The European Commission has presented five new online European online public services at the ‘Borderless eGovernment Services for Europeans’ conference, that took place in Poznan, Poland on 17 and 18 November. Participating in the projects are several partners from different EU Member States, with Commission providing half the funding for the projects (€62.67 million out of €125.34 million).
The five new services in question introduce:
- electronic identities for Europeans for easier access to online public services (STORK project). European citizens will be able to start a company, get their tax refunds, or obtain their university papers without physical presence by entering their personal data and their national electronic identification in the STORK platform;
- Pan-European online public procurement (PEPPOL project) that will help businesses save procurement costs and expand to other Member States by introducing e-invoices and e-signatures;
- next generation Points of Single Contact (SPOCS project) that will assist businesses in expanding into other countries by helping them to comply with all the regulations, licenses and permits they need to deal with through a single point of contact;
- the provision of patient information online (epSOS project). Through use of ePrescription and eMedication systems patients will be able to safely obtain their correct medicines in foreign pharmacies, and healthcare professionals will have access to the necessary electronic patient data to help patients;
- the provision of judicial information online (e-CODEX project), making judicial procedures more transparent, efficient and economic by connecting judicial systems through development of common technical standards in the field of e-Identity, e-Signatures, e-Payment and e-Filing.
Emphasised at the ‘Borderless eGovernment Services for Europeans’ conference was the need to further develop borderless electronic government services for citizens and businesses in Europe, with experts in science, business and politics highlighting the greatest challenges lying ahead of e-government services in the European Union.
