SWOT Analysis

e-Government: PESTLE & SWOT Analysis
Output Title Work Package Activity Short Description Status Distribution level Digital Content SWOT Analysis WP4 Foresight Methodology and Participation Enhancement Regional Foresight Methodology Step 2 of the Regional Foresight process: theme-based SWOT draft Internal (Partnership)
Responsible partner(s)
Bulgarian Association of Software Companies Ministry of Education, Youth and Science University of Montenegro University of Macedonia , Greece
Version
V01
Revision History: Version 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 Responsible Organization MEYS BASCOM Comment Document Template Elaborated Document Template Elaborated
Input from participating UoM, ICI, BASSCOM, UoME partners UoM ICI, UoME Re-editing of PESTLE analysis, reshuffling of document Further contributions in terms of content and tables
Independent contributors Comments from experts and external contributors UoM Final comments and editing
LEGAL NOTICE Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use, which might be made, of the following information. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.
FORSEE Partnership, 2012 Reproduction is authorised provided
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 3 PESTLE Generic Cross-Theme Analysis .................................................................................... 5 1 PESTLE analysis................................................................................................................ 5
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Political factors .................................................................................................................. 5 Economic factors ............................................................................................................... 8 Social, Cultural and Demographic factors ......................................................................... 10 Technological factors ....................................................................................................... 11 Legal factors .................................................................................................................... 13 Environmental factors ..................................................................................................... 14 Definition of the term e-Government .............................................................................. 16 Major global ICT trends overall and in the field of e-Government .................................... 16 Impact on eGovernment development in the EU and the SEE area .................................. 18 R&D competences, resources, and performance in eGovernment in SEE ......................... 21 Major application/market trends in this domain (global, EU, SEE) .................................... 29 STI policy initiatives promoting ICT RTDI activities relevant for this domain ..................... 31 Regulations existing in this domain.................................................................................. 33 Ethical issues, social norms, behavioural patterns, and values ......................................... 35
SWOT analysis ............................................................................................................... 16

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
3 4
SWOT MATRIX of ICT for eGovernment in SEE ............................................................... 36 References .................................................................................................................... 38
WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis
List of Tables
Table 1: Major Economic factors in the area .......................................................................... 8 Table 2: eGovernment development in Southern Europe ..................................................... 12 Table 3: Basic performance of public services in the area ..................................................... 19 Table 4: Skills and competences per eGovernment role in management .............................. 22 Table 5: List of main initiatives-projects in the area ...............................................................27 Table 6: SWOT eGovernment Table ...................................................................................... 36
List of Figures
Figure 1: R&D expenditure by source of funds. .................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Online availability of 20 basic public services (EU27) ............................................. 18 Figure 3: Full online availability trend 2001-2010 timeline-EU -27 ....................................... 23 Figure 4: e-Services for citizens and businesses, Montenegro ...............................................25 Figure 5: Country overall performance overview (aggregate performance in services, user experience, life-events and key enablers) .............................................................................26 Figure 6: Full online availability in % , aggregate level ...........................................................26
Executive Summary
The term eGovernment (or Digital Government) is defined as the employment of the Internet and the www technologies for delivering government information and services to the citizens and businesses, so as to improve and/or enhance on the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector. The domain encompasses delivery models diverging from government services to citizens, businesses and employees as well as other governments. eGovernment therefore puts in use tools and systems made possible available by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide better public services to citizens and businesses, by rethinking organisations and processes, and changing behaviour. The prominence of eGovernment on the European and SEE political agenda has been reaffirmed in connection to a number of policies, such as the EU Digital Agenda initiative that aims to maximise the social and economic potential of ICT and most notably the internet and spurring innovation, economic growth and improvements in daily life for both citizens and businesses. Other initiatives such as The eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 and Ministerial declarations on eGovernment endorse further the provision of a new generation of eGovernment services for businesses and citizens, mobility in the internal Market, achieving a mass of technical and legal preconditions to enhance eGovernment services and more open, flexible and collaborative delivery of public services across Europe. The dynamics of eGovernment are finally visible on a social level, as it is perceived as enabler to deliver policy goals across different sectors and the promotion of a common culture of collaboration and interoperability. Finally, the eSEE Agenda+ for the development of Information Society in SEE 2007 -2012, signed by most of the SEE countries states eGovernment as a pillar region-specific priority areas for the Information Society development. Recent trends indicate that eGovernment usage by citizens (41% in 2011) remains rather stable but with less significant progress for some smaller countries. Certain criteria, such as lack of trust of skills and the digital divide still inhibit large take-up pilots by citizens. eGovernment usage by firms has increased steadily from 76% in 2010 to 84% in 2011. Lack of skills is still an important limiting factor in small enterprises but also incomplete digitalisation of public services is an important barrier to an increasing eGovernment take-up. On the eGovernment rank (2012), Austria and Slovenia (and Hungary to an extent) remain eGovernment leaders across the SEE area, whereas Greece holds an interim position and the rest of the countries fall relatively behind. The scores are congruent with the eReadiness index and infrastructure ranging from 0.4 in Montenegro to 0.7 in Austria. In 2010 the full online availability level of eGovernment services was in Austria (100%), followed by Slovenia (95% ), Bulgaria (70), Greece, (48), Hungary (66), Romania (60) and Greece ( Still, eGovernment is seen as a societal challenge, as building a vision on service-delivery and leadership are components needed to advance the domain to unleash its societal potential. Emerging trends such as mobile identification, mobile use and social networks and large-scale infrastructure (e.g. cloud) can supplement and spur the development of services. Furthermore, mobility will need to encompass broader business issues, and governments will trey to increase IT but optimize performance. Smart cities technologies integrated with eGovernment applications will further drive eGovernment large-scale applications. Nevertheless, these trends still stand as challenges, since current implementation does not permit full exploitation, at least before an interoperability framework has been achieved. As an indicative example, the use of social networks and the reuse of public sector information (having the potential to unleash huge amounts of data in several societal domains) remain rather unexploited. Technologies are continuing to expand at an exponential rate, but financial resources for governments and administration are more limited than before due to the economic downturn. Therefore, Europe is facing with new challenges on the global scene and need to adjust its competitiveness and socio-environmental sustainability. The improvement of public services is an unstoppable trend. The public sector will always seek ways to deliver efficient and novel services. In the same rationale, the private sector will always seek offering better services. In this context, SEE countries can further launch technological pilots (quick wings) with a big and fast impact to demonstrate potential. Other current market trends include G2G sectors focusing in coordination of resources to increase the efficiency
of backbone-office systems as well as framework such as the Intra-Government Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness (IEE) that is focussed on the efforts on creating efficient and cost effective systems, particularly supply chain issues. Research activities in these countries has in many cases followed the market trends dictated by EU trends. The FP7 ICT program has supported research (ICT solutions for governance and policy modelling and - ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling) in the period 2007-2011, with Greece and Austria absorbing a significant rate of funds (4.5% of EU funding, EU average 0.8%)). The rest of the countries have been only been involved in some projects. Indicative Programmes towards the achievement of the Action Plan objectives include the ICT Policy Support Programme, the Interoperability Solutions for public Administrations Programme (ISA). SEE countries have successfully participated in key projects (Key Pilot A projects funded under the ICT PSP programme) such as PEPPOL (Pan-European Public eProcurement On-Line-single market priorities), STORK (Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linked- electronic identity), SPOCS (Simple Procedures Online for Cross-border Services-removal of administrative barriers), eCodex (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange), epSOS (Smart Open Services for European Patients- practical eHealth framework and an Information & Communication Technology infrastructure interconnecting national solutions). The above signify the potential and experience held by countries to put forward expertise and solutions. In terms of regulations and relevant reforms, most of the countries have implemented reforms of certain extends with regards to data protection and privacy, eCommerce, e-communications, eSignatures, eProcurement, reuse of public sector information and interoperability. E-Government frameworks and Acts are in place for most of the countries (although for Serbia and Montenegro, relevant frameworks are congruent with other policies or being currently implemented). In terms of infrastructure, countries do maintain online portals either national or regional, capable of implementing relevant solutions (including Serbia and Montenegro). The rationale of service delivery however varies significantly. For Serbia and Montenegro, we add that significant progress has been made with the acquis communautaire as regards the legal basis for effective implementation of eGovernment services. Still, inconsistencies in national legislations, cultural aspects and administrative habitis as well as the stance to barriers to e-Inclusion have their own repercussions on the effective take-up of future services. Last, but not least the significance of the current economic downturn should not be underestimated, as the current turbulent period can been seen both as an opportunity and as a threat to rationalize public finances, ensure an efficient interoperability framework and at the same time address societal challenges at a consistent and efficient manner.
PESTLE Generic Cross-Theme Analysis
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1.1
PESTLE analysis
Political factors
Relevant ICT-related policies: technology, trade, research and innovation policies Specific ICT strategies do not exist across all countries. ICT is often captured as a horizontal issue among e.g. lifelong learning and skills, support of entrepreneurship, improvement of the business environment and extroversion of the economies. Specific ICT strategies hold for Romania (electronic communications, broadband, eGov), Greece (Digital strategy), Austria (ICT and quality of life).In innovation terms, the main common policies common in the region mainly relate to: increase of support towards research-relevant actors, development of innovative infrastructure, centers of excellence, technology transfer, support to SMEs and Entrepreneurship, participation of the private sector in R&D activities. The situation is different in the case of Serbia and Montenegro where the innovation system is not harmonized with the EU innovation guidelines. The most common STI policy priorities relate to the support and improvement of scientific research and infrastructure, the support of innovation activities in SMEs as well as of the economic competitiveness of each country. In addition, the promotion of entrepreneurship and increasing of productivity levels are further common points. The Electronic South Eastern Europe Initiative (eSEE Initiative) was founded as a coordinated effort to better integrate the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe countries into the global, knowledge-based economy by regionally supporting the development of Information Society. One of the most important documents proposed is the eSEE Agenda+ for the development of Information Society in SEE 2007-2012. The Agenda1 states three region-specific priority areas for the Information Society development: the development of a Single SEE Information Space (high-speed broadband, rich online content, interoperability framerwork, harmonisation of rules fo Information Society and Media), strengthening innovation and investment in ICT R&D ( curriculum for ICT skills, vocational training in ICT, inclusion of ICT research among domestic research priorities, National Academic and Research Networks for regional interconnection) and achieving an inclusive Information Society ( access to technology, ICT-enabled public services and e-Government, e-Business, digital libraries and eParticipation. Since its adoption, all eSEE governments reported significant progress towards the agreed. A cabinet-level body is already established in most SEE countries for the development of an Information Society; a central coordination body is a condition sine qua non thus, it is rather encouraging for the whole region.
Overall funding patterns for ICT R&D and R&D/innovation and ICT innovation In a number of SEE countries, the Structural Funds are largely the determining source for R&D and innovation,
1
The eSEE Agenda+ is signed by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo on behalf of Kosovo (in accordance with UNSCR 1244). A copy of the signed agenda is available on the URL http://www.eseeinitiative.org/images/stories/esee_agenda_plus_files/eSEE_Agenda_Plus_signed.pdf [last access 2012-09-21].
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although there has not been much change in funding levels between 2009 and mid 2011. The dependence on the European Community Funds appears to be very strong in the case of Greece and important for others such as Slovenia and Romania. In other EU associated countries, such as Montenegro and Serbia total R&D and innovation funding is far below that of the EU average. Regarding the contribution of the private sector in RTDI funding there seems to be a big gap with countries in which its contribution is insignificant (such as Bulgaria and Greece) on the one hand and countries in which its contribution is increasing (such as Romania, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia). Public funding appears to be of high significance especially for Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece. Tax incentives assist RTDI only in certain countries. Business Expenditures for R&D in ICT specifically is quite notable in the case of Hungary and Romania (only recently-about 20%) while it is less than 10% for the rest of the countries. The share of public funding of ICT R&D in GDP (as an indicator of ICT R&D funding intensity) exceeds EU average in Austria and Slovenia (0.08%), while in the rest of the countries it falls below 0.04%. In more general terms, Gross Domestic Expenditure and Business R&D expenditure of R&D as % of GDP is significant for Austria and Slovenia (1.5-2%) while in the rest of the countries in falls under 1% (less than 0.5% in the case of business expenditure). Relevant to eGovernment, ICT is a conduit for structural reforms and solutions to societal challenges. An eProcurement strategy has been adopted to help modernise online public services. Member States have not yet agreed on the list of cross-border public services, originally scheduled for the end of 2011.
Overall R&D and innovation cooperation patterns and for ICT RTDI2. On a national scale, cooperation patterns are indicated through participation in EC funding programmes. Greece and Austria rank very high (over 3.5% each) while the rest of the countries participation rate reaches 2.5% of the EU funding. On a national innovation level, most of the countries suffer from a rather weak collaboration of the research triangle. In more specific terms, the University-industry collaboration in R&D3 indicator classifies Austria and Slovenia in considerable global rankings (18th and 37th respectively), which is distinctively different from the rest of the countries. Hungary and Montenegro score in medium terms, however Greece, Bulgaria and Romania are classified among the last ranks globally (112th, 110th and 102nd) indicating severe structural inefficiencies within their systems. On a business level, cooperation patterns in innovation point towards in cooperation patterns with local partners in other countries4 , market testing in other countries and outsourcing activities. The public sector is not the preferred partner in the development of projects for innovative firms, but suppliers of equipment, clients or customers, other enterprises within the company group and consultants are the more frequently selected cooperative partners. Universities also have an important role and are at the same level as consultants and commercial laboratories. In overall, knowledge flows in the region is considered a key disadvantage. Some further notes on the importance of these activities are shortly referenced, especially in relation to Montenegro and Serbia. In these two countries, total R&D and innovation funding is far below that of the EU average and awareness-raising about the importance of innovation activities is still a challenge. (ProInno Europe, 2011). Average spending for research and science represents 0.3% of GDP on national level. This implies poor budget allocations for RTD which brings to conclusion that state and other institutions (budget recipients) involved in ICT RTD need to reallocate their resources in the future and put an emphasis on specific tasks and priorities in the future. In addition, Bulgaria has still remained the country with the lowest investments in research and innovation. In Greece, the only sources for funding of research for the period 2007-2009 were institutional funding, FP7 and a diminishing number of projects from the previous programming period. It has to be noted that the funding for promoting innovation is based on the OPs which are co-funded by structural funds, meaning that innovation policy is heavily dependent on external sources of
2 3
Non available data for Serbia and Montenegro According to the Global Competitiveness report 4 specific survey in the context of the EU innovation scoreboard
WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis 6
finance. At an aggregated level, just over one third (35 %) of all industrial enterprises with innovation activity received some form of public funding, while the corresponding proportion for services was 19 %. European Union funding of innovation activities reached approximately half the number of enterprises compared to these by local, regional or central governments, some 8 % of those enterprises with innovation activity in the industrial sector and 5 % within the services sector (CIS3, 2004). Regarding the contribution of the private sector in RTDI funding there seems to be a big gap with countries in which its contribution is insignificant (such as Bulgaria and Greece) on the one hand and countries in which its contribution is increasing (such as Romania, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia). Nevertheless, the issue of registries of RTDI activities should not be undermined in this classification. Figure 1: R&D expenditure by source of funds. 5
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
GERD by Business enterprise % GERD f inanced by Government % GERD - by Higher education % GERD by Private non-prof it % GERD by Abroad %
ri a
re ec e
ry
R om an ia
ul ga ria
er bi a
H un ga
us t
(Source: UNESCO, 2009, 2007; source for Greece: Eurostat)
Other political factors.

eGovernment strategies are duly discussed in the SWOT section. However, short references are provided here to familiarise readers with the generic framework conditions for the development of eGovernment. The generic framework for EU economic development based on knowledge and innovation is covered by 'Europe 2020 - A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth' strategy, which sets rests on three interlocking and mutually reinforcing priority areas: smart Growth, sustainable Growth,; and inclusive Growth. In specific the Digital Agenda for Europe programme constitutes a flagship initiative for recovering from the financial and economic crisis, and for lifting up the EU economy in the next decade by making the best use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The list below recapitulates the main initiatives: The Digital Agenda (part of the Innovation Union) sets out concrete directions related to eGovernment in particular and aims at the creation of a new digital Single Market with simpler regulations and management and at reinforcing greater interoperability for the ICT products and services.
2 3
CSD, 2010 FORSEE, Bulgarian National PESTLE and SWOT Analysis (available at www..forsee.eu)
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lo v
en ia
The eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 the provision of a new generation of eGovernment services for businesses and citizens, resting upon certain priorities, such as the empowerment of citizens and businesses, mobility in the internal Market, achieving a mass of technical and legal preconditions to enhance eGovernment services. The Ministerial declarations on eGovernment (18/11/2009, Sweden), endorsing the need for a more open, flexible and collaborative delivery of public services across Europe, the important dynamics of eGovernment as an enabler to deliver policy goals across different sectors and the promotion of a common culture of collaboration and interoperability. The priorities set to be achieved by 2015 involve a set of measures, such as the empowerment of user-centric needs, increased access to public information, mobility in the Single Market, efficiency to reduce administrative burdens and the put in place of the appropriate legal and technical preconditions.
In general, there are strong political and economic reasons for European collaboration in eGovernment. Joint action and knowledge sharing at EU level contributes to overcoming the current economic crisis, by using public resources more efficiently.
1.2
Economic factors
General Economic Indicators Most of the countries under investigation currently face some critical challenges both in terms of an emerging economy which does not perfectly correspond to the new realities and of an industrial sector that needs to transit to a knowledge-intensive reality. The external balance in ICT trade is negative in most of the countries with the notable exception of Hungary, where ICT trade (exports) represent about to 1/5th of its national trade. The data are sufficiently captured in the following table:
Table 1: Major Economic factors in the area
Austria
Bulgaria
Hungary
Greece
Romania
Slovenia
Serbia
Montenegro
Employment Growth (%) Unemployment rate
1%
-5.9%
0.2%
-2.1%
-1.8%
-2.2%
1% (2008) 20%
Jobless growth n/a (17.6 for 2007)
4.4%
10.2%
11.2%
12.6%
7.3%
7.3%
M= F= GDP (100 base value)
4.6% 4.2% 139
10.9% 9.5% 20
11.6% 10.7% 40
9.9% 16.2% 83
7.9% 6.5% 23
7.5% 7.1% 72
19.2% 21% n/a
n/a n/a 41
Trade balance (2009) ICT goods exports (% of total), 2009 ICT goods imports , 2009 ICT service exports , 2009 High-tech exports (% of manufacturing exports, 2009
0.10%
-2.6%
3%
-3.9%
-2.6%
-2%
n/a
5.49%
3.58%
24.62%
2.99%
8.36%
3.79%
2.22%
n/a
7%
6.4%
78.83%
5.87%
9.4%
5.6%
5.36%
n/a
6.54%
5.61%
8.26%
2.17%
18.93%
7.16%
6.69%
n/a
11.48%
8.2%
24%
11.25%
10%
6.5%
n/a
n/a
Source: Forsee synthesis report Access to capital in general and for ICT RTDI Available data do not discriminate between access to capital in general and in the case of ICT R&D, therefore only generic information is provided. In the EU-15 almost 80% of venture capital was allocated to buyouts, followed by 17% to the expansion and replacement stage and 3% to early-stage development. Venture capital investment as a share of GDP is minimal. In specific, VCI (Venture Capital Investments) at early stage is less than 0.01% for Austria, for Hungary and Romania and 0% for Greece. No further information is provided for the rest of the countries. VCI at the expansion stage is less than 0.06% for the same set of countries. Loans remain the most important finance type, and high-growth firms will likely need more loans than equity finance in coming years. Banks and leasing companies need to be prepared to be addressed as financiers for SMEs between 2011 and 2013. SMEs in specific used bank products are in the range of 45-53% in the region. The preferred type of external funding of SMEs in the region is as follows6: Bank loans ( ranging from 8.6% in Serbia to 66% in Austria and 82% in Slovenia) Loans from other sources (stakeholders, public sources etc): about 15-22% of SMEs in the region use loans from other sources, with the exception of Slovenia and Serbia (less than 4%) Equity investment (including venture capital and business angels). The market is quite underdeveloped in the region with less than 10% of SMEs participating. Equity investment appears to be higher paradoxically, in Montenegro and Serbia (15-20% of SMEs) Subordinated loans, participation loans or similar financing instruments. These schemes are notable in Greece, Montenegro and Serbia (25-60%) while in the rest of the region the percentage falls under 3%.
Other economic factors (the economic crisis) SEE countries responded differently to the crisis. Although in general, the trends indicate a decline in demand, capital and liquidity problems, limited access to funding, falling innovation expenditures and decreasing employment rates, some countries such as Austria have increased funding for research and innovation, while in others it remained balanced. Cost cutting has been very widespread in Greece, due to the specific political and
6
Source: Synthesis report and The Survey on the Access to Finance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SAFE), 2011. European Commission and ECB data
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economic circumstances that may have undermined business and market confidence in the country. Bulgaria and Romania responded with unprecedented cuts. In Hungary, there was a disruption in funding, and in many countries, funding provided to innovation agencies and departments has been maintained whilst in others, institutional budgets have been cut. Reallocations and consolidations between different government departments or agencies can also be observed. The ICT sector experienced a decline during the past years and therefore ICT policies need refinement in the crisis for quick recovery. On a European level, differentiation strategies, the optimisation of assets and the fuelling of the national systems with young researchers have been proposed alleviate countries on the long-term. It is also recommended that structural reforms need to be oriented to supporting employment and improving flexibility and reducing administrative and regulatory burden on businesses, promoting entrepreneurship and enhance access to finance for businesses (loan subsidies, guarantees, start-ups and micro-enterprises). In particular to eGovernment, global recession might raise austerity measures and restrictive public spending. Spending cuts are expected in the administration. The reforms necessary for the implementation of eGovernment instruments will inevitably lead to a reduction of the costs for administrative services to the citizens and business. Greece is among the countries where the responsiveness of R&D to the business cycle entail a response in R&D expenditure 1.5 to 3.5 times the change in GDP, meaning that the current crisis could lead to significant drops in R&D intensity after 2009. Economic projections for the subsequent years (20102013) show a slow recovery, based on the ongoing developments in the global economy as well as new fiscal policies adopted by the Serbian Government. According to the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, during 2010 and 2011 it achieved a slight economic growth (2.5% on annual level). Even though there have been implemented significant changes in the economic policy it can be stated that Montenegro is quite vulnerable regarding external economic turbulences and challenges.
1.3
Social, Cultural and Demographic factors
Empowering citizens to be active and confident in the new digital society, which must deliver sustainable economic and social benefits, is of prime importance to Europe. EU Information Society Ministers are adamant 7 in the Granada Declaration that electronic identity (eID) will be a key driver of economic recovery in Europe. The number of identity-based transactions, both on and off the Internet, has grown significantly and will most likely continue to do so. This trend is linked to the increasing prevalence and multiplicity of eID systems that feed on such data, channelling personal identity data into identification, authentication and access to goods, services and resources. Though eID systems and processes have been developing over decades, they are still not particularly trusted or fit for the many activities that European citizens expect to conduct in their everyday digital lifestyles.
Human resources for ICT and ICT use Digital literacy is generally high in the region. There are however indications of scarcity of talent in RTDI (apart from Romania and Austria) and medium to low index of Human Resources in Research and Technology. Most countries suffer from high levels of unemployment in RTD personnel, despite satisfactory levels of tertiary education attainment. The educational structures of all countries serve a long-lasting tradition in science and therefore provide skilled workforce, especially in IT. In most of the countries the innovation RTDI systems are not yet well-structured and mature to enable absorption of researchers and highly skilled personnel to stimulate research careers, as shown by HSRT in total employment. This generates a skill gap that must be addressed and further reduce brain drain outside the area .On-the-job training and quality of education consist long-lasting challenges in most of the countries (apart from Austria and Slovenia).
EU Telecoms Ministers. Granada Ministerial Declaration on the European Digital Agenda. Granada, 19 April 2010: Informal Meeting of Telecommunications and IS Ministers, 2010. Available from http://www.eu2010.es/export/sites/presidencia/comun/descargas/Ministerios/en_declaracion_granada.pdf
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The links between education and RTDI can be better reflected in the percentages of employment in Knowledge-Intensive high technology services as well as R&D personnel. The percentage of employment in knowledge-intensive activities in high technology represents a fraction between 1.5-3% on a country level. The development of e-skills is placed high on the political agenda, but without specific ICT national curricula. Scientists and engineers in total Human Resources in Science and Technology fluctuate around 20%, except from Austria (10%). R&D personnel is higher in Austria and Greece (1.5-2% of total workforce) while in the rest of the countries less than 1.5%. The number or researchers in the area in general falls between 15.000-25.000 researchers per country, but the percentages are incomparable to the EU s innovation leaders. In general, the annual growth in business researchers in the EU-27 has been higher than that of business R&D expenditure, but no country-level data can confirm this statement for the region. 2005 Eurostat data illustrate that in Science and Engineering, tertiary graduates have been growing at about 5% in region (high extreme for Romania and low extreme for Hungary). Doctorate candidates in 'science, mathematics and computing', awarded in EU-27 increased by 2.8 % per annum. Statistics on ICT use. According to the Digital Agenda Observatory, the percentage of citizens buying online is about 16.5% in average, highest in Austria and lowest in Romania and Bulgaria. Citizens buying online cross-border average is 8% (highest in Austria, lower in Romania and Bulgaria). SMEs buying online reach about 13.6%, while SMEs selling online reach 7.5% accordingly. Regular internet use reaches 51% in the area (33% in Romania though) while general internet use reaches 53.6% (highest in Austria, lowest in Bulgaria). eGovernment use by citizens is about 22.3% (with extremely low percentages for Bulgaria). Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia are more wellprepared markets with an advanced level of maturity in internet use and eGovernment use. The level of absorption of enabled broadband technologies does not appear to benefit Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania, as these indicators fall behind. In e-Commerce however and buying online behavior, all countries except Austria are lagging behind the targets set. Cross-border online commerce remains underdeveloped again with the exception of Austria.
ICT for societal challenges ICT for societal challenges is included in the Digital Agenda for Europe, one amongst the flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 strategy for growth. Some of the priority areas are targeted to concrete issues faced by citizens and society as a whole, such as ageing, health, digital skills and climate change. The priorities are articulated as better and personalised healthcare, achieving at the same time relevant cost savings for patients and the society at large. Effective online public services for citizens and business interactions with public authorities are expected to be integrated and effective, including cross-border services. Independent, active and safe living for older people addresses the ageing population and disadvantaged groups Last but not least, ICT will help tackling environmental issues, such as energy saving, in the perspective of a sustainable growth. Other international organizations, such as the OECD place innovation strategy in a framework that addresses global and social challenges. The organization outlines new challenges for STI policy priorities in line with grand societal challenges which mainly evolve around green technology and innovation e.g. carbon pricing, taxation , regulation that reduce environmental externalities, encouraging green inventions, as well as technology to manage disasters.
1.4
Technological factors
ICT infrastructure As new challenges arise, new communication technologies enable increasing connectivity through wired and wireless communication. The internet of services enables accessing services and service partnerships across EU trade boundaries. In addition, smart devices play a very important role in energy savings. The Internet of Things
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enables addressing societal challenges efficiently and augments the potential of future internet to provide useful services. SEE countries on average dedicate 3-4% of their GDP to communications expenditure. Broadband penetration rate varies from about 15% in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece to just over 20% in Hungary, Slovenia and Austria. Romania, Bulgaria and Greece mark the lowest percentage of households using a broadband connection (from 20-30%), nevertheless these countries have placed broadband and connectivity policies as instruments to foster economic growth. in the same countries, DSL national and rural coverage rates are quite different. Still, most of the countries have developed R&D infrastructure, such as national RTD networks, portals of public administration, MANs and supercomputing and eScience centers to accommodate their future R&D needs. Some efforts are put in developing hard R&D infrastructures in the area, lead by Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, mainly in the area of communication networks (GEANT). GANT uses innovative hybrid IP/optical networking technology and directly connects to the National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs) in 36 partner countries and enables data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps across 50,000 km of network infrastructure and over 12,000 km of lit fibre. The network presently serves around 30 million users in over 3500 universities and research centres in 36 partner countries. GANT is co funded by the European Commission and Europe's NRENs. In South Eastern Europe strong increase in broadband development and good internet use can be noticed. The Digital Agenda Scoreboard Indicators such as New entrants' share in fixed broadband lines; Share of fixed broadband lines equal to or above 2 Mbps and Share of fixed broadband lines equal to or above 10 Mbps positioned Bulgaria among the countries with the highest values in the EU. 1 Bulgaria claimed the third highest speed of Internet - 1,611KBps8 (Pando Networks, 2011). The Bulgarian Internet providers have used innovative approach in providing broadband Internet through public LAN. 3
Table 2: eGovernment development in Southern Europe
The Distributed Computing Infrastructures are relevant for the level of development of ICT Infrastructions at the
1 8
EC, 2011 Countries with higher Internet speed than Bulgaria were South Korea and Romania 3 FORSEE, Bulgarian National PESTLE and SWOT Analysis
WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis 12
EU and SEE levels. The European Grid Initiative (EGI) brings together resource providers and users from more than 140 institutions in 50 countries world-wide (including all SEE countries) to provide a seamless grid infrastructure that is available 24 hours-a-day. Its operation and maintenance is supported by the European project EGI_InSPIRE and by National Grid Initiatives. The overall contribution of the FORSEE countries to the EGI.eu infrastructure consists of 6753 physical CPUs (corresponding to 18700 logical CPUs). Other two operational infrastructures at the EU level are DEISA and PRACE in the field of High Performance Computing. The SEE involvement of this infrastructure is limited and the coordination of its development is supported by the EU funded HP-SEE project.
1.5
Legal factors
Currently, the newly formulated action plan is focused on two major topics. The first is concerned with elimination of the common challenges, which inhibit the optimal utilization of ICTs. The second revolves around identifying and preventing future problems in the long run. To achieve these goals, in the framework of the Digital Agenda the European Union has set and undertaken a number of key legislative actions. The key actions are focused on creating a vibrant digital single market, allowing the easy exchange of commercial and cultural content and services between countries. To achieve this, the European community strives to remove the regulatory obstacles and to facilitate transactions and processes such as electronic payments and invoicing. Furthermore, issues related to customer trust and dispute resolution present another major concern. Consumer and competition laws are quite harmonized on an EU level and articulated to strengthen the intrernal market and the free circulation of goods and services. According to eGovernance and ICT Usage Report for South East Europe (2nd edition, 2010) prepared by the eSEE Initiative , the legal infrastructure of the non-EU SEE countries has become appropriate for the development of an information society. Almost all these countries have adopted all of the major laws and related regulations and the next logical steps would be the harmonization with EC directives. The pan-European fragmented legal system on intellectual property rights protection results in low patenting rates; the associated costs to file a patent in so many countries is prohibitively high and the market size at each SEE country is discouraging such investments. Still, some inequalities exist: Serbia and Hungary create revenues in their economies from patents (Austria and Romania in a lesser degree too), while Greece and Bulgaria create marginal ones. Data protection laws and regulations: Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 24 October 1995, on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data To remove obstacles to free movement of data without diminishing the protection of personal data, Directive 95/46/EC (the data protection Directive) was developed to harmonise national provisions in this field and to ensure that all citizens have equivalent protection across the Union. Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 15 December 1997, on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector Directive 97/66/EC specifically deals with the protection of privacy in telecommunications. Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 8 June 2000, on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce) Promoting the development of electronic commerce is one of the key factors in the effort to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. Directive 2000/31/EC sets up the basic legal framework for electronic commerce in the internal market. The electronic communications regulatory framework consists of one Framework Directive (Directive 2002/21/EC, of 7 March 2002) on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services and four specific Directives. This framework has been supplemented by the 'Telecoms Reform', Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 13 December 1999, on a Community framework for electronic signatures. This Directive establishes the legal framework at European level for
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electronic signatures and certification services. The aim is to make electronic signatures easier to use and to help them become legally recognised within the Member States. Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 November 2003, on the reuse of public sector information The term Public Sector Information (PSI) refers to documents, databases and other information produced, collected and stored by public sector bodies. Thanks to the aid of ICTs, PSI can now be processed in an efficient, effective and user friendly manner, creating a variety of new opportunities for its exploitation One of the most important issues of the eGovernment development on EU level is the interoperability between the systems and services. In order to address this issue the European Commission has defined European Interoperability Framework (EIF) for European public services. The purpose of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) is: to promote and support the delivery of European public services by fostering cross-border and crosssectoral interoperability; to guide public administrations in their work to provide European public services to businesses and citizens; to complement and tie together the various National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) at European level.
The EIF is maintained under the ISA programme, in close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission The key actions are focused on creating a vibrant digital single market, allowing the easy exchange of commercial and cultural content and services between countries. To achieve this, the European community strives to remove the regulatory obstacles and to facilitate transactions and processes such as electronic payments and invoicing. Furthermore, issues related to customer trust and dispute resolution present another major concern. A proposal for a Regulation "on electronic identification and trusted services for electronic transactions in the internal market" was adopted by the Commission on 4th June 2012 (COM(2012) 238 final). The initiative is the result of extensive consultations on a review of the current legal framework on electronic signatures in the course of which the Commission gathered feedback from Member States, the European Parliament and other stakeholders. In line with its Better Regulation policy, the Commission conducted an impact assessment of policy alternatives. Three sets of policy options were assessed, dealing respectively with (1) the scope of the new framework, (2) the legal instrument and (3) the level of supervision required. The preferred policy option proved to be enhancing legal certainty, boosting coordination of national supervision, ensuring mutual recognition and acceptance of electronic identification schemes and incorporating essential related trust services. The impact assessment concluded that doing this would lead to considerable improvements to legal certainty, security and trust in terms of cross-border electronic transactions, resulting in less fragmentation of the market.
1.6
Environmental factors
Scientific activities are increasingly undertaken through global collaboration on the internet, using very large data collections, huge computing resources and high-performance visualisation. e-science (research enabled by e-infrastructure/ICT) is essential for meeting the challenges of the 21st century in scientific discovery and learning. Data management is also essential for tackling environmental challenges. Examples are the processing of energy consumption patterns to improve energy efficiency or of pollution data in traffic management. Informed policy decisions in the areas of transport, land use and climate change depend increasingly on analysis of the
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available data9. Nevertheless the ICT sector has to adopt common measurement methodologies for the sector's own energy performance and greenhouse gas emissions and propose legal measures if appropriate; Considering the relevantly significant amount of carbon emissions the ICT sector itself produces, the ecological issues need to be addressed. In this context, the Commission is encouraging the ICT sector to come up with a framework with which to measure its own energy and environmental impact and adopt and implement common methodologies to diminish the negative effects.
Open data - An engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance, COM(2011) 882 final
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2
2.1
SWOT analysis
Definition of the term e-Government
eGovernment is about using the tools and systems made possible available by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide better public services to citizens and businesses. ICTs are already widely used by government bodies, just as in enterprises, but e-Government involves much more than just the tools. Effective e-Government also involves rethinking organisations and processes, and changing behaviour so that public services are delivered more efficiently to the people who need to use them. Implemented well, e-Government enables all citizens, enterprises and organisations to carry out their business with government more easily, more quickly and at lower cost. (1) On a higher level e-Government is directly connected with the EU Digital Agenda initiative. Digital Agenda is to chart a course to maximise the social and economic potential of ICT, most notably the internet, a vital medium of economic and societal activity: for doing business, working, playing, communicating and expressing ourselves freely. It will spur innovation, economic growth and improvements in daily life for both citizens and businesses. An important characteristic of the Digital Agenda that distinguishes it from the e-Governance for example is that the public authorities are neither the manager nor the main providers of a wide variety of information society services. However all of the services depend on the normative base and infrastructure developed by the Government. As an example, one can compare the issuing of ID cards, passports and driving licenses that currently completely depend on government services, to the e-banking business which is managed and provided by banks but also depends on the normative base (e.g. e-Signature) and the existing telecommunication infrastructure. While there is significant overlapping between the e-Government and Digital Agenda definitions one can conclude that the Digital Agenda is a broader term that covers almost all aspects of the everyday life such as democracy, government, business, economy, culture, health, learning etc. while the e-Government in most of the cases is associated with a citizen-centric, e-Administration enabled by ICT.
2.2
Major global ICT trends overall and in the field of e-Government
Information and communication technologies support development. When that development is effective, efficient and enduring it is called sustainable. eGovernment has direct impact on sustainable development through the use of ICT in public sector social and economic development programmes. In this context, the emerging imperative today is to rethink eGovernment development in order to understand how the opportunities of new technologies promote development for the people and with their integral participation. Among the main trends in the field of ICT supporting current orientations in e-Government development could be mentioned: - Service oriented architecture as support for interoperability and reusability in implementing e-Gov services; - e-Infrastructure as support for collaborative and participatory Governance; - Cloud computing; - Mobile communications In the government context, a public service is a real life business process, which can be provided directly - in person, remotely or electronically - or via a back-office of public administrations without the citizens or
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businesses awareness or involvement. The Service Oriented Architecture deals with online service delivery. According to [12] the main features for the SOA are the following: - It is based on the design of the services which mirror real-world business activities comprising the enterprise (or inter-enterprise) business processes. - Service representation utilises business descriptions to provide context (i.e., business process, goal, rule, policy, service interface, and service component) and implements services using service orchestration. - It places unique requirements on the infrastructure it is recommended that implementations use open standards to realize interoperability and location transparency. - Implementations are environment-specific they are constrained or enabled by context and must be described within that context. - It requires strong governance of service representation and implementation. The e-Infrastructure addresses the requirements to store, analyse and process unprecedented amounts of heterogeneous data and information, regardless of their type and location in the world. Initially it has been dedicated mainly to research communities, but its specific capabilities are increasingly interesting for other users communities, including public administration. e-Infrastructures include services as the physical supply of backbone connectivity, real and virtualised computing and storage resources, data repositories, IT tools for data management, analysis and visualization [21]. The current development of e-Infrastructures are characterized by: - service orientation making the supply of services transparent, efficient and atractive independently of geographical distances; - provision of own components as services that improve the accessibility and flexibility for end users; - adaptation to data intensive specific requirements of both service providers and users. According to the Gartner Group, the cloud computing sets the stage for a new approach to IT enabling both enterprises and individuals to acquire or deliver IT services. The overall architecture of ICT products and services needs to be adapted to fit cloud computing characteristics and requirements such as the need for availability, reliability, security, governance, scalability, etc. This paradigm is triggering many different types of ICT industry companies to re-think their business models and to move from a pay-to-purchase to a pay-touse model. Cloud computing will have a major impact on the ICT sector overall (telecommunication networks, computing and telecommunications hardware, consumer and enterprise software, digital media and digital content delivery, etc). The reason for this is that cloud computing is fundamentally reshaping the way companies in this sector can manufacture and distribute their products, the way they can offer their services, but most importantly, the way technology is consumed, especially in relation to the advent of mobility. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide revenue from public IT cloud services was over $21.5b in 2010 and will reach $72.9b in 2015. Mobile communications is the most spectacular technological trend. Consumers and businesses are moving 10 fast to mobile. Mobile Internet take-up grew by 62%, to 217 million mobile broadband subscriptions .
10
EU. Press Release: Digital Agenda: Annual scoreboard confirms need for structural economic reform across Europe and surplus of ICT jobs; big trend towards mobile services and technology. Bruussels : EU, 2012
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2.3
Impact on eGovernment development in the EU and the SEE area
The e-Government specific technology advances and innovations are immediately used in a various ways, on different operational scales, for different scientific processes, and under very close scrutiny. User communities and service providers constantly analyse how the new technology fulfils its promises and clarify any adjustments needed to render the service a better fit with user requirements. Open communication between the users and providers of any new technology allows both groups to develop a rapid and realistic picture of the benefits and drawbacks of the technology in question. The following ICT related aspects and key trends could be distinguished in the eGovernment development: Some of the eGovernment development trends in the last 5 years include: o Good availability of the service does not correspond to the relevantly low usage of those services The 2010 edition of the EU eGovernment Benchmark Report shows that availability of online public services is less and less an issue: a wide range of basic services is available in almost all EU27 countries (Figure 1). The use by enterprises has shown an increasing trend. However, the use by citizens remains low and this poses questions and challenges to European policy-makers who want to make the best use of the considerable budget invested until now in digitising their public administrations. These questions need answers more than ever in the current time when budgetary pressure due to the ongoing crisis demands best use of available resources. In South Eastern Europe one of the most important factors for eGovernment implementation is education and skills of the citizens in the region. Figure 2: Online availability of 20 basic public services (EU27)
Source: Cap Gemini, 9th Benchmanrk Measurement, 2010 Human Capital is the major strength of the eGovernment development, but e-Participation is very low. A recent UN eGovernment survey ranks Austria and Slovenia as leaders in eGovernment development in South Eastern Europe; at the same time Bulgaria and Romania are ranked very low, below Serbia and Montenegro o
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that are not EU members yet. The gap among the countries is quite considerable, given that Austria is ranked 11 21st and is 41 places higher compared to Romania that is ranked 62nd. Human resources and E-readiness indexes for all the target countries are relevantly high while the eParticipation index is quite low. The e-Participation Index assesses the quality and usefulness of information and services provided by a country for the purpose of engaging its citizens in public policy making through the use of eGovernment programs. As such it is indicative of both the capacity and the willingness of the state to encourage its citizen, and to deliberative promote participatory decision-making in public policy, and of the reach of its own socially inclusive governance program. Despite the good current level of the Human resource index, one can assume that it will be difficult for the countries to keep this advantage in the future taking into account that a gap of 7 million IT specialists is projected at EU level according to a speech by Neelie Kroes. The following list recapitulates some basic performance indicators for basic services:
Table 3: Basic performance of public services in the area

Country Austria Slovenia Hungary Greece Serbia Montenegro Bulgaria Romania eGovernment Rank 2012 21 25 31 37 51 57 60 62 E-Readiness Index 0.784 0.7492 0.7201 0.6872 0.6312 0.6218 0.6132 0.606 Web Measure 0.7451 0.6667 0.6863 0.5752 0.5752 0.5098 0.4902 0.5163 Human Capital 0.9091 0.93 0.9065 0.9332 0.8484 0.8182 0.8486 0.8783 Infrastructure 0.6977 0.6509 0.5677 0.5531 0.4701 0.5375 0.5006 0.4232 E-Participation 0.3684 0.2105 0.4474 0.3421 0.2368 0.3158 0.0263 0.0789
Source: United Nations eGovernment Readiness Knowledge Base
Changing mindsets, building a vision on service-delivery and showing leadership are needed for further progress towards eGovernment Most people associate eGovernment exclusively with digital forms or complex back-office applications but this is only a small part. eGovernment is as much about changing mindsets, building a vision on service-delivery and showing leadership in getting organisations to work together, as it is about technology. It is estimated that local authorities handle about 80% of the transactions between government and citizens. Local eGovernment therefore has a vital role to play in transforming the quality of local services and the organisations that deliver them, but Local Government cannot succeed alone. They have to work together with other government levels, with research institutes, with voluntary organisations, with the business community etc. Traditional government delivers services to people. EGovernment can work with people to deliver change in a smart specialisation point of view. o Mobile digital signature and mobile e-Identification has not been implemented by most of the countries in the group. Lack of mobile identification can be considered as a critical barrier to utilization of the growing mobile internet penetration
11
United Nations eGovernmnent Survey 2012

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Austria, which is the eGovernment leader of the targeted countries introduced mobile phone signature, which is the mobile version of the Citizen Card, in December 2009 while Bulgaria has recently started a project for traditional (not Mobile) digital identification for administration in 2012. The project did not include implementation of mobile solutions. Implementation of mobile solutions is a critical factor for increasing the use of eGovernment since it is more convenient and more accessible solution for citizens and businesses12. There is a lack of a clear goal for eGovernment regarding social media and the difficulty inherent in determining the best way to use social media in government. Social media supports the increased reliance on human networks, the need for rapid interactive communications, the need to blur what is private and public, and the need for engaging multimedia. Whether government can use social media will depend upon how well government can see, understand, and attend to these needs. Social media is about fast, interactive communications. How will bureaucracies adapt to the increased pressures for timely responses? A very different question is how can social media provide us a way to do things differently than we have done before?
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o Cloud computing can provide serious benefits for eGovernment services. The move towards a cloud of public services has potentially large benefits for all actors involved; however, it also requires a certain amount of investment and poses challenges to overcome. Given the usually large amount of actors involved (e.g. different public administrations), coordination between these organisations may well represent a hurdle. The established legal framework governing the service delivery of these actors may also pose a barrier to moving towards new ways of delivering services. Therefore, changes in legislation may be needed for which political buy-in is essential. In addition, the actual take-up of services relies on the willingness of organisations and their employees to change their way of working. This human factor also needs to be taken into account 14. Based on the conceptual model, P Waters and co-authors developed three future scenarios to illustrate the opportunities for public and private actors arising from the cloud of public services. The scenarios depart from the as is situation, by building on existing initiatives to illustrate the potential, which can be derived from providing services in an open and interoperable way. They are: 1. Public Value Services: The services currently provided by the e-Health platform in Belgium could also be used to provide additional services such as a Flu Prediction service; 2. Competition: A scenario could be foreseen in which third parties, such as banks, also deliver company registration services currently provided by one-stop-shops in Belgium;
12
eGovernment Resource Center - Austria. Activation of the mobile signature in all Austrian tax offices. [Online] http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/focus-on-countries/europe/countries-europe/austria/trends-and-issuesaustria/authentication-austria/digital-signatures-austria/activation-of-the-mobile-signature-in-all-austrian-taxoffices.html. Bulgarian Government Portal. Bulgarian Government Portal. News. [Online] http://www.government.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0212&n=1908&g=.
13
. Magro, Michael J. A Review of Social Media Use in E-Government. 2012. and Government as part of the revolution: Using social media to achieve public goals. Landsbergen, D. 9, 2010, Vols. Electron. J. eGovernment.
14
P. Wauters, K. Declercq, S. van der Peijl, P. Davies. Study on cloud and service oriented architectures for
egovernment. s.l. : European Union, 2011.
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New business models: In the future, it could be possible for a single service provider to be authorised to carry out all activities needed to acquire permits and licenses; As the impact of those trends and questions in eGovernment, on one hand side, eGovernment is more and more integrated in the Information Society (Digital Agenda) and directly affects all aspects of the life of citizens and businesses. On the other hand, despite the relevantly good availability of eGovernment services, their use is relatively low and many countries in South Eastern Europe are losing an important tool for increasing the quality of life of their citizens and improving competitiveness of their economies. In addition, in most of the countries, the governments are not able to take an advantage of the increasing penetration of mobile internet due to lack of important e-Identification infrastructure. Still the social media are not integrated in the eGovernment and a new model/ approach in that area is needed. Experts insight on this issue revealed some additional key global trends: eGovernment remains a policy at most of the countries, nevertheless in EU funding it is no longer a thematic area. The trends in eGovernment remain, perhaps not as fundamental research in ICT R&D, still on the political agenda in structural funds and IST. Horizon 2020 includes the improvement of public services as a priority, although at this stage it is not clear if it will be specific calls or horizontal demonstration (use cases). The improvement of public services is an unstoppable trend. The public sector will always seek ways to deliver efficient and novel services. In addition, in eGovernment the ICT private sector plays an important role. Industry trends are followed by the public sector and incorporated. In the same rationale, the private sector will always seek offering better services.
2.4
R&D competences, resources, and performance in eGovernment in SEE
EGovernment is directly depended on the general ICT development trends in R&D. Therefore the ICT objectives in FP7 can be considered as an important factor for eGovernment development. The objective of ICT research under the EUs Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is to improve the competitiveness of European industry as well as to enable Europe to master and shape the future developments of these technologies so that the demands of its society and economy are met.The EU Member States have earmarked a total of 9.1 billion for funding ICT over the duration of FP7; making it the largest research theme in the Cooperation programme, which is itself the largest specific programme of FP7 (with 64% of the total budget). FP7 research activities will strengthen Europes scientific and technology base and ensure its global leadership in ICT, help drive and stimulate product, service and process innovation and creativity through ICT use and ensure that ICT progress is rapidly transformed into benefits for Europes citizens, businesses, industry and governments. The ICT Work Programme 2011-12 under FP7 is divided into eight Challenges of strategic interest to European society, plus research into Future and emerging technologies and support for horizontal actions, such as international cooperation and pre-commercial procurement (14). Challenge 5 - ICT for Health, Aging Well, Inclusion and Governance seems the most pertinent area. In addition, ICT research under the following themes is also supported by the EU in FP7. e-Infrastructures to aid researchers will also be supported through the Research Infrastructures Work Programme of the FP7 Capacities programme. International Cooperation Pre-Commercial Procurement.
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EGovernment can be defined through usage of ICT for better and more efficient public services and governments. On the other hand, eGovernment concept is based on competencies which represent the ability to fulfil a task to certain, often specially defined standard (Schulz, 2012). However, competences represent rather fuzzy concept which needs to be standardized. Competencies can be defined through ICT skills and knowledge. EGovernment is still facing with some challenges which can be defined on the basis of following: Inconsistencies in definition related to new job profiles, such as eGovernment public personnel Incompleteness of understanding of the eGovernment concept
The R&D in eGovernment is not just an ICT- technology; it must be combined with organisational change and new skills to fulfil the eGovernment objectives. The National eGovernment solutions should be interoperable on EU level, for example, both companies and people will face new barriers to working and living in other countries if the eGovernment services on national level are isolated from country to country. A recent study by Sirko Schulz and Tino Schuppan has evaluated, complemented and specified in a survey and workshops in Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, and Romania the core eGovernment competences and skills15. Comparing all these results for the different skills and competences assigned to the different roles in eGovernment transformation it is striking to see that even though eGovernment is developed quite differently in the countries, the necessary skills and competences are rather similar across all countries. Thus it can be stated, that a shared understanding of eGovernment competences does exist (15). The eGovernment skills and related competences per eGovernment role are summarised in the table below:
Table 4: Skills and competences per eGovernment role in management Senior Managers IT Strategy Organisational Design Project Management Risk Management Change Management Process Management Quality Management Information Processing Media Policy Process Policy Process IT Literacy Juridic Marketing Management Accounting IT Specialist Mid-level Managers Very important Project Management Process Management Risk Management Organisational Design IT Strategy Important Information Processing Quality Management Contract Management Change Management IT Literacy Other Marketing Media Juridic IT Specialist Management Accounting Policy Process Project Staff IT Literacy Information Processing IT Specialist Process Management Organisational Design Project Management Quality Management Change Management Management Accounting Juridic Risk Management IT Strategy Contract Management Marketing Media Policy Process
15
COMPATeGov project, European Commission

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Adapted from A European Framework for eGovernment Competences. Schulz, Sirko and Schuppan, Tino. Potsdam : The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center, c/o University of Potsdam, 2012. One can conclude that the technical competences such as IT Specialist have a relevantly small share in the eGovernment competence portfolio. The organizational and management competen ces such as Processes Management, Risk Management and IT Strategy have larger share in the portfolio. The results of the survey indicate that all targeted countries except Romania have almost the same level of understanding of eGovernment skills for project staff. On the other hand, and on the basis of research about skills and competencies in project managements it can be seen similarities between targeted countries and homogenous understanding of eGovernment skills among project managers. The e skills considered the most important for eGovernment senior managers across all project countries are IT Strategy, Organisational Design, Project Management, Risk Management, and Change Management Skills. It can be seen that there are similarities between project manager and senior manager skills. However, it should be noted that theres a difference between project managers in private and public sector where project managers in public sector are basing their responsibilities on hierarchical way. Therefore, it can be concluded that different IT skills and competencies are important in the context of egovernment, some target groups such as project managers or executives require specific set of technical knowledge and social competencies. It is also expected a decrease of isolated competencies in IT application and theres a difference between generic and core eGovernment competencies. Some further benchmarking indicators regarding eGovernment use in the SEE countries are listed below:
1. Digitalization aspects:
Digitalization of public services represented one of the key goals in European policies during the last ten years in order to provide harmonized and more efficient services for citizens and business sector. However, recent changes on the global level had influenced eGovernment concept and set new priorities in front of public sector in Europe. Namely, these challenges can be defined as following: Technologies are continuing to expand Financial resources for governments and administration are more limited than before Europe is facing with new challenges on the global scene and need to adjust its competitiveness and socio-environmental sustainability
There are 20 basic eGovernment services and indicators in Europe that are measured over time regarding: 1. Online sophistication 2. Full online availability 3. User experience of services 4. Portal sophistication 5. Sub-national analysis
Figure 3: Full online availability trend 2001-2010 timeline-EU -27
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Key findings in 2010 are showing that quality of eGovernment services in EU27 has been improved over time which had a great impact on relation between citizens, business and public administration-state. For example, full online availability in EU27 reached 82% in 2010 which represent an 13% increase in comparison with 200916. Some countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia and Latvia significantly improved their eGovernment services in 2010.
2. Country performance overview

Country performances indicate two distinct trends and a clustering of countries in terms of performance. The first group of countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania) are still below EU average regarding full online availability th as compared to the EU and online sophistication is quite low. These countries rank about at 40-50 position on the UN Development Index. For instance, Bulgaria is still below EU average regarding full online availability and reached 70% in 2010 comparing with 82% in EU. Online sophistication of public services is 74% while the same indicator for business is 84% which is quite lower than EU27 average (94%). The UN eGovernment Development Index remains at 44th place out of 184. Greece is below the EU average regarding full online availability which reached 48% in 2010 which is 34% lower than EU average. Online sophistication of public services is 70%, whereas esophistication for business reached 78% (94% in EU27) and citizens 65% (comparing with 87% in EU27). Greece scores 41st in the UN eGovernment index. Online availability of public services in Romania in 2010 was 60% (comparing with 82% in EU). Online sophistication of public services reached 73% of which business services reached 89 (EU27 average is 94%) and citizens 63% (comparing with 87% as EU27 average). Romania Scores 47th on the UN Development Index. In Austria and Slovenia ( and partly Hungary), online availability and sophistication is quite maturing providing a different perspective in the eGovernment strategies and implementation.
16
Digitizing Public Services in Europe, European Commission 2010

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Online availability in Hungary was 66% in 2010 and is below EU average (82%). Online sophistication of public services is 80% (94% in EU27). Online sophistication for business services is 76% (94% in EU27) while online sophistication of public services for citizens is 83% (compared with 87% in EU27). Hungary scores better (27th) on the UN eGovernment Development Index. Online availability in Austria in 2010 was 100% which is far above the EU average (82%). Online sophistication of public services is also 100%, and the same stands for online sophistication for business and citizens. Hungary scores better (24th) on the UN eGovernment Development Index. Online availability in Slovenia was 95% in 2010 and is above EU average (82%). Online sophistication of public services is 97% (92% in EU27). Online sophistication for business services is 94% (same with 94% in EU27) while online sophistication of public services for citizens is 100% (compared with 87% in EU27). Slovenia scores 29th on the UN Development Index.
Additional data on Montenegro:

Due to lack of data for 2010 online availability in Montenegro in 2007 was 43.7%17. The most sophisticated services for citizens were related to enrolment in higher education and job search (more than 70%), while the most sophisticated service for business is related to e-services for custom declaration (more than 70% in 2007). Figure 4: e-Services for citizens and businesses, Montenegro
Source: ISSP, 2007
17
E-Government Survey, Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses 2007

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Figure 5: Country overall performance overview (aggregate performance in services, user experience, lifeevents and key enablers)
Source: Digitalizing public services in Europe, 2010 Figure 6: Full online availability in % , aggregate level
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3. R&D competences in terms of projects participation

The following list summarizes major FP7 and CIP ICT PSP projects and initiatives in which SEE countries participate, providing thus a level of competence in the deployment, set-up and implementation of eGovernment initiatives.
Table 5: List of main initiatives-projects in the area

Acronym Title Programme URL FORSEE Objective countries GR To conceive, design and implement public services that respond to citizens needs and wishes, as increasingly expressed in Web 2.0 social media, and introduce achievements in the services industry to the public sector. To drive the identification of emerging technologies, new governance models and novel application scenarios in the field of governance and policy modelling, leading to the structuring of a beyond the state-of-the-art research agenda, fully embraced by research and practice communities. To bring together two well established domains, the mashup architectural approach of web 2.0 for creating web applications (gadgets) and the methodology of system
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COCKPIT
Citizens Collaboration and Co-Creation in Public Service Delivery
FP7, call 4 (2009)
www.cockpitproject.eu
CROSSROAD A Participative Roadmap for ICT Research in Electronic Governance and Policy Modelling
FP7, call 7 (2011)
crossroad.epu. GR ntua.gr
PADGETS
Policy Gadgets FP7, call 4 Mashing Underlying (2009) Group Knowledge in
www.padgets.e GR, SI u
Web 2.0 Media
dynamics in analyzing complex system behavior. www.positives GR paces.eu To provide novel technologies and instruments that will allow government bodies to measure public opinion on a large scale and seize the outcomes of prospective policy measures by leveraging the power of the communities. To develop a ubiquitous platform that allows citizens to be involved in policy making processes (PMPs) regardless of their current location and time. To develop a toolset enabling to take full advantage of well established social networking sites when engaging citizens in two-way dialogues as part of governance and policy-making processes. To create an integrated set of complex systems-based ICT tools for modeling the economy, of practical use to policy makers, to be used in both simulation and gaming modes. To establish the scientific and political basis for long-lasting interest and commitment to next generation policy-making, bringing together and reinforcing the links between the different global communities of researchers and experts. To set up an international community in ICT solutions for governance and policy modelling. To automatically collect, analyze and interpret opinions expressed on a large scale from the Internet, enabling governments to gain a better understanding of the needs of citizens. To develop a mobile government
+Spaces
Policy Simulation in FP7, call 4 Virtual Spaces (2009)
UbiPOL
Ubiquitous FP7, call 4 Participation (2009) Platform for Policy Making
www.ubipol.eu HU, RO
WeGov
Where FP7, call 4 eGovernment (2009) meets the e-Society
www.wegovproject.eu
GR
CRISIS
Complexity FP7, call 7 Research Initiative (2011) for Systemic InstabilitieS
AT, HU
CROSSOVER Bridging Communities for Next Generation Policy-Making
FP7, call 7 (2011)
www.crossover GR -project.eu
eGovPoliNet The Policy Community
FP7, call 7 (2011)
www.policyGR, SI community.eu
FUPOL
Future Policy Modelling
FP7, call 7 (2011)
www.fupol.eu AT, RO
Live+Gov
Reality Sensing,
FP7, call 7
liveandgov.eu/l GR
28
Mining and Augmentation for Mobile CitizeneGovernment Dialogue MOSIPS Modeling and Simulation of the Impact of Public Policies on SMEs
(2011)
ive-gov
solution that allows citizens to accurately express their needs to government by using a variety of mobile sensing technologies available in their smartphones. To develop a user-friendly policy simulation system allowing forecasting and visualization of the socio-economic potential impact of public policies. To give the main actors of integration immigrants and members of the host societies a voice by analysing public Social Media contents generated by citizens.
FP7, call 7 (2011)
www.mosips.e AT u
Unite Europe
Social Media FP7, call 7 Analytics and (2011) Decision Support Tools Ena-bling Sustainable Integration Policies and Measures Interactive Analysis, FP7, call 7 Simulation and (2011) Visualisation Tools for Urban Agile Policy Implementation
www.uniteeur AT ope.org
urbanAPI
www.urbanapi. AT, BG eu
To provide urban planners with the tools needed to actively plan and manage the urban environment.
PEPPOL
Pan-European CIP ICT-PSP www.peppol.e AT, GR Public u eProcurement OnLine Secure Identity Across Borders Linked CIP ICT-PSP www.eidstork.eu AT, SI
To make electronic communication between companies and government bodies possible for all procurement processes in the EU. To establish a European eID Interoperability Platform that will allow citizens to establish new erelations across borders, just by presenting their national eID. To remove the administrative barriers European businesses face in offering their services abroad.
STORK
SPOCS
Simple Procedures CIP ICT-PSP www.euOnline for Crossspocs.eu border Services
AT, GR, RO, SI
2.5
Major application/market trends in this domain (global, EU, SEE)
The modern concept of eGovernment is that it should provide citizen-centric services based on life events. In eGovernment there are three main interactions between the major stakeholders:
29
Government to Citizens (G2C) in which the administration provides services to citizens e.g. changing of the address registration or issuing ID. Government to Businesses (G2B) in which the administration provide services to business organizations e.g. registration of a company or declaring VAT. Government to Government (G2G) that covers the services e.g. development of interoperability framework. In addition to those 3 interactions the eGovernment experts add: Intra-Government Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness (IEE) that is focussed on the efforts on creating efficient and cost effective systems, particularly supply chain issues. IEE differs from G2G sectors in that its focus is coordination of resources to increase the efficiency of back-office systems. As mentioned before the G2C and G2B are the main interactions of eGovernment that provide value-added services to the final customers citizens and businesses while G2G and IEE are used to optimise those services. The EU Digital Agenda states that wider deployment and more effective use of digital technologies will thus enable Europe to address its key challenges and will provide citizens with a better quality of life through, for example, improved health care, safer and more efficient transport solutions, less polluted environment, new media opportunities and easier access to public services and cultural content. The main target markets for the society by implementing the Digital Agenda and eGovernment in particular as described in the EU Digital Agenda are: Consumers a vibrant digital Single Market and high-speed internet access Workers right skills for the digital era Patients and doctors - using ICT for sustainable healthcare Manufacturing industry the opportunities of an interoperable digital economy The ICT industry research and innovation for the digital economy Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) eGovernment to ease the functioning of SMEs Artists, authors, musicians a unique platform for creation and distribution of cultural content by creating opportunities for authors The environment using ICT to reduce our environmental footprint Researchers increased and joined-up ICT research funding Older and disabled people new opportunities People in rural and remote areas connecting communities
Montalbano, 2012 defines the major trends in eGovernment development
18
18
Governments and agencies will increasingly share applications using cloud. Governments will try using social media for two way interactions with citizens and businesses as well as they will explore options for data mining and analytics based on the social media. Mobility will become the top IT governance issue, moving beyond device management to encompass broader business issues. Small data centres will be consolidated in big data centres. Governments will try to increase the IT and business process outsourcing requests for proposals in order to cut expanses and optimize performance. More and more efforts will be invested in requirement development and outsourcing rather than development of own systems. Smart cities technologies will grow and will be need to be integrated in the eGovernment platform.
10 Government IT Predictions For 2012: IDC. Montalbano, Elizabeth. 2012, Infoweek

30
ICT infrastructure will reach critical mass and will not be an obstacle for eGovernment development. Experts insight on performances indicate the following: It is true that eGovernment services availability in the area is relatively low and SEE governments do not demonstate a strong commitment to embracing the increasing penetration of new technologies to their benefit. In the SEE area, it is not a sole matter of eGovernment R&D but more a political commitment and cultural shift. A socio-technical approach is preferable to prove that eGov can be adopted. SEE countries can further launch technological pilots (quick wings) with a big and fast impact to demonstrate potential. As an example the eprescription made by medical professionals in Greece was a fast pilot, demonstrating huge savings and potential for the public sector. SEE countries do not have significant technological disadvantages (perhaps in technological readiness and broadband) , personnel and ICT solutions are available for deployment. The gap in certain services might be a political implication. For example, eProcurement and eTaxation were both priorities set by the EU. Some countries have progressed significantly in taxation (e.g. Greece) by developing efficient ICT solutions and the personnel available to run the application, whereas eProcurement is lagging behind. Therefore, if one country can progress in even one service, it probably means that the competencies exist to deploy in other areas as well. If motivation is given, the private sectors can cover a gap easily and in the case of the EU or SEE, mobility helps. Cross- border and exchange of data in administration are important elements in a common market and remain on the EU agenda. The main problems in this area are especially linguistic and of (semantic) interoperability, etc,. Also, different laws and regulations and lack of a common experience is a challenge.
2.6
STI policy initiatives promoting ICT RTDI activities relevant for this domain
Europe 2020 Europe 2020 Strategy was defined in order to address the economic and financial crisis by "preparing Europe's economy for the next decade" The three main mutually interrelated strategic directions are: (i) Smart growth (knowledge and innovation based economy). (ii) Sustainable growth (resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy). (iii) Inclusive growth (high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion). -Government as a tool for effective and efficient electronic delivery of public services can significantly contribute to the three directions mentioned above. The Digital Agenda for Europe The Agenda defines the critical role of ICT to pursue and achieve the development and objectives set out in the Europe 2020 strategy. It defines initiatives to maximise the impact on the use of ICT. The Agenda covers different aspects of eGovernment (17): - The revision of the e-Signature Directive and legislation on mutual recognition and acceptance of electronic identification across border - The creation of a straightforward and open environment for online cross-border transactions, eliminating technical and legal constraints - Building digital confidence, guaranteeing citizens the same rights in the digital and in the physical environment
The political framework for eGovernment development on EU level is formed by the following documents:
31
- Interoperability and standards between devices, applications, data repositories, services and networks to improve ICT standard-setting, promoting better use of standards and enhance interoperability through coordination - Reaping the benefits of eGovernment for efficient and cost-effective services for citizens and businesses and for a participatory open and transparent government. The Agenda particularly emphasises the cross-border dimension of e-Government. It requires improved administrative cooperation to develop and deploy cross-border public online services as well as practical eIdentification and e-Authentication cross border services, including mutual recognition of security levels for authentication. -Government Action Plan 2011 - 2015 (COM (2010) 743. 15 December 2010) The Action Plan aims at maximising the complementarities of national and European policy instruments. Its actions support the transition of eGovernment into a new generation of open, flexible and collaborative seamless eGovernment services at local, regional, national and European level that will empower citizens and businesses. There are strong political and economic reasons for European collaboration in e-Government. Joint action and knowledge sharing at EU level contributes to overcoming the current economic crisis, by using public resources more efficiently.
19
The Commission's main mission is to optimise the conditions, for the development of cross-border eGovernment services provided to citizens and businesses regardless of their country of origin. This includes the development of an environment which promotes interoperability of systems and key enablers such as eSignatures and e-Identification. Services accessible across the EU strengthen the digital single market and complement existing legislation in domains like e-Identification, e-Procurement, e-Justice, e-Health, mobility and social security, whilst delivering concrete benefits to citizens, businesses and governments in Europe. The Commission will lead by example in further implementing eGovernment within its organisation. The combination of all these efforts should lead to an increase of the take-up of eGovernment services. By 2015 50% of citizens should use e-Government. The target envisaged for businesses is 80% by 2015. In the SEE region the Electronic South Eastern Europe (eSEE) Initiative was founded as a coordinated effort to better integrate SEE countries into the global, knowledge-based economy by regionally supporting the development of Information Society. One of the most important documents proposed by the eSEE Initiative is iSEE Agenda +, where three priorities were proposed as a development framework for Information Society development: Single SEE Information Space Innovation and Investment in ICT Research and Development Inclusive Information Society
The iSEE Agenda + was adopted for the period 2007- 2012 and all SEE governments reported significant progress towards the objectives set for all three priorities. The field of eGovernment significantly contribute to the objectives set for the priorities Single SEE Information Space and Inclusive Information Society. The research framework within the eGovernment domain is described in the Current and potential R&D activities in eGovernment in SEE section of this report.
19
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/action_plan_2011_2015/index_en.htm
32
2.7
Regulations existing in this domain
Government as very broad term touches all the aspects of the public services and government as a whole and most of the regulations valid for public services are applicable to e-Government. For the purposes of the current SOWT analysis one can distinguish the following key areas for regulations: Data Protection/Privacy Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 24 October 1995, on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. To remove obstacles to free movement of data without diminishing the protection of personal data, Directive 95/46/EC (the data protection Directive) was developed to harmonise national provisions in this field and to ensure that all citizens have equivalent protection across the Union. Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 15 December 1997, on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector Directive 97/66/EC specifically deals with the protection of privacy in telecommunications. It states that Member States must guarantee the confidentiality of communication by means of national regulations. Any unauthorised listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communications is illegal. E-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 8 June 2000, on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce) Promoting the development of electronic commerce is one of the key factors in the effort to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. Directive 2000/31/EC sets up the basic legal framework for electronic commerce in the internal market. It removes obstacles to cross-border online services in the European Union and provides legal certainty to businesses and citizens alike. E-Communications The electronic communications regulatory framework consists of one Framework Directive (Directive 2002/21/EC, of 7 March 2002) on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services and four specific Directives. This framework has been supplemented by the 'Telecoms Reform', a new package of rules originally due to be transposed into national laws of the 27 Member States by May 2011. E-Signatures Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 13 December 1999, on aCommunity framework for electronic signatures This Directive establishes the legal framework at European level for electronic signatures and certification services. The aim is to make electronic signatures easier to use and to help them become legally recognised within the Member States. The Directive defines two new ideas: the advanced electronic signature and the qualified certificate. The main provision is that an advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate satisfies the same legal requirements as a handwritten signature. It is also admissible as evidence in legal proceedings. Furthermore, this Directive lays down the criteria that form the basis for legal recognition of electronic signatures by focusing on certification services, namely: common obligations for certification service providers; common rules on liability to help build confidence among users; and cooperative mechanisms to facilitate trans-border recognition of signatures and certificates with third countries. E-Procurement Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 31 March 2004, on the coordination of the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 31 March 2004, on the coordination of
33
procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts The Directives, which took effect on 30 April 2004, aiming to simplify, clarify and revise previous legislation in this area by introducing two new legal instruments. They also provide a coherent framework for conducting procurement electronically in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory way, establish rules for tendering electronically and fix the conditions for modern purchasing techniques based on electronic means of communication. Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 November 2003, on the reuse of public sector information, the term Public Sector Information (PSI) refers to documents, databases and other information produced, collected and stored by public sector bodies. Thanks to the aid of ICTs, PSI can now be processed in an efficient, effective and user friendly manner, creating a variety of new opportunities for its exploitation. The Directive sets out a framework for the conditions of its reuse and aims to ensure equal treatment for commercial editors within the internal market. Public sector organisations authorising this type of reuse continue to hold copyright and related rights. They are, however, invited to exercise their copyrights in a way that facilitates re-use. General information source: Europa, Summaries of EU legislation European Interoperability Framework (EIF) for European public services One of the most important issues of the eGovernment development on EU level is the interoperability between the systems and services. In order to address this issue the European Commission has defined European Interoperability Framework (EIF) for European public services (Bruxelles, le 16.12.2010; COM (2010) 744 final) The purpose of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) is: to promote and support the delivery of European public services by fostering cross-border and crosssectoral interoperability; to guide public administrations in their work to provide European public services to businesses and citizens; to complement and tie together the various National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) at European level.
This non-technical document addresses all those involved in defining, designing and implementing European public services. The EIF should be taken into account when making decisions on European public services that support the implementation of EU policy initiatives. The EIF should also be considered when establishing public services that in the future may be reused as part of European public services. The EIF is maintained under the ISA programme, in close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission. They work together in the spirit of Article 170 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Under this Article, to help achieve the objectives referred to in Article 26 concerning the internal market, the European Union should help establish and develop trans-European networks and promote the interconnection and interoperability of national networks as well as access to such networks. The EIF contributes to the better functioning of the internal market by increasing interoperability among European public administrations
34
2.8
Ethical issues, social norms, behavioural patterns, and values
In addition to the comprehensive regulation regarding the data privacy the EU eGovernment Plan defines special actions related to the inclusive eGovernment20: Equal access The development of eGovernment is improving the delivery of public services to citizens, and it is essential that people without access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), or without the skills to use them, benefit from them, too. The eGovernment Action Plan seeks to ensure that no citizen is left behind, by promoting Inclusive e-Government, under which specific measures are developed to deliver public services to and connect vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion. Governments at national, regional and local levels, together with their agencies and other intermediaries (NGOs, civil societies, volunteer associations, and the third sector in general) which deliver public services, are increasingly integrating ICTs into their processes, both behind the scenes and in their interfaces with the public. Whilst eGovernment services should reduce the complexity of citizens and businesses dealings with government and its intermediaries, there is a danger that people without easy access to ICTs could find it even harder to deal with government. Public services should be available on equal terms to all, and therefore public authorities need to take account of the interests of all potential service users, following the principle of inclusive e-Government. Digital divide Around 30% of Europes population does not use any eGovernment services. This is due in part to the so-called digital divide, i.e. the gap between those with regular and effective access to information technol ogy and those lacking it. Ironically, many of these excluded citizens are amongst those who need and consequently rely most heavily on government support and would stand to benefit the most from accessing them on-line. For instance, people receiving unemployment benefits or drawing pensions are more likely than the rest of society not to have internet access or own a computer.Bridging this divide requires social and geographical differences to be overcome, to ensure an inclusive digital society which provides opportunities for all. Governments incentive to introduce new ICTs, simplifying the management and delivery of public services, and reducing costs, is clear. It is essential that the development of eGovernment must not be at the expense of citizens and mostly small companies and organisations without access to ICTs. Numerous EU initiatives are helping to transform this ideal into a practical reality. To accelerate these efforts, one of the eGovernment action plans five main objectives is articulated under the banner of no citizen left behind. All for one The eGovernment Action Plan calls for no citizen to be left behind, arguing that ICT-enabled public services help to consolidate social cohesion and ensure that disadvantaged people face fewer barriers. Member States have already committed themselves to ensuring that by 2010 all citizens, including socially disadvantaged groups, become major beneficiaries of eGovernment. Through the action plan the Commission will support national efforts to achieve these inclusiveness objectives. In 2006, the eGovernment road map was agreed by the Commission together with a group of experts from Member States. The road map directs efforts to ensure Inclusive eGovernmentdevelops in the period up to 2010, with the expert group meeting regularly to steer efforts at European level. Stakeholders, in particular from agencies and authorities delivering eGovernment services and groups representing vulnerable user groups at risk of exclusion, are also consulted to establish real needs on the ground.
20
European Commission: Inclusive eGovernment - no citizen left behind. Europe's Information Society Thmeatic Protal. [Online] 2012.
35
At the heart of EU efforts to develop Inclusive eGovernment is the conviction that harnessing ICTs in new ways enables government to better serve marginalised groups in society, including the elderly, disabled, unemployed and those with limited education. ICTs may be used directly by such people or by intermediaries who assist them, in government agencies, local service providers and charities. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government services for the widest range of the relevant population will, however, often require the use of parallel channels. In 2009, the Commission published a study on strategies to deliver government services through multiple channels.
SWOT MATRIX of ICT for eGovernment in SEE
The SWOT matrix takes into consideration the following elements: Table 6: SWOT eGovernment Table Strengths Prepared human resources Relevant good IT infrastructure and ereadiness indexes of the target countries E-Government leaders (i.e. Austria, Slovenia) are present in the South Eastern Europe Developed legislation and strategic framework in the target countries and on EU level Developed legislation and strategic framework in the target countries and on EU level Experience in developing and implementing cross-border eGovernment experience in developing and implementing crossborder eGovernment services (partners from the SEE region are participating in some key projects like STORK PEPPOL, SPOCS, epSOS and e-Codex Weaknesses Significant eGovernment implementation gaps. Bulgaria and Romania are lagging behind other countries in South Eastern Europe ( E-Participation measured through quality and usefulness of information and services is very low Insufficient implementation of the existing eGovernment legislation and strategies. Limited e-Government use of social media does not result in governmental change. Mobile identification is not widely used in the SEE countries with the exception of the regional leader - Austria Lack of principles in structuring the information on eGovernmental portals (e.g. life events principles which is used only in Slovenia). Limited use of Open Government and open data approaches that can permit the greater availability of government data for re-use and exploration by third parties. Inconsistencies in national legislations, cultural aspects and administrative habits. Digital divide and barriers to e-Inclusion Threats Economic and financial crisis in Europe may change the priority of E-Government development. Increasing gap in the availability of ICT human resources projected to 7 million on EU level.
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Opportunities Worldwide aggressive adoption of the fast growing mobile technologies in the eGovernment services Closing the gap between the leaders and followers in eGovernment implementation through regional
cooperation Introducing effective partnership and outsourcing strategies Availability of IT with high potential to be used in relevant services: cloud computing, mobile technologies, social networks Availability of service oriented architecture approach with significant opportunities in providing eGovernment services Significant development of applications that will enable the transformation of e-governance in mobile (m-government) by increasing the mobility of civil servants as well as facilitating citizens' access to services, such as alert mobile (m-alerting), updated mobile (m-info)
Increasing e-Crime and big failures in the eGovernment information security Government-centric approach to public services Failure to develop effective interoperability between the systems and organizations. Delayed regulation of new technologies and business models such as cloud computing and public services outsourcing. Digital divide and barriers to e-Inclusion. eGovernment efficacy considering differences between services and maturity at national, region and local levels
37
References
1. EU. ICT for Government and Public Services. Information SOciety. [Online]
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/index_en.htm. 2. Gemin, Cap. Digitizing Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action - 9th Benchmark Measurement. , 2010. 3. United Nations. E_Government Survey 2012 - EGovernment for People. s.l. : UN, 2012. 4. Speech at the Digital Agenda for Europe: Reality or still a Challenge Conference. Kroes, Neelie. Sofia : s.n., 2012. 5. United Nations. United Nations EGovernment Readiness Knowledge Base. [Online] http://www.unpan.org/egovkb. 6. Smart Regions. Smart Regions. [Online] September 2012. http://www.smartregions.eu/. 7. EU. Press Release: Digital Agenda: Annual scoreboard confirms need for structural economic reform across Europe and surplus of ICT jobs; big trend towards mobile services and technology. Bruussels : EU, 2012. 8. eGovernment Resource Center - Austria. Activation of the mobile signature in all Austrian tax offices. [Online] http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/focus-on-countries/europe/countries-europe/austria/trends-and-issuesaustria/authentication-austria/digital-signatures-austria/activation-of-the-mobile-signature-in-all-austrian-taxoffices.html. 9. Bulgarian Government Portal. Bulgarian Government Portal. News. [Online] http://www.government.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0212&n=1908&g=. 10. Magro, Michael J. A Review of Social Media Use in E-Government. 2012. 11. Government as part of the revolution: Using social media to achieve public goals. Landsbergen, D. 9, 2010, Vols. Electron. J. e-Government. 12. P. Wauters, K. Declercq, S. van der Peijl, P. Davies. Study on cloud and service oriented architectures for egovernment. s.l. : European Union, 2011. 13. EU. CORDIS. ICT - Information and Communication Technologies. [Online] 14. . CORDIS. FP7 Introduction. [Online] http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/programme/home_en.html. 15. A European Framework for eGovernment Competences. Schulz, Sirko and Schuppan, Tino. Potsdam : The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center, c/o University of Potsdam, 2012. 16. 10 Government IT Predictions For 2012: IDC. Montalbano, Elizabeth. 2012, Infoweek. 17. Nathan Ducastel, Robbert Fisher, Daniel Gehrt, Theo Hooghiemstra, Luca Alessandro Remotti, Bas van Schoonhoven, Tijs van den Broek, Ron van Paassen. Study on Impact assessment for legislation on mutual recognition and acceptance of e-Identification and eAuthentication across borders SMART 2011/0075 IAV Final Report. s.l. : Intrasoft & TNO, 2012.
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18. EU. Inclusive eGovernment - no citizen left behind. Europe's Information Society Thmeatic Protal. [Online] 2012. 19. A Review of Social Media Use in E-Government. Magro, Michael J. 2012. 20. Deloitte Consulting. User expectations of a life events approach for designing e-Government services. Final Report. SMART 2009/0075, 3.12.2010. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/smart2009-0075.pdf 21. ICT for R&D Infrastructures: PESTLE & SWOT Analysis. FORSEE Project, September 2012. 22. Cloud Computing: PESTLE & SWOT Analysis. FORSEE Project, September 2012.
Further references:
Eurostat. (2012). Retrieved February 2012, from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code= KS-30-08-148 http://www.epractice.eu/en/factsheets/ Technopolis Group. (2011). Regional Innovation Monitor -2010 Annual Report. European Commission, Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General. ProInno Europe (2011). Funding Innovation in the EU and Beyond under a Specific Contract for the Integration of the INNO Policy TrendChart with ERAWATCH (2011-2012). Technopolis Group.
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e-Government: PESTLE & SWOT Analysis

FORSEE Partnership, 2012 Reproduction is authorised provided

SWOT analysis ............................................................................................................... 16

SWOT MATRIX of ICT for eGovernment in SEE ............................................................... 36 References .................................................................................................................... 38

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

PESTLE Generic Cross-Theme Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

(Source: UNESCO, 2009, 2007; source for Greece: Eurostat)

Other political factors.

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Table 1: Major Economic factors in the area

Employment Growth (%) Unemployment rate

Jobless growth n/a (17.6 for 2007)

M= F= GDP (100 base value)

4.6% 4.2% 139

19.2% 21% n/a

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Social, Cultural and Demographic factors

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Table 2: eGovernment development in Southern Europe

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Major global ICT trends overall and in the field of e-Government

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Impact on eGovernment development in the EU and the SEE area

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Table 3: Basic performance of public services in the area

Source: United Nations eGovernment Readiness Knowledge Base

United Nations eGovernmnent Survey 2012

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

egovernment. s.l. : European Union, 2011.

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

R&D competences, resources, and performance in eGovernment in SEE

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

COMPATeGov project, European Commission

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Figure 3: Full online availability trend 2001-2010 timeline-EU -27

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

2. Country performance overview

Digitizing Public Services in Europe, European Commission 2010

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Additional data on Montenegro:

Source: ISSP, 2007

E-Government Survey, Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses 2007

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

3. R&D competences in terms of projects participation

Table 5: List of main initiatives-projects in the area

Citizens Collaboration and Co-Creation in Public Service Delivery

FP7, call 4 (2009)

FP7, call 7 (2011)

Policy Gadgets FP7, call 4 Mashing Underlying (2009) Group Knowledge in

WP4 Activity 4. PESLE & SWOT Analysis

Web 2.0 Media

Policy Simulation in FP7, call 4 Virtual Spaces (2009)

Ubiquitous FP7, call 4 Participation (2009) Platform for Policy Making

Where FP7, call 4 eGovernment (2009) meets the e-Society