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Question: The eEurope benchmarking program encourages European Union (EU) countries to put as many services online as possible. However, it does not address how the online channel increases the quality of services. Is this considered to be a limitation and, if so, how is the Commission going to promote an increase in service levels, rather than pure Web delivery? Furthermore, how is the Commission ensuring that its benchmarking system does not assume that "standard" solutions apply across the continent and how does it favor "local" solutions and approaches?
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Commissioner Liikanen: Putting government services online can increase the quality of services in several ways. First, the quality improves as the services become more accessible - common complaints when accessing public services concern the delays often encountered while waiting to be dealt with in public offices, combined with limited opening hours. Second, full advantage of the potential for better quality can be taken by re-engineering administrative processes - the "back office."
Experience with online service delivery in business shows that there is potential for improvement in terms of quality, timeliness and more-informed clients. The public sector can certainly learn from the experiences of the private sector. Part and parcel of e-government should be the monitoring of quality as perceived by the users - citizens or businesses; and administrations are starting to do so. The Commission has just prepared the eEurope 2005 Action Plan at the request of the Barcelona European Council and the issue of improving the quality and online availability of government services will be central to this plan.
As far as best practice exchange is concerned, this is not about copying someone else's solution and considering it to be the only truth. Instead, it is about accelerated learning from each other. The principle of subsidiarity applies to e-government services - local solutions and approaches are best developed locally. The Commission cannot -and would not want to - impose a "one size fits all," Europewide solution.
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Gartner View:
The eEurope 2005 Action Plan prioritizes:
- The broadband connection between administrations
- An interoperability framework for pan-European services (even though the vast majority of services are of a national or regional nature)
- Use of electronic procurement in the public sector
- A generic aim to have basic online services by 2004
No detail is given about how the current measurement framework could evolve toward truly assessing service quality, rather than simple online delivery.
The good news is that the new framework will contain regional indicators, which may provide some flexibility. However, we do not expect any significant change in the current evaluation scheme. Comparing government service levels across countries is very sensitive politically and the Commission could be seen to be interfering with member states' sovereignty. Governments should not rely on EU e-government benchmarking reports as a basis to assess service levels. They will need to use models that take into account: costs, value to constituents and the impact of online delivery on other channels (see The Gartner Framework for E-Government Strategy Assessment).
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Question: Too many e-government initiatives across Europe simply involve pumping special funds into technology investments. There is little guidance on how to actively engage the private sector in e-government service delivery. For example, tax filing could happen through banking portals, change of address through utilities and transactions concerning permits or licenses could be managed through the Web sites of building societies, car manufacturers and dealers. Horizontal portals such as Yahoo and Microsoft Network (MSN) could offer even wider services.
Do you feel that the role of intermediaries and partners that can add value to e-government services should be strengthened and, if so, is there a role the Commission could play to make this happen?
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Commissioner Liikanen: It is true that the private sector does not only have to play a role in providing the technical means and "know-how" (infrastructure) to create successful e-government applications. The private sector can also play an important role in the actual delivery of e-government services.
I think that the role of intermediaries and partners that can add value to e-government services should indeed be strengthened. First, the Commission is working on a proposal to improve the reuse of public-sector information. This recognizes that the private sector, in many cases, can add value. It does an excellent job in delivering information, through digital means, to citizens and companies - thereby reaching a larger audience. The Commission also recognizes the potential economic value of information from the public sector for future digital services.
Second, the Commission also promotes its eContent program, which focuses on the field of public-sector information. The program promotes development and use of European digital content on the global networks and encourages linguistic diversity in the information society.
Private-public partnerships can play an important role in this respect. The European Commission has undertaken specific action to improve access to, and expand the use of, public-sector information. It funds projects that establish public-private partnerships for this purpose and identifies practical problems that hamper such cooperation agreements.
Furthermore, the Commission will continue to support the identification and spreading of best practices in this field. As you know, the first European Ministerial E-Government conference, organized by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency in November of last year [2001], identified e-government best practices in different fields and at different administrative levels (local, regional and national). These best practices comprise successful examples of public-private partnerships in the realization of e-government applications, including those in which the private sector has an active role in delivering public services. In the long term, concrete examples will be placed on an e-government Web site, which is now being created. The site will collect interesting examples and facilitate exchange of experience (see Conference on eGovernment: "From Policy to Practice").
The European Commission will continue to show the advantages that public-private partnerships can bring, including in the field of e-government, but the final decision to create such partnerships will stay with the public administrations and businesses themselves.
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Gartner View: The European Commission addressed the problem of public-sector information with a communication in October 2001. The main difficulties for private-sector delivery of government services and information are that government agencies have to charge for the use of public information to recover costs, and that the rules for exploitation vary in different countries. The Commission is working to build a "level playing field" across Europe, but this will not be enough. However, e-government remains primarily a national and regional concern and there is relatively little European institutions can do.
National and local governments should consider using some of the resources available through the European R&D and technology transfer programs to explore new ways to involve the private sector in delivering innovative e-government services.
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Question: There is a very thin line between e-government and information society initiatives. Some countries are particularly vocal about the need for direct investment at the EU level to develop a broadband infrastructure. However, there is no evidence that simple broadband access would drive citizens to use the Net, because the real issue is the lack of compelling content.
What is your view about the respective roles of the public and private sector (that is, carriers and content providers) in developing a broadband infrastructure, and how is intellectual property right protection part of the equation?
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Commissioner Liikanen: Governments worldwide are increasingly realizing that broadband access will be central to the economic development of their countries. Wide availability of broadband communication would have a significant impact on the economy, and several EU member states have started reviewing the situation regarding broadband in their territories. Their common objective is to accelerate its deployment. Investment in broadband access will mainly come from the private sector. Competition is expected to drive these investments, generate innovation and lower prices. Therefore, public policy should focus on issues where competition is not effective and where political objectives need to be ensured. The new regulatory framework, which will be applied in all member states from July 2003, is expected to encourage efficient investment in infrastructure (by new entrants and incumbent operators) and promote innovation.
Ex ante regulation is applied only in markets identified in the Commission recommendation on relevant markets, or in markets defined by national regulatory authorities and agreed with the Commission. This takes into account the Commission guidelines on market analysis and the assessment of significant market power. Several aspects of the implementation of the new regulatory framework are the subject of ongoing discussion between the Commission, national regulatory authorities and market players.
The upgrade of existing infrastructure, including the transition from the current Internet Protocol (IPv4) to the next-generation Internet Protocol (IPv6), and the rollout of new networks, require significant investment. Companies face difficult capital markets and low rates of broadband take-up, making expected returns highly uncertain. Reducing uncertainty in the market must, therefore, be one of the main objectives of broadband policy.
A broadband strategy will play a complex role because it is affected by many different policies: town and country planning, research policy, taxation and regulation. These policies are carried out at all levels: international, European, national, regional and local. Therefore, a broadband initiative should bring the application of such policies together, to provide a consistent and effective policy solution.
The Internet is being transformed by broadband technology and the upgrading of infrastructure is interrelated to the development of interactive multimedia services. Infrastructure investment is driven by availability of content and services, and the development of new services and content depends on infrastructure deployment. The infrastructure evolves and upgrades when new services and applications emerge and vice versa. The eEurope 2005 Action Plan will try to stimulate a positive feedback between infrastructure upgrading - both broadband and multiplatform - and service developments.
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Gartner View: The Commissioner's response refers to the eEurope 2005 Action Plan. According to that plan, most of the Commission's effort around broadband will go into promoting the transition to digital TV, helping member states deploy broadband in less-favored regions and removing legislative barriers, mostly through public-private partnerships and the exchange of best practices.
We believe this is insufficient. Deployment of broadband and related services will remain subdued, only reaching levels allowed by incumbents' business plans. Incumbents will have time to discover the benefits of bundling infrastructure, services and content, and this should be limited by adequate regulations (see Course Correction Needed for European Telecom Regulation). In particular, the EU should directly address the issue of whether and how intellectual property rights could be temporarily waived or made affordable to make compelling content available to consumers.
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