Directorate General for 3 March 2005 Information and Media • ONLINE AVAILABILITY OF PUBLIC SERVICES: HOW IS EUROPE PROGRESSING? WEB BASED SURVEY ON ELECTRONIC PUBLIC SERVICES REPORT OF THE FIFTH MEASUREMENT OCTOBER 2004 Prepared by: Capgemini For: European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? For more information about this survey, please contact: Capgemini Patrick Wauters Pascale Van Durme Patrick.wauters@Capgemini.com Pascale.Vandurme@Capgemini.com European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4 2 The EC’s Benchmark study: Electronic Public Services in Europe.................................... 5 2.1 The scope of the survey within the eEurope programme of the European Commission ................... 5 2.2 The survey framework........................................................................................................................ 6 2.2.1 Participating countries.................................................................................................................. 6 2.2.2 Twenty basic public services ....................................................................................................... 6 2.2.3 The Scoring Framework............................................................................................................... 7 2.2.4 Delimitation ................................................................................................................................. 8 2.3 Methodology: Capgemini’s Web-based Survey.................................................................................. 9 2.3.1 Module 1: Screening the governmental structure of the participating countries and listing the service providers .............................................................................................................................9 2.3.2 Module 2: Sampling of multiple service providers and URL identification.................................11 2.3.3 Module 3: Web-based survey and scoring of the websites .......................................................12 2.3.4 Module 4: Analysing and reporting ...........................................................................................12 3 Results & analysis .................................................................................................................15 3.1Results in 2004 .................................................................................................................................16 3.1.1Overall results............................................................................................................................16 3.1.2 Citizens versus Businesses .......................................................................................................17 3.1.3 The Four Service Clusters .........................................................................................................19 3.1.4 Results by Country.....................................................................................................................26 3.2 Historical overview 2001-2004..........................................................................................................27 3.2.1 Overall progress........................................................................................................................27 3.2.2 Citizens versus Businesses .......................................................................................................29 3.2.3 The Four Service Clusters .........................................................................................................31 3.2.4 Results by Country.....................................................................................................................35 3.3 Non quantitative results.....................................................................................................................37 3.3.1 Cases........................................................................................................................................37 3.3.2 Public service delivery transformation .......................................................................................40 4 General Conclusions .............................................................................................................45 Annex 1: Definitions of the 20 Public Services......................................................................47 Annex 2: Overview of non relevant services..........................................................................57 Fully automatic services.........................................................................................................................57 Services through intermediaries .............................................................................................................57 Non-existing services.............................................................................................................................57 Annex 3. Initiatives for the future ............................................................................................59 Annex 4. Results per service (online sophistication)............................................................61 Page 3 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 1 INTRODUCTION This report presents the results of the fifth benchmarking exercise on the progress of online public services in Europe. Next to measuring the percentage of online sophistication of basic public services available on the Internet, this study also measures the percentage of public services fully available online in the 25 EU Member States, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland1. The survey was executed in October 2004. The European Commission, Directorate General for Information Society and Media, ordered the survey in the context of the eEurope programme. The main objective of the benchmark is enabling participating countries to analyse progress in the field of eGovernment and to compare performance within and between countries. In the following chapter, the context and scope of this study are elaborated upon. Afterwards, the results of the fifth measurement and the progress that has been achieved compared to the previous measurements are presented. Finally, the overall conclusions on how Europe has progressed in the last year are summarised. 1 The Swiss government obtained the permission of the European Commission to participate in the second, third, fourth and fifth measurement. This participation was subject of a separate arrangement between the Swiss government and the contractor of the European Commission. Page 4 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 2 THE EC’S BENCHMARK STUDY: ELECTRONIC PUBLIC SERVICES IN EUROPE 2.1 The scope of the survey within the eEurope programme of the European Commission This survey, conducted by Capgemini on behalf of the European Commission, is part of the benchmarking programme that assesses the progress of eEurope. The study measures the e- government policy indicator of the eEurope Action Plan. The eEurope initiative was launched by the eEurope 2002 Action Plan endorsed by the Feira European Council in June 2000. It has been strengthened by the eEurope 2005 Action Plan, launched at the Seville European Council in June 2002 and endorsed by the Council of Ministers in the eEurope Resolution of January 2003. The objective of this Action Plan is to develop modern public services and a dynamic environment for e-business through widespread availability of broadband access at competitive prices and a secure information infrastructure. The European Union should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion; The eEurope benchmarking indicators are aimed to support member states in achieving the objectives of the Action Plan. The indicators cover different domains: • Citizens' access to and use of the Internet • Enterprises' access to and use of ICT. • Internet access costs • E-government • E-learning - E-health - Buying and selling on-line - E-business readiness In the eEurope 2002 Action Plan the policy indicator for e-government was the “percentage of basic public service available online”. In the eEurope 2005 Action Plan this indicator was reviewed. The new definition is the “number of basic public services fully available on-line”. The Council of the European Union decided that the methodology developed by Capgemini to measure the original indicator in October 2001, April 2001 and October 2002, had to be continued for the scoring of the new indicator. Only the expression of the result of the data-collection and measurement is different. For consistency reasons this report will present and analyse the results taking into account both indicators. The difference between both is explained in paragraph 2.2.3. Until 2002 this study was conducted on a bi-annual basis: October 2001, April 2001 and October 2002. In the eEurope 2005 Action Plan the measurement is organized on an annual basis. This report presents the results of the fifth measurement, executed in October 2004. Page 5 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 2.2 The survey framework 2.2.1 Participating countries The survey initially covered 17 countries: the 15 member states of the EU, Norway and Iceland. Switzerland also joined from the second measurement. In the 5th measurement the 10 new member countries are taken into account. The country codes used in this report are presented in table 1. Table 1: Country Codes A Austria B Belgium C Cyprus CZ Czech Republic DK Denmark EE Estonia FIN Finland F France D Germany EL Greece HU Hungary ISL Iceland IRL Ireland I Italy LV Latvia LT Lithuania L Luxembourg MT Malta NL Netherlands NOR Norway PL Poland P Portugal E Spain CH Switzerland SK Slovakia SE Slovenia S Sweden UK United Kingdom 2.2.2 Twenty basic public services For these 28 countries the European Commission and the Member States defined a list of twenty basic public services. For twelve of these services, the citizens are the target group while for eight of them businesses are the target group. The 20 services are presented in Table 2. Table 2: Public Services Citizens Businesses Income Taxes Social Contribution for Employees Job Search Corporate Tax Social Security Benefits2 VAT Personal Documents3 Registration of a New Company Car Registration Submission of Data to the Statistical Office Application for Building Permission Custom Declaration Declaration to the Police Environment-related Permits Public Libraries Public Procurement Birth and Marriage Certificates Enrolment in Higher Education Announcement of Moving Health-related Services 2 The service “social security benefits” is measured on the basis of the following sub-services: unemployment benefits, child allowances, medical costs and student grants 3 The service “personal documents” is measured on the basis of the following sub-services: passports and driver’s licence Page 6 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 2.2.3 The Scoring Framework In order to measure the eEurope 2002 indicator ‘availability of public services online’, a four-stage framework has been defined: • Stage 1- Information: The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain this public service is available on-line. • Stage 2- One-way Interaction: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to obtain in a non-electronic way (by Downloading forms) the paper form to start the procedure to obtain this service. An electronic form to order a non-electronic form is also considered as stage 2. • Stage 3- Two-way Interaction: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain this service. This implies that there must be a form of authentication of the person (physical or juridical) requesting the services in order to reach stage 3. • Stage 4- Full electronic case handling: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to completely treat the public service via the website, including decision and delivery. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via "paperwork". Besides these 4 stages a stage 0 was introduced to capture two possible research outcomes: • Total absence of any publicly accessible website managed by the service provider • The public service provider has a publicly accessible website, but this one does not offer any relevant information, interaction, two-way interaction or transaction possibilities at all concerning the analysed service. The figure below demonstrates the scoring framework. Figure 1: The Scoring Framework Information One-way interaction (Downloadable forms) Two-way interaction Transaction (full electronic case handling) Online Development Stage 0 The online availability of public services will thus be determined by the extent to which it is possible to provide the service electronically, or in other words the sophistication of the online service provision. Page 7 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? The scoring framework presented above comprises the general framework. For each public service included in the survey the scoring framework has been refined. (See Annex 1 The definitions of the twenty public services are). In order to measure the new eEurope 2005 indicator, an additional scoring framework was added. • Stage 1 - No full availability online • Stage 2 -Full availability online Stage 1 contains the stages 0 to 3 of the ‘sophistication’ framework. Stage 2 contains the stage 4 of the ‘sophistication’ framework. For some services the maximum stage was limited to Stage 3: personal documents, declaration to the police, certificates (birth and marriage), announcement of moving and submission of data to statistical offices. 2.2.4 Delimitation The fact that this study relies on a well-defined framework also implies some restrictions: • This survey evaluates the availability of public services for citizens and businesses through one channel: the Internet. This means that eGovernment initiatives which use any other channel to reach their target groups are not taken into account (call centres, iDTV, mobile devices…). • This study measures the results of the front office approach, considering only the online public service offering. It evaluates neither organizational e-government action like the eGovernment re-designing of back-office procedures, nor service availability through other channels, nor the adoption and the use of these services, nor the impact of the eGovernment programmes. Therefore the results of this measurement should be integrated in a more holistic e-government measurement model. The figure below illustrates a possible measurement model: Figure 2: Integrated eGovernment model Structural Landscape • Businesses Employees • 1. Political Leadership 7. Programme Management Quality Multi- Channel choice (front-office) 2. Proposition & Channel 4. Technology Approach 8. Process Change Economic Democratic Politics Society Culture Demograph Economy 3. Finance & Contracting 9. Capability Devlpt eGovernement readiness Internet online Digital TV/ Radio Mobile divices Call centers Offices Back-office fulfillment Adoption and use 5. Stakeholder Participation Integration Interoperability Architecture 6. Performance Mgmt Impact Public Value Social Business Intelligence Page 8 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? In the paragraph 3.3 ‘Non quantitative results’ information provided by the members states during the study concerning evolution in public services provision not covered by the online availability indicator is listed (pro-active and automatic service provision, integrated service provision). 2.3 Methodology: Capgemini’s Web-based Survey The survey-process developed by the Capgemini-team contains 4 modules: • Landscaping of the governmental structure of the countries • Sampling of the multiple service providers & identification of URL’s • Web-based survey and scoring of the websites • Analysis of the results The process chart below demonstrates the different modules: Figure 3: Survey Process Survey Process How? Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Landscaping of the governmental structure of countries Sampling of services providers & URL search Web-based survey and scoring Analysis of the scoring results Input from a network of governmental contact persons in 28 countries via web enabled tool A statistical methodology combining different statistical methods + a well defined search strategy A web-based scoring tool to carry out web- surveys with built-in checks and controls Validation of results by the network of governmental contact persons Analysis & reporting In the following paragraphs the different modules will be further described. Generally there has been a stronger emphasis on thorough validation of the preparation and final results by the member states in the 5th measurement. How this was achieved is described in the following paragraphs. 2.3.1 Module 1: Screening the governmental structure of the participating countries and listing the service providers The Capgemini team opted for a bottom-up approach in elaborating the research methodology. The formulated initial question was, from the point of view of an applicant (individual citizen or business): “what is the responsible service provider for the delivery of a particular public service in a specific country?” The websites of these service providers were then defined as the observation units of the research. Page 9 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? In a first phase of the research the network of government experts from the Directorate General for Information Society and Media in each of the 28 countries was consulted to obtain an overview of the different ways in which the 20 public services are organised and of the variety of internet applications being developed in Europe. The screening provided a complete overview of the organisation of the service providers to be evaluated. For the 5th measurement a web tool has been developed to assist this module. Every researcher or country-correspondent had the possibility to access the services of his/her country via a personal password: The country-correspondent received an overview of all the e-government services. Page 10 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? All citizen and business services had to be checked and validated by the country-correspondent. For each service a screen appeared containing a set of questions which had to be answered: • Does the service exist? • If yes, who is the responsible authority? • Is it delivered full automatically (no application needed)? • If it is not delivered automatically, does the responsible provider deliver the service? • If not, who is the provider? • Are there intermediaries? Are there organisations replacing the applicant? The following screen-print gives an example of the description of a service (Corporate tax in Belgium). The different categories of service providers taken into account are: • National governmental units • Regional governmental units • Cities and municipalities • Specific multiple service providers: - Public libraries - Hospitals - Universities / institutes of higher education - Police offices. - Public insurance companies 2.3.2 Module 2: Sampling of multiple service providers and URL identification As a fully exhaustive survey of the complete lists of all the multiple service providers was not feasible, Capgemini elaborated a statistical methodology to draw a representative sample in cases where the number of units was too large. This methodology combines different statistical methods, depending on the size and character of the service providers: Page 11 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? • Stratification • Systematic sampling with unequal probability • Random sampling A combination of stratification and systematic sampling was used for those service providers organised on a specific regional base: • Municipalities • Regional authorities • Local police offices • Libraries The weighing methodology that was developed for the systematic sampling also allows the calculation of a scientifically valid aggregate score for the individual websites of multiple service providers. The sampling procedure was repeated for each measurement: the overall scores of public services provided by multiple service providers were based on new samples. The next step in the set-up of the web-survey was the identification of the URL's of the multiple service providers. To be able to give a maximum guarantee that service providers which were selected to participate in the research and manage an official website participated effectively, Capgemini developed a search strategy that offered a maximum guarantee that each website was found. Also the URL’s were validated by the countries via the above mentioned web tool. 2.3.3 Module 3: Web-based survey and scoring of the websites The URL’s of the service providers were documented in a relational database. This database fed a web-based scoring tool developed by Capgemini to carry out web-surveys. The research team executing the content analysis and scoring of the URL’s used this web-enabled application. As the number of URL’s to score per country is extensive and the exact interpretation of the different stages is crucial, the tool contains a very precise and structured procedure. The scoring tool guides the researcher through a well-defined path that leads to a score per service. Checks and controls are built in and performed at various stages in this research tool to guarantee a maximum level of accuracy in the results. 2.3.4 Module 4: Analysing and reporting About 14.000 search actions were realized corresponding to the number of service providers identified. The data-base with results is organised on the basis of results measured from the websites of the public services providers. The structure of the data allows the analysis per service and per country as well as by cluster of services (such as registration or returns) or super-cluster (Government to Citizen, Government to Business). The scoring tool recalculates the scoring of the individual websites as a percentage of the maximum score per public service. When a service is organized on different levels, the final result for each service can not be lower than the average of the regional websites or the result on a national level. The figure below schematises the analysis structure: Page 12 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 4: Analysis structure Input Scoring Output Score per service provider Highest Weighted average 14.000 public service providers National Regional Local % of achievement as compared tothe reference model per service per country(stages of maturityin eGovernment service provision) Weighted average The average score of a service in a country is recalculated to an overall percentage of online sophistication: • Stage 0 = score 0 - 0,99 = 0% - 24% • Stage 1 = score 1 -1,99 = 25% - 49% • Stage 2 = score 2 - 2,99 = 50% - 74% or stage 2 • Stage 3 = score 3 – 3,99 = 75% - 99% or stage 3 • Stage 4 = score 4 = 100% or stage 4 For certain services the maximum stage was limited to Stage 3: personal documents, declaration to the police, certificates (birth and marriage), announcement of moving and submission of data to statistical offices. The calculation of the percentages is then as follows: • Stage 0 = score 0 - 0,99 = 0% - 32% • Stage 1 = score 1 -1,99 = 33% - 66% • Stage 2 = score 2 - 2,99 = 67% - 99% • Stage 3 = score 3 = 100% The final percentage per country is calculated as the average of the percentages of the 20 services for that country. The percentage per country for public services for citizens is the average of the percentage of the services 1 to 12. The percentage per country for public services for business is the average of the percentage of the services 13 to 20. Translating the scoring results in the binary framework the indicator fully available online is recalculated. Services receiving the maximum stage (4 or 3) score 1; services marked at a lower level Page 13 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? score 0. The indicator is then calculated as the percentage of services scored as 1 on the total number of analysed services. The results were sent to each member state and validated by them. Some of the public service providers are classified as “not relevant” for certain countries due to the legal context and administrative organization of that specific country. Non-relevant services are not included in the calculation of the scores. The overall score of a country is then calculated as the average of the relevant services. Annex 2 provides an overview of the non-relevant services. Thanks to a more thorough communication with the member states during the different steps in the project, we received more detailed information about the non-relevant services. Page 14 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3 RESULTS & ANALYSIS In the first part we will present the synchronic analysis: the indicators for the 28 countries with focus on the comparison between the 10 new member states and the 18 other countries. In the second part we will present the diachronic analysis: an overview of the evolution in the 18 countries which took part in the previous measurements. We will analyse the 4 yearly measurements of October 2001 till October 2004. For each analysis we first present an overview of the overall results. Afterwards we will break the results down into the following categories: • The results (and evolution) related to the 2 target groups: citizens and businesses (G2C & G2B) • The results (and evolution) related to four public-service clusters: - Income-generating services - Registration - Returns - Permits and Licenses • The results (and evolution) related to the participating countries For each category we will discuss the ‘online sophistication’ indicator first, and afterwards the ‘fully available online’ indicator. Before starting with the presentation of the results of our web survey, we will present the online presence of the service providers. This is a result of the Module 2 of the research in wish for each of the 14.000 service providers the URL-address In October 2004, 84% of the service providers had a website (78% for the 10 new member states and 87% for the 18 other countries). With a few exceptions the providers without available website are situated at a local level (municipalities, hospitals, …). This is illustrated in the figure below. Service providers present online 87% 78% 84% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Page 15 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.1Results in 2004 3.1.1Overall results The fifth measurement resulted for the first indicator in an overall average score of 65% for the 20 public services in the 28 countries (53 % for the 10 new member states and 72% for the other countries). This means that the online sophistication of public service delivery in the EU is situated between one-way interaction and two-way interaction. Even the EU 15+ countries are overall not yet on a level of two-way online service delivery. This is illustrated in Figure 5a. Figure 5b: Overall Results Online Sophistication Information 25%-50% One-way interaction (Downloadable forms) 50%-75% Two way interaction (electronic forms) 75%-100% Transaction (full electronic case handling) 100% No online service 0%-25% EU 10(n) 53% EU 15 + 3 72% EU 25 + 3 65% When we consider the new fully available online indicator, the fifth measurement resulted in an overall average score of 40% for the 20 public services in the 28 countries (29% for the 10 new member states and 46% for the 18 other countries). These results are illustrated in Figure 5a. Page 16 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 5a: Overall Results Fully online Sophistication 72% 46% 65% 40% 53% 29% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n The gap between both indicators is nearly equal in the accessing countries and in the original EU (15)+3: the accessing countries seem to follow a similar evolution in their eGovernment development as the 15+ countries. 3.1.2 Citizens versus Businesses When the results are broken down into the target groups citizens and businesses, we notice that the results of the first indicator, the online sophistication for businesses are significantly higher: 77% for businesses against 57% for citizens. The difference between both target groups is around 20%. This is also the case for the 10 new countries: 46% for citizens against 64% for businesses. This is illustrated in 6a. Page 17 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 6a: Results per Target Group – online sophistication Looking at the fully available online indicator the difference between G2C and G2B member states (21%) and 18 other countries (37%). Relatively there is no real difference; the fully online indicator for citizens is more or less 50% of the score for businesses. This is illustrated in Figure 6b. 64% 84% 57% 77% 46% 64% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Public services for citizens Public services for business EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Figure 6b: Results per Target Group – fully available online 31% 68% 27% 58% 20% 41% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Public services for citizens Public services for business EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n The difference between citizens and businesses can be explained by government policies (supporting of entrepreneurship, administrative simplification,…) and by factors on the side of businesses (higher Page 18 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? IT-readiness,…). Also the services for citizens are of a higher complexity or diversity which may increase the difficulty for the provision of e-services. 3.1.3 The Four Service Clusters In order to identify common trends within groups of related services, four service clusters have been introduced since the first measurement: income-generating, registration, permits & licenses and returns. These service clusters are defined as follows: • Income-generating: services where finance flows from citizens and businesses to the government (mainly taxes and social contributions) • Registration: services related to recording object- or person- related data as a result of administrative obligations • Returns: public services given to citizens and businesses in return for taxes and contributions • Permits & licences: documents provided by governmental bodies giving permission to build a house, to run a business etc. When comparing the online sophistication cluster averages with the overall survey average of 65%, one can observe that the income-generating cluster (including income tax, VAT, corporate tax etc.) is by far the best performing cluster (88%) and the only one scoring better than the survey average. The registration and returns clusters receive the respective scores of 59% and 61%. The permits and licenses cluster performs more weakly with 50%. The results for each of the service clusters are illustrated in Figure 7 to Figure 10. In the following paragraphs the scores of each cluster will be analysed by spider-diagrams. They illustrate the scores for each service within the cluster. 3.1.3.1 Income-generating Cluster With a cluster average of 88% (74% for the 10 new member states and 96% for the 18 other countries), the income-generating cluster remains the best performing cluster, in which every service scores higher than the overall survey average of 65%. The best scoring public service within this cluster is ‘Income taxes’ with a score of 91%. ‘Social contribution for employees’ is the lowest scoring service (84%). Page 19 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 7a: Income-generating services - online sophistication The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 79% (56% for the 10 new member states and 92% for the 18 other countries). 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Income taxes Social contribution for employees Corporate tax VAT Customs declaration EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Figure 7b: Income-generating services – full availability online In comparison the scores of the 10 new countries and the 18 other countries seem in proportion, with exception for the service ‘social contribution for employees’. This could be explained because of the socio-economical history of these countries. Another explanation could be that the contribution is collected through the tax system. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Income taxes Social contribution for employees Corporate tax VAT Customs declaration EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Page 20 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.1.3.2 Registration Cluster With a cluster average of 59% the cluster of registration services scores below the total average of 65%. Within this cluster, the two G2B services perform better than the survey average: ‘Submission of data to statistical offices’ (81%) and ‘Registration of a new Company’ (63%). Figure 8a: Registration services – online sophistication 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Car registration (Birth and marriage) Certificates Announcement of moving Registration of a new company ubmission of data to statistical offices EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 31%. Page 21 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 8b: Registration services – full availability online 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Car registration (Birth and marriage) Certificates Announcement of moving Registration of a new company Submission of data to statistical offices EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Remarkable for this cluster is the high score of the fully available online indicator for the service ‘submission of data to statistical offices’. This could be explained by the impact of European regulations or by the mostly compulsory character of the service. On the other hand the service ‘Car registrations’ scores rather low fully online. This can be explained by the various initiatives to service-optimisation that countries mention which are not rewarded by our scoring methodology. For instance there can be initiatives to integrate the buying, insurance and registration procedures when a citizen buys a car. 3.1.3.3 Returns Cluster With a cluster average of 61% sophistication online, this cluster performs under the average score of 65%. However, one of the best performing services overall, ‘Job search’ (89 %,), belongs to this service cluster. The variation between the lowest scoring service in the cluster (‘Health-related services’, 20%) and the highest scoring service (‘Job search’, 89%) is the highest of all service clusters: 69 percentage points. The scores of the other services in this cluster vary from 56% to 75%. Page 22 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 9a: Returns – online sophistication 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Job search services Social security benefits Declaration to the police Public libraries (catalogues, search tools) Health related services Public procurement EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 31%. The service ‘Job search’ performs the best with a score of 75%. The level of online sophistication of this service in the new member countries is almost equal to the level in the 18 other countries. The EU employment policy can be an explanation for these good results. Figure 9b: Returns – full availability online 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Job search services Social security benefits Declaration to the police Public libraries (catalogues, search tools) Health related services Public procurement EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n Page 23 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? When analysing the fully available online indicator one can see that for the service “declaration to the police” the 10 new member states perform better (30%) than the other countries (28%). The service social security scores very low (7%). This can be explained because the service exists of 4 sub services which each have to score 100% to receive a total of 100%. 3.1.3.4 Permits and Licenses Cluster This cluster is the lowest performing cluster (50% online sophistication). Figure 10a: Permits and Licenses – online sophistication Personal documents 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Enrolment in higher education Application for building Environment-related permits permission EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n This cluster is also the lowest performing cluster looking at the fully available online indicator (10%). The highest scoring service is ‘Enrolment in higher education’ with 25%. Page 24 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 10b: Permits and Licenses – full availability online Personal documents 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Enrolment in higher education Application for building Environment-related permits permission EU (15)+ EU (25)+ EU (10)n The low score of this cluster can be explained by the administratively complex procedures for the services ‘Environmental-related permits” and ‘Application for building permission’. For the other 2 services ‘Personal documents’ and ‘Enrolment in higher education’ it could be explained by the importance of authentication. Page 25 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.1.4 Results by Country The country ranking, presented in Figure 11a, shows that the online sophistication of public services is the most advanced in Sweden (89%). 7 countries reach a score higher than 80% (Sweden, Austria, U.K., Ireland, Finland, Norway and Denmark). Only 4 countries score less than 50% and none of them belong to the EU 15+ countries. When considering all countries together the variation around the average value is [+22%points,-34%points]. Figure 11a: Country results - online sophistication 100 80 average EU (25)+ 60 40 20 0 In terms of percentage of services that offer a complete electronic case handling the 3 best performing countries are not the same as for the online sophistication indicator. The highest scores are also in Sweden (74%) and Austria (72%), whilst in Finland 67% of the services offer full electronic case handling. For the 10 new countries, one is among the leading group, three are aligned with the average and the remaining countries are lagging. The variation around the average value is [+33%points, -36%points]. Figure 11b: Country results - full availability online 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% average EU (25)+ Page 26 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? For both indicators, the leading group is nearly the same with some shifts in ranking. Estonia in the leading group for the on-line sophistication has an even better ranking for full on-line availability. For Switzerland there is a high discrepancy between the sophistication and the full availability online indicator. This seems to be a result of the federally organised structure in the country. The position of Luxemburg may be explained by the very size of the population. Administrative processes are not necessarily much simpler but the investment cost does not decrease proportionally to the size of population and hence, the transaction cost is higher. The country ranking per service has been included as Annex 4 of this document. 3.2 Historical overview 2001-2004 In this part we will present the results and analysis for the 18 countries which were included in the previous measurements. 3.2.1 Overall progress The fifth measurement resulted for the first indicator in an overall average score of 72% sophistication online for the 20 public services in the 18 original countries. This means an increase of 6 percentage points compared to the fourth measurement. Over the last 3 years, the online development of public services has improved by 27percentage points. These results are illustrated in the Figure 12a. Figure 12a: Overall Results – online sophistication 53% 65% 45% 59% 66% 72% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Oct 2001 Oct 2002 Oct 2003 Oct 2004 EU (15)+ EU (10)n EU (25)+ Page 27 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? The new countries appear to lag about 2,5 years as compared to the 15+3 countries but care should be taken with this observation: the new countries may have achieved a lower figure but, as there are no historical data available, the rate of progress is unknown. The indicator value for the 18 original involved countries seems to evolve towards an asymptotic value of +- 80%, at least for the coming years. Although it may be forecasted that in the long run most governmental services might be available on-line, the evolution of the indicator seems to reach a ‘plateau’ if not a ceiling. This may be explained by: • Regulations and decisions made for instance with regard to security (e.g. Belgium in the case of car registration). • The present lack of a country-wide co-ordinated policy (one town may influence the result negatively because that town is lagging in the implementation of on-line services, for whatever reason). • Effectiveness: if an on-line service is bundled with other services that are not (fully) on-line, the result is influenced negatively. • Economy of scale: smaller countries, for the same level of complexity of regulations, have a higher transaction cost due to the lower number of inhabitants. When we consider the fully available online indicator, the fifth measurement resulted in an average score of 44% for the 20 public services in the 18 original countries. This means an increase of 4 percentage points compared to the fourth measurement. Over the last 3 years, the ‘fully available online’ development of public services has improved by 26 percentage points. These results are illustrated in the Figure 12b. Figure 12b: Overall Results – fully available online 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 46% 42% 33% 40% 20% 29% Oct 2001 Oct 2002 Oct 2003 Oct 2004 EU (15)+ EU (10)n EU (25)+ Page 28 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? The binary (new) indicator, by its very nature, lags systematically as compared to the sophistication indicator and evolves more stepwise than the latter. Hence, the values are lower. In the longer run, when services become fully available on-line, both indicator values should converge. 3.2.2 Citizens versus Businesses When the results are broken down into the target groups citizens and businesses, we notice that the results for businesses are still significantly higher. The evolution of the indicator for the 15+3 countries shows a parallelism between G2B and G2C, the latter lagging. The difference appears to remain steady around 20%. This is illustrated in Figure 12c. Figure 12c: Results per Target Group – online sophistication 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 40% 53% 52% 70% 58% 79% 57% 77% 64% 84% 2001 2002 2003 2004 Citizens EU(15)+ Citizens EU (25)+ Business EU (15)+ Business EU (25)+ Page 29 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Figure 12d: Results per Target Group – fully available online 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 12% 31% 22% 49% 29% 61% 31% 27% 68% 58% 2001 2002 2003 2004 Citizens EU (15)+ Citizens EU (25)+ Business EU (15)+ Business EU (25)+ The evolution of full on-line availability slows down and even seems to reach a ceiling around 30% for the services for citizens. Page 30 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.2.3 The Four Service Clusters In the following paragraphs the evolution of the scores of each cluster will be analysed by spider- diagrams. They illustrate the scores within the cluster for each service. 3.2.3.1 Income-generating Cluster With a cluster average of 97% for the 18 countries the income-generating cluster remains the best performing cluster. The fastest growing and best scoring public service within this cluster is ‘social contributions for employees’ with a score of 100%. ‘Corporate tax’ is the lowest scoring service (95%). The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 92% for the 18 countries. Figure 13 a&b: Income-generating services Online sophistication 100% Income taxes Social contributions for employees Customs Declarations Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Full availability online 100% Income taxes Social contributions for employees Customs Declarations Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Corporate tax VAT 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Corporate tax VAT Page 31 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.2.3.2 Registration Cluster The cluster average of the cluster of Registration services is 66% for the 18 countries. Within this cluster, the two G2B services perform better than the survey average: ‘Submission of data to statistical offices’ (83%) and ‘Registration of a new Company’ (71%). The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 37%. Figure 14a&b: Registration services Online sophistication 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Car Registration Birth and marriage certificates Announcement of moving Registration of a new company Submission of data statistical offices Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Full availability online 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Car Registration Birth and marriage certificates Announcement of moving Registration of a new company Submission of data statistical offices Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Page 32 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.2.3.3 Returns Cluster The Returns cluster has an average of 68% for the 18 countries. Public libraries and public procurement have a relatively high growth. The cluster average for the fully available online indicator is 37%. The service ‘Job search’ again performs the best with a score of 78%. There is still no country for which the ‘Health–related services’ are fully available online. Figure 15a&b: Returns Online sophistication 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Health related services Declaration to the police Social scurity benefits Public procurement Public libraries Job search services Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Full availability online 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Health related services Declaration to the police Social scurity benefits Public procurement Public libraries Job search services Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Page 33 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.2.3.4 Permits and Licenses Cluster This cluster remains the lowest performing cluster for the 18 countries (55%). This cluster also remains the lowest performing cluster looking at the fully available online indicator (13%). The highest scoring service is ‘Enrolment in higher education’ with 33%. Figure 16a&b: Permits and Licenses Online sophistication Personal documents 100% Environmental-related permits 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Application for building permission Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Enrolment in higher education Full availability online Personal documents 100% Environmental-related permits 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Application for building permission Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Enrolment in higher education Page 34 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.2.4 Results by Country Of the 16 countries that make progress between the 4th and 5th measurement, UK, Italy, Iceland and Germany realise the highest progress with growth figures that exceed 10 percentage points. Ireland and Denmark decline in comparison with the previous measurement. Generally the growth slows down from 7 percentage points to 5 percentage points between 2003 and 2004 for the online sophistication indicator and from 9 to 4 percentage points for the indicator fully available online. Table 3: Country Ranking Online Sophistication Fully available online Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 Oct 2004 Oct 2003 Oct 2002 Oct 2001 S 89% 87% 87% 61% S 74% 67% 67% 28% A 87% 83% 56% 40% A 72% 68% 20% 15% UK 84% 71% 62% 50% FIN 67% 61% 50% 33% IRL 84% 86% 85% 68% UK 59% 50% 33% 24% FIN 83% 80% 76% 66% DK 58% 72% 61% 32% NOR 82% 75% 66% 63% NOR 56% 47% 35% 35% DK 81% 86% 82% 59% E 55% 50% 40% 30% ISL 76% 56% 53% 38% I 53% 45% 35% 15% F 74% 73% 63% 49% F 50% 45% 35% 25% E 73% 68% 64% 50% ISL 50% 28% 28% 11% I 72% 59% 57% 39% IRL 50% 56% 50% 22% NL 70% 65% 54% 37% D 47% 40% 35% 20% P 68% 65% 58% 51% P 40% 37% 32% 32% B 67% 58% 47% 23% B 35% 35% 25% 0% D 66% 52% 48% 40% EL 32% 32% 32% 11% EL 61% 54% 52% 39% NL 32% 26% 21% 5% CH 60% 55% 49% -L 20% 15% 5% 5% L 53% 47% 32% 15% CH 6% 0% 0% - The growth figures realised since the first measurement in 2001 are presented per country in Figure 10a and 10b. Page 35 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? The top growers for online sophistication over 3 years are Austria and Belgium. They both achieved a growth of more than 40 percentage points. Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, U.K. and the Netherlands achieved a growth between 30 and 40 percentage point. Figure 17a: Growth online sophistication between 2001-2004 28% 46% 34% 15% 18% 18% 23% 38% 25% 23% 33% 33% 17% 44% 26% 22% 11% 37% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% S A UK IRL FIN NOR DK ISL F E I NL P B D EL CH L 2001 grow th 2001-2004 The top growers for the indicator fully available online over 3 years are Sweden and Austria with a growth of more than 40 percentage points. Finland, Italy, U.K., Belgium and Iceland achieved a growth between 30 and 40 percentage point. Figure 17b: Growth fully available online between 2001-2004 46% 57% 33% 35% 26% 20% 25% 38% 25% 39% 28% 27% 8% 35% 21% 26% 15% 6% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% S A FIN UK DK NOR E I F ISL IRL D P B EL NL L CH 2001 grow th 2001-2004 Page 36 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.3 Non quantitative results 3.3.1 Cases In this paragraph new public service online new applications found during the measurement are listed. These cases have an illustrative character. Custom declaration by the implementation of the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) in the UK: Direct trader access to electronic processing of imports and exports - including the calculation of duties, currency and quantity conversions - and the automatic clearance of consignments. Identification of goods which require documentary or physical examination making use of a highly sophisticated risk Information for the production of the United Kingdom’s external trade statistics. A means of electronic communication between Customs and business users. Validation of the accuracy of data input - CHIEF advises the users of any errors. Recording, monitoring and accounting for duties and taxes incurred by individual importers. Application for building permission by the implementation of a National Planning Portal in the UK: Provides information, forms and indicates the e-level of the local authorities: List of the local authorities who are fully online, allowing you to submit your application electronically, add attachments and pay online. List of the local authorities who let you complete the forms online, retain an electronic copy, then print and post a hard copy to their offices. profiling system. Page 37 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Declaration to the police implemented by the Bundesgrenz-schutz in Germany: The Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS) is a Federal Police Force. It carries out special police duties in the security system of the Federal republic of Germany and is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. On this site, one can transmit electronically hints or observations to the BGS. Enrolment in higher education by the Ministry of National Education in France: The national site provides a Downloadable documents that can be filled in by owners of the french baccalauréat, when they want to realise a first enrolment in a first cycle within a French university. Page 38 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Enrolment in higher education, by the Central Office for the Allocation of Study Places (ZVS): The internet site of the Central Office for the allocation of Studyplaces (ZVS) allows you to get information about the different study-possibilities, about how to get a study place, which rules need to be followed, etc. It also offers the possibility to request a study-place electronically. Corporate tax, electronic declaration via Internet provided by the Tax Service (Belastingsdienst): From the 1th of January 2005, the employers are obliged to declare corporate taxes electronically. Page 39 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3.3.2 Public service delivery transformation During the 5th measurement member states provided qualitative information concerning government transformation and service provision redesign projects which was not necessarily included in the calculation of the online indicators. To give full credit to all efforts of the countries to optimize services for citizens and business, we present in the following chapter an overview of this information. This information illustrates the moving role for of the state: • away from its traditional role as a direct provider of public services towards one as a regulator of the way others must deal with providing them; • experimenting with new organisational forms of user centred service delivery. “From reactive to proactive public service provision” Some countries have a proactive approach for the service income tax. In Malta employers submit all information to the inland revenue and the employees don’t have to fill a return, but simply sign acceptance of its correctness. Malta's ambition is to remove the process completely. http://www.ird.gov.mt In Finland employers inform the tax administration annually of all wages they have paid and withholding taxes. Most of the salaried employed get a tax proposal from the tax administration so they do not have to complete the traditional tax declaration. http://www.vero.fi Page 40 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? “Mail adapted to your profile” is a free service of the VDAB (Belgian Flemish Public Employment Service) that informs you every day about the joboffers corresponding to your profile. All these jobs can be received by mail or by sms http://www.vdab.be/mijnvdab/redirects/mailopmaat_vacatures.shtml “From request based to automatically service provision” Some services are delivered automatically in different countries; there is no application needed. This is the case in the Netherlands, Finland an Iceland for child allowances; they are automatically provided after birth registration. Page 41 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? In Norway birth certificates are issued automatically on the basis of data submitted to the population register from hospitals. In many countries medical costs are reimbursed automatically. Some examples are: In Germany for medical costs every member of the compulsory health insurance fund is obliged to use a chip-card for medical attendances. No citizen has to fill in any forms or papers. Belgium has been one of the first countries to introduce a smart social insurance card (SIS card). This card enables direct settlement of certain medical costs. Other costs are reimbursed through mandatory private social insurances http://riziv.fgov.be/ The Spanish social security doesn’t reimburse the costs covered by obligatory medical insurance. The system provides the medical services to the citizens without any previous payment. Costs for medical treatment and medicine in Austria are usually covered by obligatory health insurance and there is usually no need for citizens to ask for any reimbursement. In Italy citizens do not have to request for reimbursement of medical costs. The National Health Service (SSN) is administered by the Regions and is free at the point of delivery. The reimbursement for medical costs is direct from Ministry of Health to Regions. There is no need for Lithuanian residents to ask for any reimbursement. Costs for some medicines are covered by mandatory health insurance and Lithuanian residents pay only that part of the cost for such medicine which is not reimbursed. Page 42 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? In Norway treatment is free of charge for the patient and therefore doesn’t need to be reimbursed. The national insurance administration reimburses the hospitals directly after the patients have been treated. “Citizen centred service provision” Austria will not bring passport delivery fully available online because a personal visit to the competent administration is necessary by law. A form can be Downloaded at the central portal http://help.gv.at Online date-reservations for the personal visit to obtain the passport can be made electronically. The present system in Austria is very efficient and the whole procedure for the citizen to get a passport does not take more than 20 minutes. “From scattered to integrated service provision” In different countries ‘registration of a car’ is integrated in the service ‘buying a car’. In Malta new cars are registered by the sellers. In Austria car registration has been privatised and is handled by private insurance companies. There is no need to fill out a form to register a car. The entirely service is processed within a closed system between the broker and the necessary organisations; the relevant documents are immediately handed over to the citizen. In Finland cars are registered by third parties (insurance companies and car dealers). Car registration in Italy is provided directly by the car dealers which are connected by a private network to the Ministry of Transport and Public Car Register (PRA). The network includes about 6000 desk points across the country, which are connected to the procedures for car registration by a unified online access point (“Sportello telematico cooperante”). Page 43 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? In Belgium there is a back-office application allowing insurance companies and brokers to register instead of their customers. Availability of online service for the citizen is therefore not relevant. “Back office organization” – social security In Belgium the back-office network managed by the Crossroads Bank for social security allows to automate the allocation of rights to the citizen; it is as such not necessary anymore that the citizen has to make a claim or has to communicate a situation change that could influence his rights. For example, if a citizen receives unemployment benefits, this information from the unemployment sector is automatically communicated to the sector of social security benefits and as such the family allowances are not paid anymore, without any intervention by the citizen via a web- transaction. http://bcss.fgov.be “Process reengineering to decrease fraud” Unemployment benefits in Malta are automatically assigned once a citizen registers as unemployed (info: http://www.etc.gov.mt). The first time, registration is performed face to face which is the only way to ensure no identity fraud occurs. After that, a registration is done electronically via a biometric (finger) scan on a weekly basis. This technique has reduced abuse dramatically and is considered very successful. This process does not happen through the web, but through the district offices. Page 44 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 4 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS The online sophistication of public service delivery in the EU has reached 65%. When taking into consideration the new indicator, the number of public services that are really fully transactional online, the overall result is 40% (EU10 = 29%; EU15+ = 46%). So there is still a way to go in Europe to reach a high level of really transactional public services. An important conclusion of the fifth measurement with respect to the new member states is the fact that the scores of the accessing countries can be described as very satisfactory: they correspond, on average, with the level where the 18 originally included countries were 2 years ago. In these EU15+ countries a trend of growth of eGovernment is still clearly present but there is a tendency to stabilization at a limit of 80%. Different reasons can be found for this stabilisation: • Regulations and decisions made for instance with regards to security; • The tendency for decentralisation of political and administrative tasks in favour of a strengthening of regional administrations; • The present lack of a country-wide co-ordinated policy; • The state moving from its traditional role as a direct provider of public services towards one as a regulator of the way others must deal with providing them; • The development of other channels, service integration, ‘from pull to push’ service delivery systems; • The economy of scale for smaller countries Online sophistication of public service provision for both target groups (citizens and businesses) is growing, but public services for businesses are still much more developed than public services for citizens. Services for businesses reach an overall score of 77% (EU10 = 64%; EU15+ = 84%) for online sophistication, 58% for fully available online (EU10 = 41%; EU15+ = 68%). The services for citizens stay at the level of 57% (EU10 = 47%; EU15+ = 66%) for online sophistication, and only 27% (EU10 = 20%; EU15+ = 31%) for fully available online. A positive finding is the fact that the gap between the online sophistication of public services for both target groups seems to be stabilising (at around 20 percentage points for sophistication and 30 percentage points for fully available) whereas for the fully availability online the gap is still increasing (from 32%-point to 37%-point) . When analysing the country-ranking Sweden is still the best performing country for both indicators. Countries making an important progress in 2004 are: Iceland: + 20%-points, Germany: +15%-points, Italy: + 13%-points, UK: + 13%-points, Belgium: + 9%-points. The accessing countries are situated in the lower part of the ranking, but three countries are performing above average and Estonia is situated in the upper part of the ranking. An important finding is the gap between the online development of the income generating services, taxes and contributions from the citizens and businesses to the government, and other services. Income generating public services reach a level of 88% (EU10 = 74%; EU15+ = 96%), while services that deal with the administrative obligations of citizens and business (registrations and permits), and those where citizens and businesses receive value in return for their taxes, are scoring below the overall averages. Exceptions are job search services and submission of data to statistical offices. When analyzing the results of this study a limitation should be taken into account: the survey only analyses the results of eGovernment efforts from the perspective of the online availability of public services. The results should be integrated into a broader perspective of various eGovernment measures: linking service availability; channel selection; back-office fulfilment capability; and service usage and impact of eGovernment. Page 45 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Initiatives developed by governments to enhance the quality of their service provision – service integration, from pull to push service delivery – are not validated in the indicator, but the information provided by the member states concerning concrete cases is covered in this report. Page 46 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? ANNEX 1. DEFINITIONS OF THE 20 PUBLIC SERVICES 1. Income taxes Definition of the public service Income taxes: declaration, notification of assessment Research definition Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to declare income taxes of an employee is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to declare income taxes of an employee in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to declare income taxes of an employee. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of income taxes of an employee via the website. The complete income tax declaration and notification of assessment can be treated via the website. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork”. 2. Job search Definition of the public service Job search services by labour offices Research definition Standard procedure to obtain job offerings as organised by official labour offices, no private market initiatives. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain job offerings is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to receive job offerings in a non-electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to consult databases with job offerings. Although for this service the tender of the European Commission predefined a maximal stage 3, we took into account stage 4. Following the structure of the stages as defined in the same document by the European Commission and by analogy of the developments in the field of e-commerce, one can define a stage 4 where the common public service is fully electronically supplied to the applicant. In this case we can define stage 4 as: Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic supply of pre-selected jobs related to the given profile of the job searcher. Page 47 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 3. Social security benefits Definition of the public service Social security benefits: • Unemployment benefits • Child allowances • Medical costs (reimbursement or direct settlement) • Student grants Research definition Standard procedure to obtain social security benefits • Unemployment benefit: standard procedure to obtain replacement income in case of unemployment • Child allowance: standard procedure to obtain child allowance • Medical costs: standard procedure to obtain reimbursement of costs covered by obligatory medical insurance • Student grants: standard procedure to obtain student grants for higher education In the following table, only the definition of the public service “Unemployment benefit” is fully developed, the other three have the same structure. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or this website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain unemployment benefits is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain unemployment benefits in a non-electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain unemployment benefits. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the demand for unemployment benefits via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery (ex. payment) of the standard procedure to obtain unemployment benefits are completely treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork”. 4. Personal documents Definition of the public service Personal documents: passport and driver's licence Research definition Standard procedure to obtain an international passport and standard procedure to obtain a driver’s licence for a personal vehicle not for professional use: In the following table, only the case of the passport-delivery is fully developed, the driver's license- service has the same structure. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative Page 48 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain an international passport is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain an international passport in a non-electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain an international passport. Stage 4 NOT APPLICABLE 5. Car registration Definition of the public service Car registration (new, used, imported cars) Research definition Standard procedure to register a new, used or imported car. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to register a new, used or imported car is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to register a new, used or imported car in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to register a new, used or imported car. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the registration of new, used or imported cars via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to register a new, used or imported car can completely be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 6. Building permission Definition of the public service Application for building permission Research definition Standard procedure to obtain a building or renovation permission for a personal building (regular, initial request, i.e. not taking into consideration contesting and appeal). Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain a building or renovation permission is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain a building or renovation permission in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain a building or renovation permission. Page 49 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat a building or renovation permission via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to obtain a building or renovation permission can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 7. Declaration to the police Definition of the public service Declaration to the police (e.g. in case of theft) Research definition Standard procedure to officially declare a theft of personal goods (ex. car or home burglary) to a local police office. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 3. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to make an official declaration of theft of personal goods to the local police is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to make an official declaration of theft of personal goods to the local police in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to make an official declaration to the local police. Stage 4 NOT APPLICABLE 8. Public libraries Definition of the public service Public libraries (availability of catalogues, search tools) Research definition Standard procedure to consult the catalogue(s) of a public library to obtain specific information regarding a specific carrier (Book, CD, …). Stage0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage1 The information necessary to start the procedure to consult the catalogues of a public library to obtain a specific information carrier is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to consult the catalogues of a public library to obtain a specific title in a non electronic way. Stage3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to search for a specific information carrier (book, CD…). Although for this service the tender of the European Commission predefined a maximal stage 3, we took into account stage 4. Following the structure of the stages as defined in the same document by Page 50 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? the European Commission and by analogy of the developments in the field of e-commerce, one can define the following stage 4 for public libraries: Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to search for a specific title (book, CD…) and to make an electronic reservation or to obtain an electronic copy. 9. Certificates Definition of the public service Certificates (birth and marriage): request and delivery Research definition Standard procedure to obtain a birth or marriage certificate (can be one document out of the National register of persons in some countries). Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a public accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 3. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain a birth or marriage certificate is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain a birth or marriage certificate in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain a birth or marriage certificate. Stage 4 NOT APPLICABLE 10. Enrolment in higher education Definition of the public service Enrolment in higher education / university Research definition Standard procedure to enrol students in a university or another institution of higher education subsidised by an official administrative body in the country. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to enrol students in a university or another institution of higher education is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to enrol students in a university or another institution of higher education in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to enrol students in a university or another institution of higher education. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the enrolment of students in a university or Page 51 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? another institution of higher education via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to enrol students in a university or another institution of higher education can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 11.Announcement of moving Definition of the public service Announcement of moving (change of address) Research definition Standard procedure for the announcement of change of address of a private person moving within the country. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 3. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to officially announce a change of address is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to officially announce a change of address in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to officially announce a change of address. Stage 4 NOT APPLICABLE 12. Health related services Definition of the public service Health related services (interactive advice on the availability of services in different hospitals; appointments for hospitals) Research definition Standard procedure to obtain an appointment at a hospital officially recognised by a national, regional or local authority. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain an appointment at a hospital is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain an appointment at a hospital in a non-electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain an appointment at a hospital. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the demand of an appointment via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to obtain an appointment at a hospital can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” Page 52 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 13. Social contributions Definition of the public service Social contributions for employees Research definition Standard procedure to declare social contributions for employees affected by corporations Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to declare social contributions for employees is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to declare social contributions for employees in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to declare social contributions for employees. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of social contributions for employees via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to declare social contributions for employees can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 14. Corporate tax Definition of the public service Corporate tax: declaration, notification Research definition Standard procedure to declare corporate tax for income from normal activities of a corporation Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to declare corporate tax is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to declare corporate tax in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to declare corporate tax. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of corporate tax via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to declare corporate tax can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” Page 53 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 15. VAT Definition of the public service VAT: declaration, notification Research definition Standard procedure for VAT declaration and/or notification for transactions regarding normal activities of a corporation Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to declare VAT is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to declare VAT in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to declare VAT. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of VAT via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to declare VAT can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 16. Company registration Definition of public service as mentioned in the tender of the EC Registration of a new company Research definition Most important registration procedure to start a new company Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to register a new company is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to register a new company in a non-electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to register a new company. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of a new company via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to register a new company can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” Page 54 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 17. Statistical data Definition of the public service Submission of data to statistical offices Research definition Standard procedure to submit at least one statistical questionnaire with data to the National Institute for Statistics of the country. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 3. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to submit at least one statistical questionnaire to the National Institute for Statistics is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to submit at least one statistical questionnaire to the National Institute for Statistics in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to submit at least one statistical questionnaire to the National Institute for Statistics. Stage 4 NOT APPLICABLE 18. Customs declarations Definition of the public service Customs declarations Research definition Standard procedure for customs declarations related to the normal activities of a corporation. Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to declare customs is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to declare customs in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to declare customs. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the declaration of customs via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to declare customs can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” Page 55 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? 19. Environment-related permits Definition of the public service Environment-related permits (incl. reporting) Research definition Standard procedure to obtain at least one environment-related permit, delivered at the lowest administrative level, concerning the start of a corporate activity (not taking into consideration contesting and appeal). Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a publicly accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain an environment-related permit is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to start the procedure to obtain an environment-related permit in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain an environment-related permit. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the delivery of environment-related permit via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to obtain an environment-related permit can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” 20.Public procurement Definition of the public service Public procurement Research definition Standard procedure for a tender for public procurement, subject to national public announcement Stage 0 The service provider or the administrative responsible level does not have a public accessible website or the publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level does not qualify for any of the criteria for the stages 1 to 4. Stage 1 The information about the tender is available on a publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level. Stage 2 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to obtain the paper form to tender in a non electronic way. Stage 3 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to tender. Stage 4 The publicly accessible website managed by the service provider or by the administrative responsible level offers the possibility to completely treat the tender via the website. Case handling, decision and delivery of a standard procedure to tender can be treated via the web. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via “paperwork” Page 56 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? ANNEX 2. OVERVIEW OF NON RELEVANT SERVICES Services are considered as not relevant when they are fully automatic, or when organized via intermediaries or when they do not exist. Fully automatic services Social security – Child Allowances • The Netherlands: From the second child, the request is automatic as it is linked to the birth registration. • Finland: Normally the child allowance comes automatically after the baby is born. After the birth has been registered by the hospital to the Population Register, the Social Security Institute gets the information and starts to pay the child allowance. • Iceland: To obtain benefits for children no application is necessary. Services through intermediaries Car registration • Malta: New cars are registered by the sellers. • Austria: The car registration has been privatized and is handled by private insurance companies. In Austria there is no need to fill out a form to register a car. The entirely service is processed within a closed system between the broker and the necessary organizations; the relevant documents are immediately handed over to the citizen. • Finland: Cars are registered by third parties (insurance companies and car dealers). • Italy: Car registration is provided directly by the car dealers which are connected by a private network to the Ministry of Transport and Public Car Register (PRA). The network includes about 6000 desk points across the country which are connected to the procedures for car registration by an unified online access point (“Sportello telematico cooperante”) Health-related services • Estonia, Ireland, UK, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway: In these countries, it is the general practitioner that makes an appointment in a hospital, not the patient himself. Social security – Child Allowances • Belgium: The process can be started via the employer (acting as an intermediary towards the Social Security Administration). Non-existing services Announcement of Moving • In some countries (Greece and Ireland), there is no obligation to inform the authorities of a change of address. Therefore there were considered as not relevant. • UK: (http://www.iammoving.com/) is a commercial website that provides British citizens with a free, fast and easy way to notify a change of address to multiple public and private organisations. Page 57 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Birth and Marriage Certificates • Finland: This service is not provided as the authorities have direct access to Population Register if information on family status is needed. Social security – Medical costs • Portugal: No reimbursements are made. The service is considered as not existing. • UK: Help with Health Costs (NHS prescription and dental charges, optical and hospital travel costs) in the UK is limited to people living on a low annual income (maximum amount is decided for each tax year). • Germany: Every member of the compulsory health insurance - fund is obliged to use a chip- card for medical attendances. No citizen has to fill in any forms or papers. • Spain: The Spanish social security doesn’t reimburse the costs covered by obligatory medical insurance. The system provides the medical services to the citizens without any previous payment. • Austria: Costs for medical treatment and medicine are usually covered by obligatory health insurance and there is usually no need for citizens to ask for any reimbursement. • Italy: Citizens do not have to request for reimbursement of medical costs. The National Health Service (SSN) is administered by the Regions and is free at the point of delivery. The reimbursement for medical costs is direct from Ministry of Health to Regions. • Lithuania: There is no need for Lithuanian residents to ask for any reimbursement. Costs for some medicine are covered by mandatory health insurance and Lithuanian residents pay only part of cost for such medicine, which is not reimbursed. • Norway: Treatment is free of charge for the patient and therefore doesn’t need to be reimbursed. The National insurance administration reimburses the hospitals directly after the treatments have been made to patients. • Switzerland: Health insurance is privately organised in Switzerland and therefore can’t be considered as an eGovernment-Service. Social security – Student grants • Iceland: In Iceland, a student can only get a student loan and not student grants. Social contributions for employees • Denmark: The social security system is entirely financed through taxes. Page 58 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? ANNEX 3. INITIATIVES FOR THE FUTURE • Cyprus: - Announcement of Moving, Birth & marriage Certificates, Passport: The Web Page is under study for development. It is expected to be completed in the first half of 2005. The Service will be available through Internet by the end of 2005. - Car Registration, Driver’s licence: The web Application for this service is under development and it is expected to be completed within the first half of 2005. - Social security – Child allowances: It was expected that before the end of 2004, the Web- Enabled System for child allowances would be available. The system will allow the public to submit their applications for child allowances and to have access to related information. - Social Security - Unemployment benefits: The Web Page was expected to be available by the end of 2004. - Public Procurement: The web page was expected to be available by the end of September 2004. - Social contribution for employees: The Web Page was expected to be available by the end of 2004. • Czech republic: - Registration of a new company: Fully transactional services are under preparation and reorganisation of the whole system is expected. - Social contribution for employees: Fully on-line service is in pilot regime. • Denmark: - Car Registration: Digital Forvaltning: A new project concerning Electronic car Registration has been initiated • Germany: - Announcement of moving: Due to legal requirements electronic submission of announcements of moving to the local authorities is not yet possible, but is targeted. The federal legal requirements have been modernized and changed in 2002 and 2004(Novellierung und Änderung des Melderechtsrahmengesetz). • Italy: - Job search: The responsibility for the job search services has been recently decentralised from the central level (Ministero del lavoro) to the Regions and Provinces. Job offerings are managed by the local offices of labour (Centri per l’impiego). The Italian Government is currently developing a Labour Portal (Borsa del lavoro online). The portal will be based on the Labour Information System (Servizio informativo del Lavoro - SIL), linking all private and public actors of the labour market and will offer the online job search service. The Borsa del lavoro was due to be available in its first release on October 2004. • Lithuania: - Announcement of moving: The initiated pilot project will be finished in 2004. Procedures will be fully automated. - Feasibility studies in various domains. • Malta: - Announcement of moving: Electronic ID system was launched on March 2004. It allows citizens to gain personalised access to online government services. The Maltese “electronic identity” is split into a number of authentication levels used for different levels of security required in the service. The system covers the legal requirements of a digital signature and qualified digital signature. The electronic identity serves as a data vault for a number of data items, of which the citizen’s official address is one of them. The system can be connected to Page 59 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? through web services and hence anyone within government and in the private sector can be authorised to connect and make use of the data vault. In this way, a citizen always has a central and common address that changes. - Public Procurement: The e-Procurement system will be reviewed and enhanced to include other functionalities including a payment gateway. It is intended for use by Quality Mark Suppliers, and Purchasing Officers from Government Ministries, Departments and Public Sector entities connected to the MAGNET, who may request quotations for the required equipment. The suppliers may then submit their quotations. - Registration of a New Company: Malta Financial Services Authority regulates the Registry of Companies that operates a database service whereby users can retrieve a complete company profile, and also Download documents. MFSA has also put online all the forms in electronic format required for any interaction or intervention required with the authority. A second phase of this project will include a full electronic registration of companies possible through the implementation of digital signatures issued by Malta's e-ID programme. • Sweden: - Submission of Statistical data: During autumn 2004, a general web service for business submission of statistical data has been introduced. - Student grants: It will become an e-service in spring 2005. Page 60 European Comm ission Directorate Gene ral for Inf o rmation Societ y and Media O n line Availabilit y of Public Serv ices: Ho w is Europ e Progressing? ANNEX 4. RESULTS PER SERVICE (ONLINE SOPHISTICATION) I n co m e t a xe s 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden U.K. Hungary Malta Switzerland Luxembourg Poland Latvia J o b se a r ch se r v i c e s 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Latvia Lithuania Malta Netherlands Norway Portugal Slovenia Sweden U.K. Switzerland Poland Spain Italy Hungary Luxembourg Slovakia S o c i al s e c u r i t y b enef i t s -U n e m p l oy m e nt be nef i t s 0 20 40 60 80 100 Finland France Italy Norway Sweden U.K. Iceland Ireland Denmark Switzerland Austria Belgium Estonia Germany Greece Latvia Luxembourg Poland Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Czech Republic Lithuania Malta Netherlands Cyprus Hungary S o c i al s e c u r i t y ben ef i t s -C h i l d A l l o w anc es 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Czech Republic Estonia Ireland Latvia Netherlands U.K. Italy Cyprus Germany Greece Hungary Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Norway Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Poland Belgium Denmark Finland France Iceland Sweden Switzerland This service is not relevant for Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland Page 61 European Comm ission Directorate Gene ral for Inf o rmation Societ y and Media O n line Availabilit y of Public Serv ices: Ho w is Europ e Progressing? S o c i al s e c u r i ty b e n e f i ts -M e di c a l c o s t s 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Estonia France Luxembourg Czech Republic Iceland Belgium Cyprus Hungary Latvia Poland Greece Netherlands Slovakia Slovenia Austria Denmark Finland Germany Ireland Italy Lithuania Malta Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland U.K. This service is not relevant for Austria,, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and U.K. S o c i al s e c u r i t y be nef i t s -S t ud ent gr an ts 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Denmark France Norway U.K. Finland Netherlands Switzerland Italy Cyprus Germany Greece Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Portugal Slovenia Spain Sweden Belgium Hungary Czech Republic Estonia Iceland Poland Slovakia This service is not relevant for Iceland P e r s onal doc u m e n ts -P a s s por t s 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Portugal U.K. Netherlands Germany Austria Greece Iceland Denmark Cyprus Estonia Ireland Malta Norway Lithuania Slovakia France Poland Czech Republic Switzerland Belgium Luxembourg Finland Hungary Italy Latvia Slovenia Spain Sweden P e r s on al doc u m en ts -D r i v er ' s l i c e n c e 0 20 40 60 80 100 Norway U.K. Austria Ireland Italy Sweden Denmark Cyprus Portugal Slovenia Greece France Switzerland Lithuania Czech Republic Netherlands Belgium Germany Estonia Finland Hungary Iceland Latvia Luxembourg Spain Slovakia Poland Malta This service is not relevant for Malta Page 62 European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services: How is Europe Progressing? Car registration 0 20 40 60 80 100 This service is not relevant for Austria, Finland and Italy Application for building permission 0 20 40 60 80 100 Declaration to the police 0 20 40 60 80 100 Public libraries (catalogues, search tools) 0 20 40 60 80 100 Page 63 European Comm ission Directorate Gene ral for Inf o rmation Societ y and Media O n line Availabilit y of Public Serv ices: Ho w is Europ e Progressing? ( B i r th a nd m a r r i a ge) C e r t i f i c at es 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Hungary Iceland Malta Portugal Slovenia Spain Sweden U.K. Denmark Cyprus Ireland Greece Belgium Netherlands France Czech Republic Luxembourg Switzerland Italy Poland Germany Lithuania Estonia Finland Latvia Norway Slovakia This service is not relevant for Finland and Norway E n r o l m en t i n hi gh er edu c a ti on 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Finland Ireland Norway Slovenia Sweden U.K. Italy Germany Netherlands Spain Iceland Malta France Hungary Czech Republic Lithuania Denmark Estonia Switzerland Cyprus Luxembourg Greece Poland Latvia Belgium Portugal Slovakia A n n oun c e m e nt o f m o v i n g 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Denmark Finland France Sweden Norway Portugal Iceland Latvia Lithuania Netherlands Switzerland Belgium Estonia Czech Republic Cyprus Hungary Slovenia Germany Poland Spain Italy Luxembourg Greece Ireland Malta Slovakia U.K. This service is not relevant for Greece, Ireland and U.K. H eal th r e l a te d s e r v i c e s 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Portugal Spain Italy Malta Finland Cyprus Denmark Hungary Slovenia Belgium Czech Republic Slovakia Latvia Greece Luxembourg Lithuania Poland France Austria Estonia Germany Iceland Ireland Netherlands Norway Sweden Switzerland U.K. Page 64 European Comm ission Directorate Gene ral for Inf o rmation Societ y and Media O n line Availabilit y of Public Serv ices: Ho w is Europ e Progressing? This service is not relevant for Austria, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and U.K. S o c i a l c ontr i b u ti on f o r em pl oy ees 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Belgium Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Slovakia Spain Sweden U.K. Czech Republic Hungary Lithuania Cyprus Denmark Latvia Switzerland Slovenia This service is not relevant for Denmark and Switzerland. C o r por at e t a x 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Belgium CzechRepublic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Lithuania Malta Netherlands Norway Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden U.K. Switzerland Luxembourg Poland Cyprus Latvia VAT 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Norway Portugal Slovenia Spain Sweden U.K. Switzerland Hungary Netherlands Poland Slovakia Latvia R e g i s t r a t i on o f a ne w c o m p any 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Denmark Estonia Italy Portugal Spain Sweden Belgium France U.K. Switzerland Cyprus Czech Republic Finland Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Slovakia Slovenia Germany Poland Page 65 European Comm ission Directorate Gene ral for Inf o rmation Societ y and Media O n line Availabilit y of Public Serv ices: Ho w is Europ e Progressing? S ubm i s s i on of da ta t o s t at i s ti c a l of f i c e s 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Hungary Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Slovenia Spain Sweden Luxembourg Malta Slovakia Greece Latvia Switzerland Iceland Poland Portugal U.K. This service is not relevant for Iceland and U.K. C u s t om s de c l ar a t i o n 0 20 40 60 80 10 0 Austria Belgium Cyprus Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Spain Sweden U.K. Czech Republic Hungary Slovenia Switzerland Latvia Slovakia E n v i r o nm en t-r e l a t ed p e r m i t s 0 20 40 60 80 100 Denmark Estonia Ireland Belgium Spain Finland France Greece Hungary Iceland Luxembourg Malta Norway Portugal Slovenia U.K. Sweden Switzerland Germany Czech Republic Netherlands Poland Lithuania Austria Latvia Italy Cyprus Slovakia P u bl i c pr o c ur e m e n t 0 20 40 60 80 100 Austria Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland Germany Iceland Italy Lithuania Norway Spain Sweden Switzerland Belgium Ireland Latvia Poland Portugal France Greece Hungary Luxembourg Netherlands Slovakia Slovenia U.K. Malta Cyprus Page 66 No part of this document may be modified, deleted or expanded by any process or means without prior permission from Capgemini US LLC. © 2005 Capgemini US LLC. 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