IN THE EU FOR 2010

Hundreds of billions of euros could be saved for European taxpayers every year as a result of administrative modernisation in the 25 EU Member States, outlined today in the European Commission’s eGovernment Action Plan. Information and communication technology is the key to modernising government services: making them more efficient and more responsive.

100% take-up of electronic invoicing and electronic public procurement is predicted to save 300billion euros every year. All Member States already signed up to an ambitious agenda to achieve these goals in Manchester last year. Today’s action plan proposes concrete steps towards achieving these goals,

“We are starting to see benefits from Europe’s investments in ‘eGovernment’ over the last few years, but we need to be more active in learning lessons from each other and getting the benefits of scale from adopting common approaches across borders,” declared Viviane Reding, Information Society and Media Commissioner. “eGovernment is no longer just a political toy, it is the essential tool of government, for modernising Europe’s public administrations”.

eGovernment initiatives in Europe have already resulted in significant saving of time and money in some Member States. Public service eProcurement in Italy resulted in savings of €3.2 billion by 2003.

The new eGovernment action plan adopted today by the European Commission addresses five priority areas for 2010 and underlines the commitment of the European Commission to delivering tangible benefits to all Europeans, in cooperation with the Member States.