EU recommends re-focusing e-government strategy on Lisbon objectives 

A group of senior national officials have proposed re-focusing the EU’s e-government strategy on bolstering administrative efficiency in order to meet the Lisbon competitiveness objectives. 

In a statement, Information Society Commissioner Olli Rehn said the recommendations were "an important contribution to the review of the EU’s ‘Lisbon’ competitiveness strategy" and emphasised the "key contribution that public administrations can make to improving Europe’s competitiveness, growth, innovation and employment rates".

The group, which brought together officials from 30 European countries under the chair of the Dutch Presidency, issued the recommendations on 28 September in Amsterdam. The recommendations focus on:

• Transforming public administrations to speed up responses to businesses and citizens to help deliver the Lisbon competitiveness objectives in 2010
• Defining concrete targets for 2010:
• • Reducing the administrative burden for businesses and citizens by 25%
  • Ensuring interoperability of pan-European public services using open standards
  • Defining common measurements for efficiency, red tape reduction, quality, trust and security of online public services
• Financing issues (ease of access, standard set of measurements on benefits, etc.) 

The recommendations come as the EU prepares to assess the e-Europe 2005 Action Plan, which expires on 1 January.