European Commission to push forward E-government

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society, will launch an Action Plan this week to promote the benefits of e-government for public services. The report will sing the praises of countries that have already attained high levels of achievement in this field, like Denmark, the United Kingdom and especially Sweden, while recognising that there is still a great deal of work to be done in many other EU member states. As European countries continue this transition towards e-government, the Open Source community will play a key role ensuring that states provide their citizens with the most effective and cost-efficient software and operating systems.
A survey done by the UK Presidency in late 2005 revealed that many public sector sites are overly complex and often not in line with accessibility standards. The survey also showed that access to online services varied widely within the EU, with a user-demographic which tended to be young and highly educated. If the benefits of e-government are to be reaped, it will be necessary to narrow the gaps between rich and poor, young and old, and across member states. Even amongst the old-EU member states the disparities are alarming. The numbers range from a high of 76% of Swedes who regularly using the internet, to a low of only 24% of Greeks that do the same.
By neglecting the opportunity to further implement e-government services, states are squandering a golden opportunity to save precious public funds. The Danish government provides clear evidence of this fact when they recently announced that they saved an estimated 100 million euros by distributing state payments electronically.
The Open Source community continues to prove its ablility to provide a number of competitive advantages over more costly proprietary software and operating systems. Results of a wide study of American firms using Linux servers, contrary to popular belief, actually found Linux to be more productive, easier to manage, more secure and faster than its Windows counterparts. In terms of software, simply by switching from Microsoft Office to Sun’s StarOffice, the Bristol City Council in the United Kingdom announced in March that it is set to save 60 per cent on software costs over the next five years.
These are just two simple examples amongst many others that confirm the advantages that Open Source solutions will bring across Europe in the upcoming years. In order to deliver upon the goals of the upcoming E-government Action Plan of the European Commission, the efficient and cost-effective solutions of Open Source will play a key role in realising these objectives and ensuring that citizens benefit as a result.