Investment in infrastructure and eGovernment-service development are essential, but services provided are not going to be used and investment will be hard to justify unless a government manages to create transparency and trust, the study, prepared by research and consulting firm Ecotec, found.
According to the paper, countries such as Germany, the UK and France have problems achieving trust, while the Scandinavian model of governance, which "combines a high cost of government with high levels of trust and citizen participation, and delivers quality services", it goes on to say, "remains a role model".
The study also points out, however, that pressure on the Nordic governance model is raising as the demographic shift obliges governments to cut in on spendings. New member states, the authors say, are already feeling the same kind of pressure as they try to modernise their governments without increasing costs or losing citizens' trust.
Transparency is essential for building trust, the authors point out, citing the Estonian example, where "a citizen can log onto a secure web service and see which civil servant in which ministry has used their data, and for what purposes, on a daily basis".
Nevertheless, the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) ranked best when trust, transparency, cost, delivery and uptake of eGovernment services were all taken into account*. They were followed by Austria, the Netherlands and Germany, while eGovernement was found to be least advanced in Lihtuania, Poland, Greece and Latvia.
The 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference will take place on 19 - 21 September 2007 in Lisbon.
* Countries examined included the EU-25 without Bulgaria, Cyprus, Luxemburg and Malta, plus Norway
