Nieuwe lidstaten maken inhaalslag bij online overheidsdienstverlening (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's newest member states have shot up to be amongst the top of the class when it comes to offering online public services to its citizens, a new survey published yesterday (29 June) has shown.

The tiny mediterranean island of Malta moved fastest up the league table of EU member states, surging from 16th last year to second place this year. Estonia moved from eighth to a shared third place with Sweden.

However, it is old member state Austria which is top of the podium. "The Austrian 'eGovernment platform' is the best in the class" the report said.

The report was conducted for the European Commission by IT company Capgemini, which analysed thousands of websites in the EU-25, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, in areas such as tax, social services and construction permits.

New member states are implementing a major drive to bring their eServices performance up to the level of that in the 15 old member states which have been in the race for longer.

The survey reveals a modest but constant 6 percent average growth in online public services in old member states whilst growth in the new member states is up by an average 10 percentage points.

EU commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding welcomed the results but added that she hoped they would encourage member states to take further steps on offering public services online.

"On-line service delivery is now a mature service delivery model in the EU, and a new paradigm of 'intelligent', user-oriented e-services is beginning to emerge," she said in a statement.