The role of eGovernment in deepening the single market

Briefing 22-09-2017

eGovernment, which involves deploying technology to deliver public services, increases administrative efficiency and reduces the administrative burden on the public and businesses. The EU has been actively promoting implementation of eGovernment practices, in particular in cross-border situations. Many studies point to significant savings for national authorities and reduced costs for businesses through further advancement of eGovernment in Europe. However, a low level of digitisation of public services and the lack of interoperability between eGovernment systems still present major electronic and procedural barriers to the free movement of goods, services and people in the single market. Other problems include insufficient access to information and low usability of the services offered. Many Member States are well advanced at national level, but the cross-border provision of e-services is still lagging behind. In order to address these issues, various policy initiatives have already been launched or are planned under the digital single market strategy and the eGovernment 2016-2020 action plan. A further boost should come from the current Estonian EU Council Presidency, which has made promotion of eGovernment one of its main priorities.