comparative study on e government

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TWINNING LIGHT BA06-IB-JH-03-TL EU Cards Twinning Programme

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4.1 CIPS centre of Sarajevo.......................................................................................................................14

4.2 CIPS centre of Banja Luka...................................................................................................................14

4.3 Cooperation mechanisms with other institutional bodies....................................................................15

4.4 CIPS information system......................................................................................................................15

4.5 CIPS information system......................................................................................................................15

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5.1 Organisation and management............................................................................................................17

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6.1 (Risks and mitigation measures)..........................................................................................................20

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7.1 National Progress Report on e-Government in the EU27+.................................................................27

7.2 EU Benchmark Survey of 2007............................................................................................................27

7.3 New e-Government user satisfaction and user impact project in the European Union.....................31

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8.1 Political Structure..................................................................................................................................32

8.2 Information Society Indicators..............................................................................................................32

8.3 State of e-government implementation in Italy....................................................................................33

8.3.1 E-democracy.....................................................................................................................................34

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8.3.2 M-Government..................................................................................................................................34

8.4 The Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation........................................................................34

8.5 CNIPA Presentation..............................................................................................................................35

8.6 CNIPA Activities....................................................................................................................................36

8.7 The role of Regional Centres for e-Government and Information Society (CRC)..............................37

8.8 The main Italian e-government databases..........................................................................................38

8.8.1 Connection to the databank of the Tax Register through Siatel.....................................................38

8.8.2 Connection to the databank of the territorial agency through SISTer............................................39

8.8.3 Connection to the databank of the Chambers of Commerce with InfoCamere and Registro Imprese (Telemaco).......................................................................................................................................39

8.8.4 Online Consip purchase service......................................................................................................40

8.9 E-government between Central Public Administration (PAC) and Small Enterprises.......................40

8.10 Future trends of E-Government in Italy................................................................................................41

8.10.1 2007 Report Submitted to the Parliament on the Progress of the Public Administration.........41

8.10.2 Public Administration Digitalization and the Relationships with the Citizens............................42

8.10.3 The Guide-lines for Legislation....................................................................................................42

8.10.4 SPC – The System for Public Connectivity.................................................................................43

8.10.5 VoIP for Rapid Saving.................................................................................................................44

8.10.6 Beyond CAD.................................................................................................................................44

8.10.7 The First Initiatives at International Level ...................................................................................44

8.10.8 The Re-launch of Cooperation with Developing Countries and Emerging Countries...............45

8.10.9 Collaboration under the EU and OECD in PA Innovation and Modernization..........................45

8.11 CISIS – Inter-regional Centre for IT, Geographic and Statistical Systems.......................................45

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9.1 Political structure...................................................................................................................................49

9.2 Information Society Indicators..............................................................................................................49

9.3 Introduction to E-governance in Estonia..............................................................................................50

9.4 Transforming Estonia into E-Stonia.....................................................................................................51

9.5 E-governance Legislation.....................................................................................................................52

9.6 E-governance Organizational Framework...........................................................................................54

9.7 E-Government Initiatives ......................................................................................................................55

9.8 E-services..............................................................................................................................................55

9.8.1 E-Government Portal........................................................................................................................56

9.8.2 Electronic Riigi Teataja.....................................................................................................................56

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9.8.3 Public Procurement..........................................................................................................................57

9.8.4 Customs eSystems...........................................................................................................................58

9.8.5 e-Tax Board......................................................................................................................................58

9.8.6 Land Information System.................................................................................................................59

9.9 Other e-Systems...................................................................................................................................61

9.9.1 Estonian Government of Ministers Session Infosystem.................................................................61

9.9.2 E-State Treasury...............................................................................................................................61

9.9.3 Centre of Registers of the Ministry of Justice..................................................................................62

9.9.4 Services of the Court Settlements Register ....................................................................................62

9.10 Target Programmes and Projects........................................................................................................62

9.10.1 Document Management ..............................................................................................................62

9.10.2 X-Road..........................................................................................................................................63

9.10.3 ID Card.........................................................................................................................................67

9.10.4 Digital Signature...........................................................................................................................68

9.10.5 Citizen’s IT Environment..............................................................................................................68

9.10.6 E-Justice Project..........................................................................................................................69

9.10.7 E-County Project..........................................................................................................................70

9.10.8 E-Voting........................................................................................................................................70

9.11 E-Governance Academy, a referent institution in Estonia..................................................................70

9.12 Key Success Factors and Future Plans...............................................................................................71

9.13 History of Data Protection in ESTONIA...............................................................................................73

9.14 Data Protection Inspectorate................................................................................................................73

9.14.1 Area of activity of the Inspectorate..............................................................................................74

9.14.2 Structure and Principal functions of structural units...................................................................75

9.15 European Projects:................................................................................................................................78

9.16 The AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus (SK Certificate Centre).......................................................................79

9.17 E-government: The Estonian Government examines the Italian Model.............................................80

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10.1 IDABC Programme...............................................................................................................................82

10.2 E-content Plus.......................................................................................................................................82

10.3 VII Framework Programme – Cooperation Programme (2007-2013)................................................82

10.4 The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).................................................83

10.4.1 Information Communication Technologies Policy support Programme (ICT PSP) ..................83

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10.5 Looking for a European Standard for e-Government..........................................................................83

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The first part of this document, drawn up within the Twinning Light Bosnia-Herzegovina project “Capacity Building of the Directorate for CIPS (Citizen Identification Protection System)”, aims to provide an assessment on the CIPS organization, structure and the functions performed by the agency.

The second part of the document has been structured as a comparative study concerning e-government between Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia and Italy. The reason why Italy and Estonia were chosen is because Italy was selected as Twinning partner in order to strengthen the Capacity Building of the Directorate for CIPS, while Estonia because it represents a best practice in Europe and also hosted a study visit from the BiH partners.

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BiH

CIPS Citizen Identification Protection System

MIA Ministry of Internal Affairs

DGS National Boarder Police

SIPA State Investigation and Protection Agency

NOC / MOC Network Operation System / Mrezni operativni system

MUP Ministarstvo unutrasnjih poslova / Ministry of Interior

MIP Ministarstvo inostranih poslova / Ministry of External Affairs

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As BiH has entered the process of European integrations, pursuant to European Regulations #2252/2004 dated December 2004, 6WDQGDUGV� IRU�6HFXULW\�)HDWXUHV�DQG�%LRPHWULFV� LQ�3DVVSRUWV�DQG�7UDYHO�'RFXPHQWV issued by EU Member States have been defined. The above-mentioned Regulation in its Article 3, paragraph 2 defines that any member state shall establish an institution that will deal with development and coordination of the development of the system for passports and travel docs with other member states and while doing so, follow the relevant standards. This role has been given to the Ministry for Civil Affairs but considering capacities of the same, BiH Council of Ministers established the Directorate for Implementation of CIPS Project (CIPS Directory) as an autonomous body within the Ministry for Civil Affairs.

Importantly, in 2001 BiH initiated the process for reform of issuance of personal documents, what made it necessary for Directorate of Implementation of CIPS Project to evolve in an administrative organization in accordance with the mentioned Regulations.

According to the provision IV, 4 a) of the Constitution of BiH, in July 2008, BiH Parliamentary Assembly adopted the Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Register Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This Law in entirety amends the Law on Central Register and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina («Official Gazette BiH» No. 32/01). Namely, the Chapter 2 of this Law defines the establishment of the Central Centre for Data Processing as the sector of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The grounds for adoption of the mentioned Law are the scope and character of activities performed by the existing Directorate for Implementation of CIPS Project as a body with the higher level of expertise and dominant application of expert and scientifically methods of work and related administrative jobs. Unfortunately, organisational problems of Directorate, reflected in the internal audit report for 2005, as well as failed attempt to establish the Agency for Information Society, which would be linked to CIPS Directorate, has caused this project to fail. �

The CIPS Agency was established on basis of the following laws: x� Law on Personal Identification Number; x� Law on Domicile and Place of Residence of BiH citizens; x� Law on Personal Identification; x� Law on Protection of Personal Data; x� Law on Central Register and Data Exchange.

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The recently adopted Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina has initiated number of changes within CIPS Agency. Management of the CIPS Agency is currently developing the new organizational structure that will reflect the mentioned changes.

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The CIPS Agency is an autonomous administrative organisation within the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina responsible for the area of identification documents, storage, personalisation and transport of documents, and central keeping of registers and exchange of data between the relevant organs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As the newly adopted Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of BiH states that the CIPS Agency is responsible for all activities related to identification documents, registers and exchange of personal data. CIPS Agency cooperates with the relevant institutions that are the source of data in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as with other institutions/agencies, which are the users of Agency’s services.

For its mandate CIPS Agency must act solely on professional basis, without representing, protecting, or subverting the interests of any political party, registered organisation or associations, nor any of the three constitutive or other nationalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Although the Agenc y was estab lished as a temporary body whose ro le was to be termina ted upon imp lementa tion o f the CIPS Projec t, the Agenc y’ s ac tivities sinc e 2001 as well as va rious laws, memoranda and dec isions of the c ounc il of Minister’ s have turned work of this body to permanent sta tus.

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The earlier mentioned Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of BiH defines that the funds necessary to finance operation of the Agency will be provided from the Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The income of the Agency, generated by collecting defined fees for issuing of the identification documents and other realized fees for Agency’s services, will constitute the Budget revenues.

The Council of Ministers if Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the proposal of the Agency, will define the price of identification documents, other documents and services.

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As mentioned above, the main Agency’s offices (NOC) are located in: 1. Sarajevo 2. Banja Luka

The recently adopted Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of BiH has defined the main office of the Agency moving from Sarajevo in Banja Luka what will cause changes of the current staffing structure.

The basic organisational units of the Agency will be located out of the seat. Organisational unit of the Agency out of its seat is the Centre for Storage, Personalisation and Transport of Personal Documents with the seat in Banja Luka.

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x� “P location” is the Center or Personalization of Documents.

x� “D locations” are the main location for each canton/ District Brcko / RS regional office. These locations are responsible for work of their “C locations”. There is one “D locations” in each of 10 Cantons, 9 locations of Republika Srpska (following its geographical scope) as well as 1 location in District Brcko. These locations serve as administrative offices of CIPS i.e. link between “C locations” and CIPS.

x� “C locations” are the “grassroots” locations i.e. offices within municipalities where the final project beneficiaries submit their requests and collect finalized documents. There are 100 “C locations” in 97 municipalities of BiH.

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The following table lists D and C locations that cooperate with CIPS Agency:

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Currently, the main office of the CIPS Agency is located in Sarajevo, inside of the BiH Parliamentary building. Both the main functions of the Agency and the main Network Operation Center are located in the main office in Sarajevo.

The main functions of the main office is to provide: x� Nomenclatures (naming specifications) ? x� Acquisition of data x� PIN x� Domicile-place of residence x� Personal Identification x� Driving licenses x� Registration of vehicles x� Travel documents x� Personalisation of documents x� Distribution of documents x� Development of projects x� Development of application software x� Purchase of IT equipment x� Installation x� Communications x� Testing x� Data security an protection x� Education of approx. 750 officers x� Organisation of SW and HW x� Provision of operating supplies

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The second Network Operation Center (NOC), location where the data is replicated from the main site, is located in Banja Luka. This is also where location of the “Centre for personalization of Documents”, location where new documents are personalized following requests of BiH citizens.

The types of documents personalized in Banja Luka are: x� Personal identifications x� Driving licenses x� Travel documents x� Personal identifications for non-residents (foreign citizens)

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Roles and responsibilities for maintenance of network/databases

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Regional and local institution roles: x� C locations x� D locations According to the CIPS Agency’s report for 2007, during this year was initiated process for transfer of data through web services meaning that access to data would be enabled to some legal bodies after those fulfill certain conditions, mostly related to personal security of data and also to follow the procedures set by the CIPS network team. External users that have fulfilled the mentioned conditions have received needed instructions.

The “external users “of the CIPS system are: x� Education institutions x� Statistics offices x� Register offices x� Army x� Police x� Border Police x� Custom offices x� Judiciary system x� Insurance Bureau BiH x� Bank x� Tax administration x� Other offices as defined by the Law.

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The CIPS information system is composed of four modules or subsystems: x� Place of Residence, Personal Identification Number, and Personal Identification Documents x� Driving Licenses x� Travel Documents x� Vehicle Registration

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Besides these responsibilities, Directorate CIPS was direct or indirect partner in the implementation of some CARDS projects like the ones listed below:

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The goal of the project was to construct and implement a Migration Information System for the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH). At the Network Operational Centre (NOC) in Sarajevo, the central database is stored and a mirror of this database is located in NOC Banja Luka. In all the other locations it’s possible to connect to the central database and relevant information will be entered into the database and it is possible to see the status of the procedures a foreigner is processing in BIH. The MIS provides information that assist the parties involved to manage migration information, data collection, processing and dissemination by keeping records of the stay and movement of aliens who have been admitted to BIH, including :

x� All residence permits that have been issued by the MoS

x� Foreign nationals that have been admitted to BIH with visas

x� Foreign nationals who have been ordered to leave BIH and/or been put under supervision until they are removed

x� Foreign nationals who have entered BIH as a result of a readmission agreement

x� A file tracking system for the administrative decisions related to aliens

x� The MIS will be integrated with other national information systems

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This telecommunication network system improved coordination between institutional units that are responsible for the provision of security measures by using digital exchange of information, access to central databases and access through integrated communications. This project removed organizational and operative problems surrounding the use of confidential information and ensured that the use and exchange of information was more secure.

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This project assisted the PAR Coordination Office with the drawing-up and implementation of a comprehensive nation-wide PAR strategy. In addition, the project also built-up the capacity of the PARCO; particularly in the area of PAR policy making and coordination and procurement of PAR projects through the newly established PAR fund, which pools funds from DfID, Sida and the Dutch Government.

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This project was aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the Council of Ministers BIH through the introduction and utilization of a comprehensive and crosscutting set of ICT tools and solutions, as well as through necessary re-engineering of Council of Ministries BiH-CoM business processes.

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The Law defines that internal affairs of the CIPS Agency will be defined by the Rulebook on Internal Organisation and Systematisation of the Agency. The Rulebook will regulate internal organisation of the Agency, including job descriptions, number, name and locations of the basic organizational units. The Agency will hire “civil servants” whose employment will be governed by the Law on Civil Service in BiH Institutions and “other employees” whose employment will be governed by the Labor Law in BiH Institutions. Structure of employees will reflect national structure and take care of gender equality.

The Law on Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of BiH has defined the roles and responsibilities as well as other details related to the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director of CIPS Agency.

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The standards of the functioning of the Centre, as well as all other matters relevant for the functioning of the Centre, are stipulated by by-laws enacted by the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Director of the Agency, while internal organisation and systematisation of jobs in the Centre shall be stipulated by the Rulebook on Internal Organisation and Systematisation of the Agency.

The current organizational chart of the CIPS Agency is composed by the following roles:

x� Managing director x� Deputy director x� Managers of the

Organisational units (Sectors) x� Departments within the

Sectors

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The Managing Director manages the Agency’s operations and is responsible towards the Ministers of the Council of Ministers for the performance of the Agency and his work.

Director of Agency have the following duties and responsibilities: x� To represent the Agency; x� To produce the annual plan of work in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry and Council of

Ministers, and other plans concerning the competence of the Agency;

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Dept for Legal,HR and

General Issues

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Dept for Storageand Personalization

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Dept for Distributionand Transport

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x� To produce the Annual Budget Plan, in accordance with the Law of Financing of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

x� To manage and direct the performance of the tasks under the competence of the Agency; x� To contribute in drafting of national plan of activities that defines the issues in the area of identification

documents and resources for data transfer in Bosnia and Herzegovina; x� To propose to the Ministry the launching of negotiations related to conclusion of international

agreements on cooperation in relation to the issues of development of identification documents and scope of work of the Agency as provided for in Article of this Law;

x� Pursuant to the Law on Administration, to submit the Annual Report x� To control the performance of the Agency; x� To carry out the necessary analyses of the rational deployment of employees and technical resources

of the Agency; x� To ensure cooperation with the Ministry, relevant organs of Bosnia and Herzegovina to act in

accordance with this Law, and other relevant authorities and institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina; x� To ensure implementation of international agreements and conventions in domain of identification

documents, which Bosnia and Herzegovina has ratified.

In addition to the duties and responsibilities Director performs other tasks, like: x� In accordance with the Law on Administration, Director proposes the Rulebook on Internal

Organisation to the Council of Ministers, as well as other regulations necessary to perform tasks under the competence of the Agency;

x� To delegate duties to Deputy Director and managers of organisational units of the Agency, pursuant to the Law, Rulebook on Internal Organisation and other regulations;

x� To make final decisions on recruitment, deployment and termination of employment of civil servants and employees in the Agency, according to the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

x� To prepare and implement the program of specific trainings and education of the employees in the Agency;

x� Director is accountable for legitimate functioning of the Agency and for legitimate spending of budget and other resources dedicated for the financing of the Agency;

x� To perform other duties stipulated by the laws and other regulations.

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The Deputy Director is responsible to Managing Director of the Agency for her/his work.

The Deputy Director is the acting Director in the period of Managing Director’s absence, and performs the duties entrusted to her/him by the Director. If the Director is impeded to perform his duties and responsibilities, the Deputy Director shall perform it, until the Director is able to assume it or until the appointment of the new Director.

Director and Deputy Director are appointed by the Council of Ministers, in accordance with the Law on Ministerial Appointments (’’Official Gazette of BiH’’, No.: 37/03).

Director and Deputy Director are in charge for five years, with the possibility of a reappointment in the next mandate.

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The Rulebook on Internal Organisation and Systematisation of Agency will define locations, number and job descriptions of all other employees of the Agency.

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The purpose of “CIPS” data security and protection is to prevent potential hazard for data, information and processes in data processing. Generally, we can divide these risks into the following:

x� Natural disasters; x� Technical problems; x� Abuse of power; x� Human factor;

In the personalization centre of Banja Luka are considered the following security issues: x� Security of non-personalized documents x� Security of document production/personalisation process

x� Central Vault -Daily vault x� Daily vault -Production x� Production - Control x� Control – Packing

x� Security in storing personalized documents x� Security of distribution of the documents from the Personalisation Centre to the citizens

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CIPS provides the following risk mitigation measures: x� Protection measures adopted by CIPS: x� Protection through introduced physical measures; x� Protection via software solutions; x� Data back-up; x� Protection via programmed controls; x� Protection via control of data access; x� Protection in recruitment process; x� Description of the activities in case of system crash; x� Development of data security and protection plan;

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The second part document is based on the examination of a series of studies implemented by different organisations on the level of implementation of e-government and e-governance in Europe and in the World. In particular it examined a Report carried out by the United Nations, “UN E-Government Survey 2008”, which looks at the state of art of e-government and e-participation processes which have been implemented in 192 Countries.

The United Nations claim that even if some progresses have been made, there is still a lot to do. The United Nation Report’s sub-title this year is “From e-Government to Connected Governance” to underline the need to always think more about e-government in an articulated and integrated way which can both simplify the relationships between the Institutions and the citizens and at the same time be a tool to guarantee a stronger administrative efficacy and efficiency. The report also provides an overview on the most significant experiences that exist at different national levels and also makes a classification of e-government and e-participation in the world’s countries.

For what concerns H�JRYHUQPHQW� UHDGLQHVV�UDQNLQJV, ltaly ranks 27th in a list where Sweden has overtaken the United States and confirmed its supremacy among the Scandinavian countries with Denmark and Norway ranking respectively second and third. Estonia ranks 13th and Bosnia is 94th. According to this report, the progresses in the e-government sector have been very slow and only few governments have made the necessary investments to shift from single e-government initiatives to a more integrated e-governance strategy. In this year’s e-government readiness rankings, European countries account for 70 per cent of the top 35 countries. Asian countries account for 20 per cent of the top 35 and countries in North America and Oceania for 5 per cent. European countries as a group have invested heavily in deploying broadband infrastructure, coupled with an increase in the implementation of e-government applications for their citizens. Yet, according to the ITU, European countries account for nine of the top ten countries in broadband subscribers per hundred citizens, with Denmark, the Netherlands and Iceland heading the chart.

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The Figure above clearly shows the difference between the five regions, with Europe (0.6490) having an obvious lead over the other regions, followed by the Americas (0.4936), Asia (0.4470), Oceania (0.4338) and Africa (0.2739). Asia and Oceania are slightly below the world average (0.4514), while Africa lags far behind.

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The 5HJLRQDO� H�*RYHUQPHQW� 5HDGLQHVV� 5DQNLQJV� table pictured below shows a further breakdown by sub-regions for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. In the African region, there is a big gap between the West African region and the Northern and Southern African regions. The Central and Eastern Africa regions are close in rankings, with Eastern Africa ranking slightly higher. In the Americas, North America is dominated by the United States, yet Canada is far ahead of the Caribbean, and of the Central and South American regions. The regions of the Caribbean and of Central America are close to the world average, with the South American region ranking slightly above.

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In the Asian region, there is a major gap between Eastern Asia and the other regions. It should be noted that the regions of Central and Southern Asia are far below the world average. In the European region, there is a significant gap between Northern and Western Europe and Eastern and Southern Europe. Europe is the only region that has all of its sub-regions above the world average.

In (�*RYHUQPHQW� 5HDGLQHVV in Europe, The Czech Republic (0.6696) has taken the lead in the Eastern European region, followed by Hungary (0.6494) and Poland (0.6134). The overall rankings in 2008 do not differ too much from those in 2005. The notable exception is Ukraine, which moved up seven positions to number 41.

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The Ministry of Finance of Poland http://www.mf.gov.pl/ provides citizens with information on its World Bank Grant in an effort to strengthen its auditing functions and on its public debt. It also has a feature that allows citizens to calculate its treasury bonds accrued interest over time. The Czech Republic’s national website http://www.vlada.cz/ was rated the highest in this group. This site provides links to all of its advisory bodies and working councils. The site also has Really Simple Syndication, which allows it to be frequently updated to handle blogs and other feeds.

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Over the past year, the United Kingdom has revamped its government online system, through an initiative to pare down the numerous (hundreds) government websites available to the public. The UK’s main government portal, http://www.directgov.uk/, was redesigned in 2008 and this appears to have resulted in a drop in the web measure rankings for the UK. Yet, the Directgov.uk website (‘Public service all in one place’) does one of the best jobs in bringing together information and services from the central government as well as from local authorities. The main site is filled with information, and has a consolidated directory and services listing for the central government with local authorities, as well as excellent additional linkages to local government services and resources. Furthermore, the main site has new citizen communications features, such as a mobile government portal and a separate business gateway http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/. While the UK national site may have slipped in the rankings, the site thanks to its comprehensive information and services, covering different levels of government, still provides good value to the citizen users. It should be noted that all countries in Northern Europe are in the top 20 per cent of the infrastructure, education and web measurement indices, as well as the e-government readiness index.

The Social Security and Labour Ministry of Lithuania http://www.socmin.lt/ provides an online English-Lithuanian dictionary of social terms, employment and health topics. It also gives advice on how to find work, with the option of consulting a government official via the Internet.

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Spain (0.7228) has improved tremendously since 2005 and has taken the lead in this region by moving up 19 positions to the 20th spot. Spain has improved immensely on the web measure index, as well as on the infrastructure index. On the infrastructure side, the deployment of broadband increased the number of PCs per 100 inhabitants from 19 to 28 and Internet users per 100 inhabitants went from 24 to 43. On the web measure side, it had a separate e-government portal that strongly encourages e-participation, provides online transactions on a secure link, and communication via mobile phones with citizens, providing alerts. Spain has also enhanced its national sites through better multimedia tools (video and audio clips). Spain’s Ministry of Finance allows to sign-up via e-mail, to create online personal accounts on secure links, while the Ministry of Education has established a one-stop shop. All these improvements increased Spain’s total web measure index. Spain’s national website http://www.la-moncloa.es has a separate portal dedicated to e-government. The website also has a strong business focus thanks to the ‘Spain Business’ section, which is aimed at attracting foreign investment in Spain. The site appears in several languages including: Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German, Portuguese and English. Spain was followed by Slovenia (0.6681) and Italy (0.6680). Malta (0.6582), the leader in the 2005 survey of this region, is fourth in the 2008 Survey. The national website of Slovenia http://e-uprava.gov.si/e-uprava/en/portal.euprava is to be commended for having a user-friendly one-stop shop. It also has a section that allows visually impaired citizens to navigate through the website. The Government of Slovenia is planning further enhancements to the portal to assist the blind and visually impaired. An external visitor site http://www.slovenia.si/ also provides a wealth of information and resources for visitors to Slovenia and for businesses that are potentially seeking opportunities in the emerging economy of the nation. The system also includes a separate portal for Slovenia's participation in the European Union, http://evropa.gov.si/ , ‘Slovenia, at Home in Europe’.

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The Netherlands (0.8631), France (0.8038) and Luxembourg (0.7512) have made tremendous progress since 2005, moving up the e-government readiness survey to rank 5th, 9th and 14th respectively. Germany as result of a lower web measure score dropped from 11th to 22nd this year. France’s national website www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr scored the highest in the region. The site has a strong e-participation presence and has features for online consultation, has a separate e-government portal and has instituted a time frame to respond to citizen’s queries and e-mails. The site also contains a number of news feeds and RSS to continuously update citizens with information from the media and blogs. Malta’s Health Ministry is an excellent example of providing customer services online. The portal allows citizens to apply for the European Health Insurance Card online. It has an electronic patient library that runs thanks to a partnership with a private firm, which provides citizens with a medical encyclopaedia, information on surgeries and procedures, and has animated lessons. The portal also provides its citizens with a list of local pharmacies. http://www.ehealth.gov.mt/article.aspx?art=90. Aware of major policy proposals and priorities of the government, The Netherlands’s national website http://www.overheid.nl provides its citizens with a robust portal that contains all of its available information on the front page. One of the interesting features is the history of the Netherlands, which offers an historic background of the country. Another interesting feature which does not appear in other national sites is the feature on driver licences in the country. This section, on the front page of the site, provides citizens and foreigners with a quick and simple way of obtaining information on driver licences.

With regards to H�SDUWLFLSDWLRQ, which is considered as the use of New Technologies that enable governments to dialogue with their citizens, the report’s top five spots are taken by the United States, South Korea, Denmark, France and Australia. Estonia ranks 8th, Italy ranks 56th and Bosnia 99th. The report highlights that it examined only the use of New Technologies by Central Public Administrations to increase the participation in public life, while it does not examine what happens in the e-democracy field at local level.

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If we make a comparison with a similar report which was carried out in 2005, a general improvement by Governments in the H�GHPRFUDF\ sector can be noticed, even if, the researchers underline, the most significant progresses have been made in the provision of information of public interest which are propaedeutic to citizens’ participation in public life (H�LQIRUPDWLRQ). Fewer progresses have been made in the provision of

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listening and dialogue tools (H�FRQVXOWDWLRQ), in terms of concrete effects of such processes on the government actions (H�GHFLVLRQ�PDNLQJ).

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The National Progress Report reveals impressive achievements in e-Government across the EU. A "National Progress Report on e-Government in the EU27+", was presented at the Ministerial e-Government Conference on 19 September 2007 in Lisbon. This meeting was attended by 22 e-Government Ministers, who reviewed progress made in the implementation of e-Government Services since the launch of the European Commission’s i2010 initiative for Growth and Jobs (2005), the Manchester Ministerial Declaration (2005) and the i2010 e-Government Action Plan agreed by the Council in June 2006. Most Member States policies and implementation actions are now in place and aligned with the goals of the Action Plan. Services are becoming more effective nationally and more interoperable at European level, delivering higher quality, saving billions of euros through efficiency gains, and increasing the transparency and accountability of administrations.

The National Progress Report also registers impressive progress in transforming public administrations, thereby boosting economic growth by placing citizens and businesses at the centre of government services. Member States have developed and agreed roadmaps for mutual recognition and authentication of electronic identities, for cross-border e-Procurement and for inclusive e-Government. Equally important is the effort to reduce administrative burdens for both citizens and businesses, the increasing level of e-Participation activity, and the willingness of public administrations to share good practices.

The achievements of Member States has been further confirmed by the independent survey "The user challenge: Benchmarking the supply of online public services" undertaken for the Commission by Capgemini and published in September 2007. While progress has been impressive, work needs to continue. Stock will be taken again at the next Ministerial e-Government Conference in Stockholm in 2009, during the Swedish Presidency. �� (8�%HQFKPDUN�6XUYH\�RI��

The EU Benchmark Survey of 2007 “Full report”: "The user challenge - Benchmarking the supply of online public services - 7th measurement" confirms that Member States are making significant progress in e-Government. Europe continues to make sound progress on the supply of on-line public services. The maturity of online public services in the EU keeps improving. They have now reached an overall level of sophistication that full two-way interaction between citizens and Governments is the norm. In fact they are moving rapidly towards the stage where a whole process can be conducted on-line: 58% of services now allow the citizen to receive a public service conducted fully on-line, 8% more than in 2006. This means better, more efficient and effective public service provision for both citizens and businesses. For the first time, the survey assessed the national portals and found that Governments have invested in delivering these as a high quality, convenient, trusted and branded route for the provision of public services. The survey has also looked at the users experience when accessing on-line public services, recognizing the growing importance of this topic.

Once again, Austria leads the online public service league with a nearly perfect score, followed by Malta, Portugal and Slovenia. Businesses are still being better served than citizens, although the gap between the two is closing. Since 2001, this survey has measured the share of public services fully available on line in the EU, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and for the first time this year, Turkey.

The different degrees of sophistication of online public services range from ‘basic’ information provision to ‘full’ electronic case handling (fully available online) and proactive, personalised service delivery. This proactive stage was introduced this year for the first time as an indication of the emergence of "intelligent" service delivery we are now seeing in the EU. Services for business still score well above those for citizens on both

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counts. Sophistication for businesses lies at 84%, whereas for citizens it is at 70%. The difference is greater in terms of full availability, with 70% of services for businesses fully available on line against 50% for citizens. Austria, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Malta have achieved 100% fully-online availability for businesses. However, in the past year the gap has reduced considerably, and services for citizens saw a marked growth compared to previous surveys. In the UK, Finland, Norway and Slovenia citizens are now served just as well as businesses. For the first time in this edition the survey examined three elements which are important to the user experience: the provision of a legally recognised, secure electronic identity; whether the service could be accessed via alternative channels such as call centres, kiosks, mobile phones and TV; and compliance of the websites with the International Accessibility Guidelines. The overall result for this indicator is more mixed and averages at 19%, with Austria, Bulgaria and Norway scoring above 30%. The most striking finding was that only 5% of websites make a specific reference to their compliance with international accessibility guidelines (WAI). National portals fared much better. The report looked at the number of basic public services which can be accessed from the portal, the existence of customized options, ease of navigation and whether its presentation is targeted at different kinds of users (businesses vs. citizens, focussing on events or the structure of the administration). The overall score of 75% demonstrates that national governments consider their national portal as one of the cornerstones of their e-Government plans.

With regards to Estonia, it scores well in the 2007 survey, with a level of fully-online availability of 70% and a sophistication level of 87%. The poor result of online sophistication is due to a different appreciation of the fully online availability of certain service providers. Estonia has dropped from 2nd overall position in 2006 to the upper end of the 3rd quartile. The levels of sophistication for businesses as well as for citizens are above EU27+ averages.

Six out of the nine relevant services achieved the pro-active sophistication level (= 67%; EU27+ average score being 36%). With regards to user centricity, Estonia, with 29%, is above the EU27+ average of 19%.

The assessment of the National Portal (http://www.riik.ee/en/) shows a high score equal to 88% (compared to the average of 75%). The majority of the public services (17 out of 24 relevant services) are accessible through the portal.

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The Estonian health insurance system is based on the principle of solidarity. All medical costs incurred are reimbursed by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Each patient pays a reduced personal contribution, which is non-refundable. This system is only applicable for those health service providers that have a contract with the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Where a health service provider doesn’t have this kind of contract, a patient must pay for the service himself. Citizens which have access internet banking or are in possession of an eID card can use eServices through the national portal to check the validity of their health insurance, their personal data, the name of the family physician and the payment of sickness benefits.

With regards to Italy, it has made sound progress: it scores a high overall sophistication equal to 79% and a progression in fully-online availability equal to 70%, up from 58% - a substantial improvement to 11th position. Pro-active sophistication scores above the EU27+ average, with four out of nine relevant services reaching the fifth level of sophistication. Concerning user centricity, Italy scored 20%, just above the EU27+ average of 19%.

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The National Portal offers (http://www.italia.gov.it/) access to all of the 24 basic public services: navigation possibilities could still be improved, however all information needed to find one’s way round the site is there. The scoring in this survey for the National Portal is at 82% against an average for the EU27+ of 75%.

- The crime reporting service Denuncia vi@ Web (‘Report a crime vi@ the web’) enables the public to report lost or stolen property online. The aim of the service is to simplify procedures for filing crime reports, making reporting a crime possible at any given time and place.

- The National Portal provides a comprehensive starting point for searches related to the citizen’s services, with different search modes such as life events and themes, with a shortcut to the online services.

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The Information Society and Media Directorate-General of the European Commission recently launched a new study which will contribute to the EU policy agenda on e-Government measurement and on the Efficiency and Effectiveness objectives. The project will develop a multilayer user satisfaction and impact measurement toolkit for inclusive public eServices. Based on existing experiences and in close collaboration with the European e-Government agencies, a measurement framework will be developed that will include a toolkit and context-based methodology: creating the new standard for inclusive e-Government user measurement. The e-Government Progress in the EU27+ report reveals that twelve countries, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, The Netherlands, and the UK have put in place measures of user satisfaction. The approaches vary in scope and sophistication. The present EU study will establish best practice and facilitate benchmarking across agencies, regions and countries. The measurement toolkit will be piloted in different member states. Towards the end of 2008, the results of the pilot will be discussed during an interactive workshop (on 14 November 2008). In the near future a discussion forum to collect experiences and share ideas on user satisfaction assessment will be launched on the e-Practice portal.

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Basic data and indicators

Data from Eurostat updated to June 2008

Population (1 000): 59 131.3 inhabitants (2007)

GDP at market prices: 1 535 540.4 million Euros (2007)

GDP per inhabitant in PPS (Purchasing Power Standards, EU-27 = 100): 101.4 (2007)

GDP growth rate: 1.5 % (2007)

Inflation rate: 2.0 % (2007)

Unemployment rate: 6.1 % (2007)

Government debt/GDP: 104.0 % (2007)

Public balance (government deficit or surplus/GDP): -1.9 % (2007)

Source: Europa Website

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Italy has been a Parliamentary Republic since 2 June 1946 (following a referendum that abolished the Monarchy). The legislative power is held by a bicameral Parliament made up of a Chamber of Deputies (630 elected members) and a Senate (315 elected members). The members of the two Chambers are elected for a period of five years. The Head of State is the President of the Republic, who is elected by the Parliament (joint session) and by 3 delegates from each of the 20 Italian regions for a seven-year term. Executive power is exercised by the Government, consisting of the Prime Minister (referred to in Italy as the President of the Council of Ministers) and the Ministers jointly constituting the Council of Ministers. The President appoints the Prime Minister and, on his advice, the Ministers. The Government has to enjoy the confidence of both chambers and is answerable to Parliament. The Prime Minister conducts and is responsible for the general policy of the Government. Italy is made up of 20 regions, five of which are governed according to a special autonomous statute; it includes 103 provinces and 8 101 municipalities. The regions have legislative power together with the state in matters of concurrent legislation, except for fundamental principles that are reserved to state law. The regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law. Municipalities and provinces have regulatory power with respect to the organisation and fulfilment of the functions assigned to them. A constitutional reform promoted by the Government and adopted by Parliament in October 2005 was intended to significantly extend the powers of the regions (devolution). Italians rejected this reform via referendum on 25 and 26 June 2006. The Constitution of the Italian Republic was adopted on 22 December 1947 and entered into force on 1 January 1948. Italy was one of the founding members of the European Economic Community in 1957.

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x� Percentage of households with Internet access: 43 % (2007)

x� Percentage of enterprises with Internet access: 94 % (2007)

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x� Percentage of individuals using the Internet at least once a week: 34 % (2007)

x� Percentage of households with a broadband connection: 25 % (2007)

x� Percentage of enterprises with a broadband connection: 76 % (2007)

x� Percentage of individuals that have purchased/ordered online in the last three months: 7% (2007)

x� Percentage of enterprises having received orders online within the previous year: 2 % (2007)

x� Percentage of individuals using the Internet for interacting with public authorities: obtaining information 15.2 %, downloading forms 10.6 %, returning filled forms 4.6 % (2007)

x� Percentage of enterprises using the Internet for interacting with public authorities: obtaining information 74 %, downloading forms 70 %, returning filled forms 35 % (2007)

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Thanks to the advent of new technological tools which are better and faster when implementing the different operations, a big change was registered in the modality of informing the citizens/users and to make them more involved in Public Administration activities. This evolution takes the name of e-government and e-democracy.

(�JRYHUQPHQW, as reported by the Italian Government document “Government Guidelines for the development of the Information Society”, means that public administrations must fulfil some conditions if they wish to be completely in line with new way of informing and communicating , such as:

x�All the priority services have to be available on-line

x�All the internal mail of a Public Administration must circulate via e-mail

x�Computer literacy has to be ensured among all eligible public employees

x�2/3 of the Public Administration’s offices have to make available on-line access to the record processing by citizens

x�All the offices which provide services have to include a customer satisfaction system.

Following the i2010 strategy, the national “Action Plan for Information Society”, which includes, among other sectors, the “E-government”, was launched in 2000.

The plan implementation featured a strong collaboration, which allowed in a first stage the on-line services implementation - aimed both at citizens and enterprises - and then infrastructural services implementation. The second stage of the Plan included the strengthening and the territorial extension of the experiences already tested and some new initiatives for e-Democracy development.

Since January 2006 The Code of the Digital Administration (Codice dell’amministrazione digitale - CAD) has been in force, laying down the rules on how to implement a more efficient Public Administration, with less waste and fewer costs. CAD offers, to both enterprises and citizens, the right to interact always and everywhere with the Administrations through the network and, at the same time, it obliges all the Administrations to make all information available on-line.

At the beginning of 2007 the Minister for Innovation and Reforms in the Public Administration, Luigi Nicolais, presented the e-government strategy guidelines, which can be summarised as follows:

x�To improve the efficiency of the Public Administration;

x�To implement interoperability and the full cooperation among administrations;

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x�To improve the transparency of public expenditure;

x�To build-up the digital citizenship;

x�To adopt a systemic approach for efficiency and quality

x�To favour competitiveness among enterprises and the development of the ICT industry.

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The project foresees a constant involvement of citizens in public decisions, in all possible sectors, for example in political life, environment, planning department, transport. Many web sites of local public administrations have opened forums to interact with citizens, involving people and the civil society in environmental and life quality projects in the cities. These new communication models have improved the relationship between the citizen-user without subordination but, on the contrary, through a relationship that favours integration and co-operation, where the citizen becomes the main responsible of his/her future.

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"Mobile government" is the new frontier of services provided by the Public Administration and uses as a technological platform the infrastructure of mobile operators. Through these new services citizens can implement a series of operations using, for example, their mobile phone to pay for parking, to be informed about unemployment lists and about many other opportunities.

Among the different services available through mobile phones there are:

x�Access to clinical records

x�Communication about late arrivals of public services

x�Payments of public parking places and of services for the elderly and disabled

x�Road map services on GPRS.

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The Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation has two Departments:

1. Public Administration Department

2. Innovation and Technologies Department

The Innovation and Technologies Department is the structure used by the Minister for the Public Administration and Innovation to design and implement development policies of the Information Society, and also for the interrelated technological innovations for Public Administrations, citizens and enterprises.

Its activities are:

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* e-Government – improvement of the P.A. efficiency

* e-Government – high impact initiatives

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* e-Platform for tourism

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* ICT and digital contents for schools

* ICT @ University

* National Platform for Health (eHealth)

* Initiatives for infomobility

* Technological innovation promotion

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* Actions to facilitate innovative processes and products (SMEs)

* Regional Plans to strengthen the competitiveness of the local industry

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* ICT use dissemination

*to improve access to education and training

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* planning activities and technical cooperation

* promotional activities of international partnerships

* support activities to governance policies of Information Society

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CNIPA (Centro Nazionale per l’Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione – National Centre for ICT in the Public Administrations) works at the Council Presidency for the implementation of policies of the Ministry of Reform and Innovation in Public Administrations. It was created thanks to the unification of two pre-existing bodies: the Autorità per l’informatica nella pubblica amministrazione (the Authority for ICT in public administration) and the Centro Tecnico per la R.U.P.A. (Technical Centre for the Single Network of Public Administrations). CNIPA was created with the objective of providing support to public administrations for the efficient use of ICT, so they can improve the quality of services and keep a lid on expenditures.

CNIPA is headed by a collective body composed of a President and three other components that are appointed by Italy’s Prime Minister.


36

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CNIPA:

x�contributes to defining the Government and Ministry’s policies for reform and innovation for public administration and provides consultancies for the assessment of law proposals in the ICT sector;

x�coordinates the planning process and the main development interventions; it sets standards and criteria for the planning, implementation and management of ICT systems of administrations, of their quality and of related organizational aspects; defines criteria and technical rules for safety, inter-operability and performance;

x�ensures that targets and results of innovation projects in the public administration are coherent with the Government’s strategy; for this purpose it provides secondment to public administrations in the planning phase and it issues technical-economic suitability assessment;

x�it takes care of the enforcement of important projects for technical innovation in the public administration, of diffusing e-government and of the development of major infrastructure networks in the country to allow public offices to communicate with one another and to provide citizens and companies with the public administrations’ services;

x�it takes care of the training of state employees in the ICT sector, using new technologies to favour continuous learning.

In the past the centre has worked on:

x�creating software for the mentally and physically impaired;

x�collecting best practices in ICT;

x�working on the introduction of electronic signatures in Public Administrations;

x�listing all open formats accessible to Public Administrations;

x�providing ICT training to Public Administrations;


37

x�creating reports on ICT progresses of Public Administrations;

x�experimenting new ICT systems for Public Administrations;

x�running an observatory on Open Source Software;

x�setting standards for ICT safety in Public Administrations;

x�creating territorial information services systems that are geographically sensitive.

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The Regional Centres for e-Government and Information Society (CRC) are operational structures with the task of supporting the innovation processes of the P.A. at local level and to favour the implementation, the dissemination and the knowledge of e-government services.

The CRC network – promoted by the State-Regions Conference (Conferenza Stato-Regioni) – is present throughout the national territory thanks to implementation agreements stipulated between CNIPA and the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces. It provides support and assistance, information, observation and communication services to support the public administrations involved in the e-government implementation and in programmes for information society.

The CRC network aims at:

x�developing cooperation between the central Administration, the Regions and the Local Governments;

x�favouring exchanges and local actions at interregional level to strengthen institutional cooperation;

x�contributing to the extension of Innovation in the Local Governments, and in particular in small municipalities, promoting and supporting initiatives and approaches which aim to reach the management and economy in the medium-long term;

x�supporting the promotion and communication of new e-Government services towards the final beneficiaries, trying, at the same time, to improve their quality;

x�improving the knowledge and the measurement of innovation, in particular related to the use of the services and to their potential impact on the final beneficiaries and on the dynamics of local development.


38

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In Italy, the use of the Internet as a means of liaison with the Public Administration is widely spread. According to the report published by ISTAT at the beginning of January 2008, 38.3% of Internet users utilizes the web to obtain information by the Public Administration, 26.5% to download modules from the entities’ websites and 11.4% to forward PA modules which have been filled in.

In 2005 the “Codice dell'Amministrazione Digitale” (Code of Digital Administration) was issued in Italy. The code was enforced on 1 January 2006 and regulates a variety of paradigms which in some cases, go beyond the journalistic features defining this regulatory text. It is enough to take into consideration the regulatory nature of the IT file of the digital signature, which can be applied not only to the relationships between private bodies, but also to relationships between private and public administrations or among public administrations.

Local Public Administration (PAL) may utilize e-government services created by the Central Public Administration (PAC) to allow banks to access data in their possession. The key services offered by PAC and PAL are the following:

1. Connection to the databank of the Tax Register through Siatel

2. Connection to the databank of the Territorial Agency through SISTer

3. Connection to the databank of the Chambers of Commerce with InfoCamere and Telemaco

4. Online Consip purchase service

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SIATEL is a service of the Revenue Agency which allows municipalities, regions, provinces, local health agencies (ASL) and other public entities free online access to personal data, income tax returns and the


39

proceedings of the Register of Contributors, for both physical bodies and companies and the data of the Income Tax Committees. To access the service, the interested entities forward – via mail or fax - the following documentation to the Ufficio Sistemi e Processi (Systems and Processes Office):

x� Access request letter x� Access authorization model to SIATEL countersigned by the legal representative of the entity x� Profile of the body (-ies) that the entity intends to qualify for SIATEL

All sections must be compiled and signed by the legal representative of the applicant administration before being forwarded. After receiving and verifying the documentation, the Revenue Agency provides an access password and the instructions for activating the service.

The services provided are the following:

x� Assignment of the fiscal code to newborns (only at municipal level) x� Communications of registry variations (only at municipal level); registry variations regarding the

residing population may be e-mailed on the basis of the data possessed by the municipalities; the service allows a municipality to carry out a cross-control of the personal data which has been registered in the electronic archives with the corresponding personal data contained in the Revenue Register archives (Alignment of the Registry Offices).

x� Consultation of contributors’ income data x� Consultation of the register proceedings x� Consultation about the premises of business activity x� Transmission of IRAP data. The service allows the Regions to obtain accounting information regarding

orders of payment which the Banca d’Italia pays into the entities’ bank accounts; furthermore, the service provides information about the paying-in models which are made by contributors through the “modello F24”.

x� IT forwarding of estimated and final income data referring to territorial entities. Estimated and� final data of the tax income may be e-mailed by territorial entities.

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SISTer (Territorial Interchange System) is the archive which collects all the Territorial Agency data - it is an online service for public entities, as well as for specific professional categories. Access is made through a connection to the central server located in Rome and through access to the Internet network. Someone who has sealed an ad-hoc agreement may access the archives of the land registry, the building cadastre and the municipal map registry. Currently, two categories of users can access this service: category A, which includes public and institutional entities which do not pay cadastral survey costs; category B, which includes professionals of the private sector, such as notaries, engineers, architects and surveyors.

Recently, SISTer has provided a wider range of data reserved for public entities, which, by signing an agreement without duties, may directly download all the cadastral variations from the website registered at the registry office.

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InfoCamere is the IT association of the Italian Chambers of Commerce which was established to manage and develop the IT services which are useful for the Italian Chambers of Commerce. Basically, the association


40

ensures that the registered data is organized in a databank which can be consulted by the Chambers of Commerce, the Public Administrations and those bodies, businesses, private citizens who want to purchase an online subscription. Thus, Chambers of Commerce can publish the data of the Business Register through IT techniques, as provided by law No 580 of 1993. Infocamere services are meant for partners of the Consortium, for the Chambers of Commerce and the central and local Public Administration and are not directly available to the public. From April 6th 2000 to December 15th 2007, InfoCamere played the role of certifying entity for the digital signature, accredited by CNIPA. The activity is now carried out by InfoCert SpA, a company founded in July 2007 by the conveyance of a business branch dedicated to products and services for the private market and public administrations. InfoCamere encourages dialogue between citizens, businesses and Chamber’s Public Administration through an online network: this allows for real-time access to the proceedings and registered documents (bylaws and capital business balance sheets) but also partial data collections (members and administrators of a company, mayors, competition procedures) or the entire dossier regarding entrepreneurship (the ordinary cadastral survey referred to the current business structure, the historical cadastral survey containing the chronological list of all variations from the origin to date, etc.). The Telemaco Business Register of the Chambers of Commerce allows online information about Italian and European businesses, their partners and administrators, to be obtained.

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Consip is a joint-stock company which provides Italy with consultancy and assistance services and solutions aimed at introducing IT in the Public Administration.

Its tasks are defined by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which is its only shareholder. Consip manages services and added value projects, like consultancies, technological services and project management both for the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other public structures like central and local administrations and universities.

Its activities fall into two key areas:

x� technical and project consultancy for the management and development of the IT services provided by the Ministry of Economy and Finance;

x� implementation of a programme for the rationalization of the public expenditure for goods and services on behalf of the ministry, in order to utilize IT technologies to search for products and services and for their purchase.

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E-government programs for small and medium enterprises modernize bureaucratic procedures by reducing red tape times. The objective is to create a preferential channel of liaison between the State and the citizen through the Internet. e.g.: income tax return (exclusive model, VAT, 770 model) compiled online through the use of a particular software.

The online services available to small and medium enterprises are the following:

* Business establishment and concern

* Taxation

* The One-Stop-Shop for Businesses

* Human Resources


41

E-government for businesses is identified by the so-called G2B, namely Government to Business, a close connection between enterprises and Public Administrations, namely a liaison concerning fiscal, economic, legislative and environmental aspects which closely regard productive activities.

The Public Administration approaches the business world through a national business portal: impresa.gov.it includes all online services provided by the Public Administration for the business world and trade. Many studies have been conducted on the development of e-government and in general, on the progress of online and e-democracy services in Italy and worldwide. In particular, CENSIS in Italy regularly publishes a ranking based on the in-depth analysis of the local Public Administration online studies centred on the indexes and indicators which are standardized and are acknowledged by the scientific community.

The Portal for integrated Services to businesses is outlined as an IT One-Stop-Shop through which it is currently possible to compile the modules for carrying out various administrative duties without calling at the traditional desks. After requiring certification or documentation, a receipt of delivery with a reference number is obtained to monitor the progress of a dossier. The entities providing some of the services are the Chambers of Commerce, INPS and INAIL.

The development of e-government both at central level with regard to fiscal services, and at local level for supporting business development, is growing continuously.

Businesses may require the release of authorizations on healthcare, commerce, building, handicrafts and services. Online payments (through smart cards or credit cards) for businesses or general services as well as sanctions, are possible. The digital signature can be used for carrying out online practices.

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�� 5HSRUW�6XEPLWWHG�WR�WKH�3DUOLDPHQW�RQ�WKH�3URJUHVV�RI�WKH�3XEOLF�$GPLQLVWUDWLRQ��

In the 2007 Report, which was submitted by the new Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation, there is a chapter dedicated to technological innovation which outlines the initiatives and activities which in 2007 were undertaken by the Department for Innovation and Technologies according to its competencies. The Department has contributed to the definition of the strategic guide-lines and the implementation of the projects for the dissemination and utilization of information and communication technologies. The key objectives pursued dealt with transforming the Public Administration through the introduction of technological innovations with direct effects on the internal organization and procedures, the reduction of the digital divide, support to the government’s action in e-government projects and policies on Information Society.

In particular, in 2007 the following projects were launched:

x� Electronic health-care with the implementation of the National Platform for Electronic Health (eHealth) and the application of nine coordinated interventions for its realization;

x� School and University (two projects);

x� Enterprises (with the creation of digital districts in Southern Italy, a programme aimed at the pursuit of the excellence of territories and one at training and participation in interventions of financial support);

x� Security (with the participation in the executive project of the new emergency number 112 - NUE);

x� Justice (among the various projects, the planning of a single access point to the domains of ordinary, administrative and accounting justice, as well as giving support to the realization of the IT administrative process);


42

x� Range of initiatives with the regions and local entities.

Participation in the Information Society projects (four projects) and in activities related to e-government for development must be taken into consideration.

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In order to reduce the costs of the “public system” and diffuse the use of new technologies, the industrial plan provides ad-hoc measures aimed at avoiding waste caused by the use of paper. Publication duties regarding legal proceedings or administrative provisions must be considered as discharged with the publication in the websites of each single administration; from January 1st, 2011 paper publications will no longer play the role of legal publicity as they will be replaced by online publications in the websites of the various administrations. With regard to digital innovation, the Government has been delegated for the elimination of legislative decrees aimed at amending the Code of Digital Administration in observance of determined criteria and principles:

• to apply sanctions, including the prohibition of the provision of the digital services available through traditional channels for the administrations which do not comply with the code prescriptions

• to quantify the actual savings pursued by single administrations to be utilized to finance the innovation projects and to foster the staff involved in the projects

• to amend the regulations on the digital signature to simplify the adoption and use by the Public Administration, citizens and businesses

• to assess and disseminate IT applications of the digital services provided, the technological and organizational best practices adopted which have been implemented and used by the Public Administration

• to foster project financing as a tool for accelerating the processes for enhancing public data

• to utilize online communications between administrations and their employees

• to publish performance indicators on public administrations’ websites.

With specific reference to the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation in agreement with the joint conference, the industrial plan also envisages the definition of a programme aimed at ensuring membership of all the public administrations to the 6\VWHP�IRU�3XEOLF�&RQQHFWLYLW\, in order to guarantee the implementation of cooperation projects among information systems, inter-operability of databanks and the improvement of the online services provided to citizens and businesses. To encourage the relationship between the citizen and the PA, the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation promoted the project “Reti amiche” (for the citizen), a system for the provision of public services through the distribution channels of Poste Italiane (Italian Mail), tobacconists, ABI, Chemists, “Carabinieri (Italian Police)”, Railways and Wholesale Distribution. The Networks will allow citizens to perform their duties in a more closely-connected and friendly condition; they will operate in competition and overlapping and the additional service offered by the networked bodies will be costless for the government and will have a monetary cost for the customer/user.

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The Government has embarked on not only a range of actions, but at the same time, it has also finalized a logical-programming framework in which to frame the action on innovation to be implemented and brought forward during the legislation period. The executive committee intends to overcome the limits in terms of definition of the objectives, channelling of the efforts and coordination of the administrative action which has


43

emerged from the most recent experience. The new strategy wants to guide-line the “offer” toward technical-financial resources of the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation which are instrumental to the demand for innovation at various government levels. In particular, the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation intends to second and actively govern the processes which emerge from the various contexts in which innovation policies are adopted by providing financial resources, technical competencies, coordination and aggregation capacities. The aim is to start a planning action for projects through a comparison of priorities and technical options among the stakeholders of the innovative intervention (the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation, central administrations, regions and local entities), in order to define the interventions to be realized and how many resources must be dedicated to them, as well as to identify roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders. The innovations of the processes managed by the administrations and the measures to increase efficiency, are of competency of the single ministries, while the coordination will be assigned to the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation with the support of DIT and CNIPA.

For relevant and complex projects, the Ministry for the Public Administration and Innovation, through the contribution of CNIPA, will deal with the planning and implementation of the intervention.

The plan will be operated through the subscription of appropriate agreements and the definition of Framework Programme Agreements with the various regions, namely with the re-modulation of the one already existing. Each Agreement will be included with its time schedule for implementation which is well-defined, verifiable and transparent in compliance with a scheme which can be adapted to the various specificities and needs.

To define standard needs of the administrations and concise and shared pre-requisites of inter-operability between various levels, will indicate businesses a precise strategy of the public demand which encourages the growth of competitiveness both at internal and international level by fostering investments, which in this case require guide-lines in the long-term.

The impact of innovative actions and policies has to be evaluated by contributing to increased transparency and accountability of the public intervention. In this regard, citizens and businesses will have to express their opinion, so as to assess the efficacy of the Public Administration.

Finally, the action for the promotion of innovation must be consistent with the action promoted by the Government on federalism by boosting decentralization of governance systems and the elimination of the digital divide. Maximum inter-operability among the administrations involved will be guaranteed.

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The System for Public Connectivity is now available as an infrastructure which connects Public Administrations – the greatest in Europe – and thus, it is appropriate to proceed with the gradual construction of the logic network which connects and makes Public Administrations inter-operating in view of the One-Stop-Shop. We must emphasize how the SPC design is integrated in and qualifies a federal vision which is shared by the national system. In fact, SPC government has been assigned by CAD to the SPC Coordination Committee which is a joint committee between PAC and PAT. In this regard, SPC is to be concretely transformed into e “federal network” which is compatible with the network of regions, provinces, municipalities, mountain communities and other local entities, thus liaising and inter-operating all national public administrations. SPC is identified as a privileged place to embark on innovative services in the logic of “shared services” and “web services”. The service architecture of applicative cooperation defined by the SPC, qualifies and facilitates this type of cooperation services in accordance with SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) international standards. Cooperation projects of relevance which have been developed, have already been aligned with this model; among these, the ICAR projects and the work system.


44

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The implementation of the SPC network has already allowed the PA to save on current annual expenses for transport (from 130 million euros to 54 million euros with 3-band capacity), thus releasing the economic resources which the administration may reserve for ICT. In particular, the optional services integrated in the CNIPA Framework Agreement which regulates network services, imply “turn key” service with regard to the sound equipment under the correspondence of an annual fee for hiring and maintenance of the work place. On the basis of market data, CNIPA has calculated an average saving for PAC amounting to 120 million euros a year at full capacity, deriving from the compulsory introduction of VoIP.

Integration and inter-operability among information systems of public administration in the observance of each autonomous capacity and responsibility, is a key step for:

x� the effective simplification of the liaisons between the administration and citizens and businesses;

x� the reduction of the acquisition and management costs of all public data;

x� the availability of the same data for the development of services and the increase of their quality.

The areas of intervention which, with their own specificities, require integration, are multiple and concern all sectors (environment, taxation, justice, territorial government, economic development, transport and mobility, tourism, protection of the artistic-cultural heritage).�

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The “Code of Digital Administration”, namely the legislative decree No 82 of 2005 and the subsequent amendments and integrations, is a general legislative framework under which administrative digitalization may and must be implemented. Re-qualification and re-organization of the entities/agencies responding to the Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation will be necessary in order to make them fully instrumental to the action plans and role which the ministry will have to play in the innovation governance system. This role will increasingly encourage the need for technical support for the evaluation and formulation of programmes at the service not only of the ministry’s administrative action but also of the public system as a whole. The possibility of transforming public universities into private foundations, introduced by the current government, is a typical example of a provision which may potentially and positively affect the innovation system. With the same amount of public funding, this will guarantee the necessary flexibility in order to encourage the virtuous interaction with the business system in the field of research and higher training. The system of foundations might encourage greater cooperation between public and private universities and central and local public administrations on the basis of the objectives of training for human capital and applied research consisting in the innovation processes which they have pre-arranged.

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At an international level, the strategy of the Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation responds on one hand to the need to ensure constant liaison and comparison with other key international partners, in particular at European level on administrative modernization, innovation and development of information society, while on the other to the objective of providing developing countries and “emerging” countries with professionals and the best Italian models in the sectors of e-government, ICT and technological innovation, so as to support their modernization and development processes. According to this logic, the initiatives undertaken followed three strategic thematic priorities:

a. the re-launch of cooperation with developing countries in public governance

b. collaboration under the EU and OECD in PA innovation and modernization


45

c. coordination with the UN on Internet governance

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Under the Italian G8 presidency in 2001, Italy promoted an initiative to overcome the digital divide (Genoa Action Plan for Digital Divide). Italy launched and developed the programme “E-government for development” under which 26 projects in 18 countries and in the Caribbean were implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Furthermore, the OECD initiatives to foster “good governance” in the Arab countries in the Middle-East and North-Africa and UNDESA initiatives to diffuse the ICT use in developing countries parliaments (the direction room is in Rome) were supported. In order to continue playing the international role acquired, the Government decided to promote a broad action of cooperation and partnership with developing countries and emerging countries in the sphere of the next G8. A shared strategy in these countries and the areas of intervention must be defined, in order to develop partnerships which represent a framework in which the Italian system may perform in a secure, constant and efficient manner.

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The initiative i2010 on information society in Europe, is an integral part of the Lisbon Strategy for growth, competitiveness and employment and is included in the arguments which are objects of the National Reform Plans that every year the member states elaborate under this strategy. The action of the Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation which participates in the TLC and Information Society Council, is above all aimed at ensuring – in compliance with actions of the member states and the Commission – the development of policies and interventions in the sectors of inter-operability of public services, in particular e-Government and e-Health; the reduction of the digital divide through the activation of e-inclusion strategies (accessibility, home automation for vulnerable categories, IT literacy); digital contents.

Particular attention will be paid to the objective of encouraging inter-operability standards at European and international level by increasing the Italian participation (administrations, entities and businesses) in the European pilot projects which have been launched and co-financed through the “Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) in the ICT sector”. The OECD Innovation Strategy focuses on the aspects which governments must consider as relevant, in order to anticipate the challenges of change and global questions, in particular the core policies to be implemented, so as to create the positive conditions – on the part of businesses and consumers – for innovation in accordance with the long-term objective, namely the sustainable development of society.

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The Cisis Meeting gathered on September 12th 2008 and approved the new Bylaws which included the component on geographic information systems. The latter constituted the Interregional Coordination and Documentation Centre for territorial information, thus ensuring the increasingly great functionality of the centre in the interest of the Associates, and giving the necessary support to the Committee for Financial Affairs of the Conference of the Autonomous Regions and Provinces.

Compared to the previous Bylaws, the key changes included giving a new company name to the centre, namely “Inter-regional Centre for IT, Geographic and Statistical Systems” (the acronym remains unvaried), and the establishment of three Permanent Committees qualified in specific subjects:

x� Permanent Committee for IT Systems (CPSI),


46

x� Permanent Committee for Statistical Systems (CPSS),

x� Permanent Committee for Geographic Systems (CPSG).

The ICAR project is co-funded in the ongoing second phase of the Italian e-government plan for Regional and Local Authorities, line 1, which addresses the establishment of the so-called SPC – Sistema Pubblico di Connettività e Cooperazione (Public Connectivity and Cooperation System) i.e. the secure network for central and local government authorities, delivering interoperability (IO) and applications cooperation (AC) services to them. ICAR’s budget is approximately 25 M �� RI� ZKLFK� ��million provided by CNIPA (National Center for Informatics in Public Administration). 16 Regions and the Autonomous Province of Trento participate in ICAR (out of Italy’s 21 Regions) and the project is coordinated nationally by CISIS, the association of CIOs of Regional Authorities. The project was formally approved in June 2005 and started on a full scale in June 2006.

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x� to establish the secure interconnection of regional public administration (PA) networks following the rules of SPC;

x� to guarantee data exchanges and application cooperation across all PA in different regions; x� to implement and test standard protocols and formats for data exchange in a number of critical

application/business domains for the delivery of services to end users by Regional Authorities.

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According to the model agreed for the SPC, AC is based on the exchange of messages between systems/applications based in different organisational domains, but usually in the same business domain (health services, civil registration services etc.). In order for it to work, the exchange of messages must be based on shared rules. Specifically, the messages must have a standard and shared format, at interregional level, both for the “envelope” (with information about sender, receiver and so on) and for its content, e.g. civil registration data of a citizen requesting health services.

ICAR therefore must address two levels of complexity:

x� one at infrastructural level, which deals with the general mechanisms and services to exchange messages across different business domains;

x� the other, closely linked to the business domain, which deals with the message’s content and is addressed by Application Integration Services.

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Infrastructural IO and AC services must guarantee that the application services belonging to different Regional Authorities can communicate with each other, according to the interaction paradigms (service request/event notification) and to the collaboration profiles (synchronous/asynchronous) which have been chosen for cooperation at national level. Such functions are application/business domain independent and can be distinguished as:

x� services publishing and search services. The application services which have been enabled for cooperation must be published by the body which delivers them, i.e. information which is needed by potential users to access the service (service description, its physical and logical address, methods for


47

remote access and application messages format) must be formalised and made available in standard ways, through appropriate schemes. The reference standard for the Registry’s implementation and access is UDDI;

x� messages exchange between application services. Communication takes place by sending-receiving a message. Cooperation is made possible thanks to the adoption of a standard format for the “envelope” of the message (e-government envelope or an extension of it). The reference standard here is SOAP.

According the SPC’s specifications, ICAR will also provide: network resources management services, monitoring of the services levels achieved and interregional authentication services.

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The application integration services have the task of converting data and documents from the specific format of each regional/local information system into the standard formats agreed at interregional level. The reference standards are XML (for the message’s content codification) and XML schemes (i.e. DTD and XML Schema), which allow to define the structure of the exchanged messages’ content and the shared vocabulary.

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ICAR is made of 10 different sub-projects: three infrastructural ones plus seven application/business-oriented ones. Each sub-project is coordinated by one Leading Partner/Region and groups a variable number of other Regions/Partners. In fact, all ICAR member Regions participate to the three infrastructural projects:

x� INF-1 “Implementation of the base infrastructure for IO and AC at “interregional level” aims at setting up the physical and logical infrastructure for IO and AC;

x� INF-2 “Management of SLA tools at interregional level” aims to define common/shared services for the management of SLA tools needed for the constant monitoring of service levels achieved;

x� INF-3 “Implementation of an interregional Federated Authentication System” aims to define and implement a federated authentication system at interregional level.

Each one of the seven application/business projects (AP 1-7) wants to test and to prove the quality and adequacy of the IO and AC infrastructural services, within specific business/application domains. The AP projects will produce the specifications for and implement the Application Integration Services needed to interface the existing applications at intra-regional level (legacy systems) and the inter-regional IO and AC infrastructural services (developed under INF 1-3). The application/business domains have been selected according to three criteria:

x� relevance/urgency of interregional AC needs in each domain; x� significance of the envisaged test in each domain for the overall validation of the interregional IO and

AC system; x� number of Regions showing a real interest in participating to the test and making use of the results

expected in each domain.

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48

x� AP-1 “Interregional cooperation and compensations in heath services” to support the delivery of health services and the automation of the related financial compensation flows at inter-regional level, which occur when a citizen receives assistance in a different region from the one where he/she officially lives;

x� AP-2 “Cooperation among civil registration services” (which are managed locally by Municipal Authorities) in order to allow citizens to get certificates or other services regardless of the geographical location of the front office in charge of such request;

x� AP-3 “Homogenous Organisational Area” (AOO is the Italian acronym) for the creation of a directory of regional AOOs federated with the national directory of public administrations (Index of PAs http: //www.indicepa.gov.it). The AOOs are the online access points to start administrative procedures with government offices and to manage the related in/out document flows, through electronic filing services. This project is a first step towards automation of inter-organisational document and case handling at inter-regional level;

x� AP-4 “Job and employment services” in order to extend inter-regional services which support the matching of demand/supply of job opportunities and workers mobility;

x� AP-5 “Regional car tax” in order to support car tax collection and related procedures e.g. financial compensations among Regions for car sales or payments made by a citizen outside of his/her residence region;

x� AP-6 “Interregional Observatory of the fuel distribution network” in order to gather and share statistical and technical data on the fuel distribution network which are needed to support optimisation policies of the network itself at interregional level;

x� AP-7 “Interregional Information System with Cinsedo” based on the federation of the regional statistics information systems, in order to support interregional policy definition and policy making processes by single Regional Authorities and by the Conference of the Presidents of Regions and Autonomous Provinces.


49

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Basic data and indicators

Basic Data from Eurostat updated to April 2008

Population (1 000): 1 342.4 inhabitants (2007)

GDP at market prices: 15 546.6 million Euros (2007)

GDP per inhabitant in PPS (Purchasing Power Standards, EU-27 = 100): 68.4 (2006)

GDP growth rate: 7.1 % (2007)

Inflation rate: 6.7 % (2007)

Unemployment rate: 4.7 % (2007)

Government debt/GDP: 3.4 % (2007)

Public balance (government deficit or surplus/GDP): 2.8 % (2007)

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Estonia is divided into 15 counties and 227 urban and rural municipalities (towns and parishes) and their powers and responsibilities were established by the Local Government Organisation Act of June 1993. The government of each county is led by a County Governor, who represents the national government at regional level and is appointed by the Central Government for a five year term. Local self-government is exercised solely at the municipal level. The Constitution of the Republic of Estonia was adopted on 28 June 1992. Estonia became a member of the European Union on 1 May 2004.

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Percentage of households with Internet access: 53 % (2007)

Percentage of enterprises with Internet access: 94 % (2007)

Percentage of individuals using the Internet at least once a week: 59 % (2007)

Percentage of households with a broadband connection: 48 % (2007)

Percentage of enterprises with a broadband connection: 78 % (2007)

Percentage of individuals having purchased/ordered online in the last three months: 6 % (2007)

Percentage of enterprises having received orders online within the previous year: 7 % (2007)

Percentage of individuals using the Internet for interacting with public authorities: obtaining information 27.4 %, downloading forms 20.6 %, returning filled forms 20.2 % (2007)

Percentage of enterprises using the Internet for interacting with public authorities: obtaining information 74 %, downloading forms 71 %, returning filled forms 58 % (2007)


50

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The Estonian E-governance history dates back to the 1990s. In 1998, an Internet portal called the Estonian State Web Centre was created. It contains links to all governmental institutions’ websites and everybody has access to it. With the development of Internet services, the domain riik.ee has become an inseparable part of the Estonian e-government and the symbol of Estonia in the Internet.

In August 2000, the Government of Estonia, as a world pioneer, changed its Cabinet meetings to paperless sessions using a web-based document system. The system, coupled with the use of digital signatures, eliminates the need to send loads of papers between ministries for consultation. It gives ministers a possibility to participate in the session from any location. The system, created by Estonian IT companies, saves approximately three million Estonian kroons (192 000 EUR) per year in paper and copying costs.

Estonian public sector e-services development can be summarised by the following main events and development projects: 1991 Internet based e-mail service and the Internet News System 1994 Government web page 1996 First available Internet databases “Riigi Teataja” 1998 Estonian State Web Centre http://www.gov.ee 1999 Database Person/Institution http://www.riik.ee/ab 2000 – 2001 The Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM) virtual secretariat http://www.bcmvs.net/ 2000 – 2001 The Estonian Government of ministers session information system 2000 – 2001 Modernization Program National Databases – X-road 2000 – 2001 I Decide Today http://tom.riik.ee/ 2000 – 2001 Public server for small government institutions http://ats.riik.ee/ 2002 – 2005 E-elections development

Some of the main challenges of developing Estonian E-governance services are described below. This was gained as a result of transparency, making information available on the Web, phone numbers of ministers and salaries of government officials. One of the obstacles encountered when introducing e-Government related disciplines (also mentioned by other experts) was public resistance to change, technological fear and limited readiness and inertia of state agencies. This was overcome by a common will to construct a sound economy and a modern and efficient state from scratch, to break with the Soviet administration’s bureaucracy habits. Another obstacle that emerged was a situation in which scarce human resources, work organisation, reaction capability and performance of IT-related structural units meant it was not possible to keep up with the changing priorities and expectations of IT support development.

Some of the main difficulties and related challenges in developing public e-services can be described as follows:

/HJLVODWLRQ: Legislation gets outdated quickly as services develop. Legislation supports the separation between institution/institution, state/citizen, etc. The elaboration process of a legislation is time-consuming and gradual and the absence, lateness or limitation period of regulations have often hindered the implementation of necessary fast ICT solutions. Therefore new /improved legislation is needed through Information Policy and Action Plan, databases and new priorities.

$FFHVV�IRU�SHRSOH��People, especially in the countryside, have difficulties accessing public services. Digital signatures are accepted slowly. Therefore establishing public internet points has proved to be especially useful.


51

(�JRYHUQPHQW�� Most databases are not oriented to usage. Institutions’ databases are often separated. Addresses, classifiers, geodesy systems, security standards are sometimes missing. The main challenge here is to create use-oriented databases.

7HFKQRORJ\�DQG�VWDQGDUGV: General quality standards for public sector IT projects are not sufficient. Quality and auditing standards for public sector IT projects need to be set.

)LQDQFLQJ� It is difficult to monitor financing effectiveness. The challenge is to manage financing of IT projects through EU structural funds and monitor long-term projects.

An internationally standardizable formula for the development and introduction of e-government probably does not exist. However it is possible to identify key principles which an e-government strategy must satisfy. Above all, there is the need to establish a central, responsible authority as well as a need for long-term planning. IT policy needs rapid updating at all times. IT policy is all the more successful the wider the circle that developed it. According to IT expert Linnar Viik, the characteristic feature of “correct ” e-Government shall be a balanced combination of electronic services and forms of electronic participation.

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When the Soviet Union collapsed 15 years ago, Estonia faced an incredible opportunity: to build a government from scratch. A big part of the story from 1991 to 2004 was building e-government and an information society. Today, around 52% of the population has Internet access and 91% have mobile phones even though the country's GDP is generally much lower than western European countries. All schools are connected to the Internet, and there are more than 700 public access points around the country. There's also an enormous proliferation of free wi-fi, including access at all Estonian gas stations. Additionally, e-banking rates are also among the highest in the world. Even if many people assume Estonia's success is simply because of the location and population size; it should be considered that Estonia's neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania, have almost half the Internet penetration rate as Estonia's. Estonia has been investing significantly in ICT development - approximately one percent of the national budget each year for the last decade. They never had a national strategy when they started in 1991. So principles of information policy were created which were passed by the parliament. This led to project-based development guided by these principles. They also had little baggage from previous practices: as a new country, they could develop e-government with a clean slate. One of the main challenge for Estonia wasn’t introducing ICT but changing procedures and rules, and they were quite fortunate to do so because there wasn't much resistance. Project Tiger Leap, an initiative started in 1996 to connect all Estonian computers to the Internet, played a major role. The task was completed tin 1999, and it was one of the first countries in the world to do so. Estonia also managed to connect all local governments by 2001, and all libraries by 2002. Meanwhile, a private sector initiative called Look@World worked to promote the information society to the general public. The program taught basic Internet use to 100,000 Estonians - 10% of the population - over the course of two years. Five years ago, Estonia also introduced what was called the e-cabinet, which put flat-screen computers in the ministers' meeting room. Some difficulties were met in getting the ministers to use them. But the program made decision-making at the ministerial level much more transparent. Estonian ministers now tend to participate in cabinet meetings even when they're not physically there. ICT introduction is also having an impact on corruption and good impact in terms of transparency. Estonia is one the first country which will offer nation-wide offsite e-voting this year. Anyone with a national ID smart card and a card reader will be able to vote wherever they may have Internet access. They also launched a website, http://tom.riik.ee, called “I Decide Today”. The site allows the public to file official requests for new policies or legislation. If their recommendation gets rejected, the government is required to give a formal explanation why they made that decision. For example, Estonia never had daylight savings time, because it is so far north. But the public proposed it for a variety of reasons and it was adopted.


52

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The Estonian IT legislation has been elaborated and enacted to a large extent (see Tabel 1). Additional legal background is set in the following documents: Principles of Estonian Information Policy and (1998, 2004) and Action Plan of Estonian Information Policy (1998-2006).

Tabel 1. IT related legislation in Estonia

Name Passed on date

Archives Act 25.03.1998

Broadcasting Act 19.05.1994

Copyright Act and Associated Acts Amendment Act 06.01.2000

Cable Distribution Act 31.05.2001

Citizenship Act 19.01.1995

Consumer Protection Act 15.12.1993

Contracts and Non-Contractual Obligations Act 26.01.2001

Databases Act 12.03.1997

Digital Signature Act 08.03.2000

Electronic Communications Act 08.12.2004

Official Statistics Act 11.07.1997

Personal Data Protection Act 12.06.1996

Population Register Act 31.05.2000

Principles of Estonian Information Policy 13.05.1998

Public Information Act 15.11.2000

Public Procurement Act 19.10.2000

Riigi Teataja Act 20.01.1999

Securities Market Act 17.10.2001

State Liability Act 02.05.2001

State Secrets Act 26.01.1999

Telecommunications Act 09.02.2000

The most important legal acts related to information society in Estonia include:


53

x�Public Information Act (Freedom of Information Act) (2000)

x�Personal Data Protection Act (1996)

x�Databases Act (1997)

x�Digital Signatures Act (2000)

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One of the acts that had a significant influence on the development of public sector activities in the IT field was the Public Information Act, which came into force on 1 January 2001. It was enacted to ensure that the public has the opportunity to access information intended for public use and to monitor the performance of public duties.

The act defines the term “public information” as information which is recorded and documented in any manner and on any medium and which is obtained or created upon performance of public duties provided by law or legislation issued on the basis thereof. Access to information must be granted by a holder of information who, generally, is a state and local government agency or legal person in public law and natural person performing public duties. The enactment of the Public Information Act became the basis for several national ICT programs and projects. The most extensive of them is the records management program of government agencies.

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The Personal Data Protection Act was first adopted in 1996. The present Personal Data Protection Act can be regarded sufficient to protect individuals from the misuse of their personal data and to provide civil servants, individuals and entrepreneurs with various data services. In order to map the problems that arose in the course of implementing the act, an expert group was established in 2005 to analyse the Personal Data Protection Act and draft necessary amendments.

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The current Databases Act (adopted in 2004) regulates the establishment and maintenance of state databases. The current act regulates, first and foremost, the establishment and maintenance of databases.

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The Digital Signatures Act regulates operations such as e-banking, e-shopping etc; however it does not replace the notary. General principles of the act are:

x� possibility to identify the person, determination of the time and detectability of any subsequent change;

x� technical neutrality;

x� determined legal consequences.


54

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In Estonia the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is responsible for the general ICT coordination – more precisely the Department of State Information Systems. The tasks of the department include the coordination of state IT-policy actions and development plans in the field of state administrative information systems (IS): state IT budgets, IT legislation, coordination of IT projects, IT audits, standardisation, IT procurement procedures, and international cooperation in the field of state IS. (www.riso.ee)

The Estonian Informatics Centre, which is a subdivision of the ministry, is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the development of state registers, computer networks and data communication, standardisation, IT public procurement, monitoring Estonian IT situation, etc. There are also IT councils of ministries and IT councils of counties. In addition, there is the Estonian Informatics Council, which is a government committee of experts and the implementing body in the general coordination of state information policy. By the end of 2002 the new organisational structure of ICT development was created - see Figure 1 below. (www.riso.ee)

The State Information Policy Action Plan sets out different fields of IT development where different ministries are responsible (see chapter 5 Future Plans). Cooperation has been enlarged also between public and private sector organisations in order to implement joint operating and further development of systems elaborating ICT infrastructure and information society. This is manifested, for example, in providing opportunities for using identification systems for clients of commercial banks when entering integrated databases of the public sector, as well as in agreements sealed between public and private sector organisations for the joint elaboration of systems developing the information society (e.g. Look@World - major project of public and private companies). (http://www.riso.ee/)

The Estonian information policy, called ”The Principles of the Estonian Information Policy 2004-2006” sets out the main principles, priorities and objectives for developing the information society in coming years. The State Interoperability Framework and the related documents were an initiative of the ministry and are available at http://www.riso.ee/infopoliitika/koosvoime/. (www.esis.ee)


55

Figure 1. Organisational structure of ICT managemnt in Estonia

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Estonian E-government initiatives reveal the nature of activities led by the public sector to reinforce the efficiency of communication between government and citizens. E-governement initiaties involve various e-services, target programmes and projects i.e. X-path, ID-card and E-Governance Academy. A short overview of e-governemnt initiatives is given below based on www.esis.ee and Information Technology in Public Administration of Estonia, Yearbook 2005.

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There is a variety of eServices being developed both by the private and public sector. The main E-services in Estonia are:

x� E-Government Portal

x� Electronic Riigi Teataja

x� Public Procurement

x� Customs eSystems

x� e-TaxBoard

x� Land Information System


56

x� Other eSystems

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In 1998 within the project “Vahetu Riik” (in English “Direct Government”) a common access point for Estonian government agencies and constitutional institutions was created through the Internet domain riik.ee (gov.ee) and the Virtual Estonian Web Centre was established for administering it. In addition to the role of being the state portal it has also acquired the role of integrator and coordinator of national information systems. Several virtual servers and websites of state institutions and projects use the domain’s resources. At the same time it has served as a basis for several other projects, such as the “Today I Make Decisions”, “eCitizen” and “X-Road”.

The aim of the “Today I Make Decisions” is to enhance the population’s participation in the state’s decision-making processes. One can submit ideas, guidelines, and thoughts and comment on draft legislation submitted by others or elaborated by ministries during the creation phase. Ideas that have found support among users will be submitted by Prime Minister’s resolution to respective agencies to be executed. The public can constantly monitor what happens to the idea.

Additionaly local governments have been provided with the option to disclose their documents in the common and integral server. Since the beginning of 2000 every state agency and local government has had the option to use the modules of public services in the e-government server. The following modules are available: guest-book, voting, discussions, and questionnaires. All state and local government agencies can use these modules free of charge. These so-called communication modules can be used for organising discussions and polls on the web. For citizens there are service forms available to communicate with state agencies. Forms are in PDF-format and can be printed out or filled in directly on the screen.

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On 1 June 2002 a new important register was launched in Estonia - the electronic Riigi Teataja (State Gazette). Pursuant to the Riigi Teataja Act, Riigi Teataja is the official publication for the legislation, international agreements, reasoned judgments of the Supreme Court, notices and other documents of the Estonian Republic. The act stipulates that electronic Riigi Teataja (further eRT), which is one of the main national registers, will be published in addition to the publication on paper. eRT is an Internet-based information system with public access that allows to make inquiries within the whole information system of legislation.

E-RT includes e-services such as:

x�in eRT whole texts or the version of legislation including all changes made to the initial text of the legislation are published. The whole text is drafted and published electronically after the enactment of every change in the legislation and after legislation has been repealed.

x�eRT allows authorised users to electronically submit documents directly to the information system.

The users of the eRT information system can be divided into two large groups:

- users of public services are users of the Internet-based information system of Riigi Teataja who are entitled to search for and print documents;

- authorised users or users with access to data processing to the extent prescribed by law. Authorised users are divided into:


57

x�Data providers - state and local government agencies that submit their documents for publication. Data providers are entitled to add their documents and respective data and certify the authenticity of submitted data. The authorised representative of a data provider is appointed by the head of agency. In case of electronic Riigi Teataja it should be noted that data providers are geographically located all over Estonia.

x�Data submitters - agencies that submit texts to the information system and that check and confirm the correctness of submitted legislation and other documents and their conformity to publication requirements. Data submitters also include writers of whole texts. On the basis of the data submitter’s confirmation, the document’s readiness for publication and public disclosure in the information system is defined.

x�In addition, the separate role of administrators is specified: administrators administer the system of user rights and monitor the functioning of the system.

Texts in eRT and Riigi Teataja are published the way data providers have sent them to the State Chancellery. Initial texts are submitted for publication by the Chancellery of the Riigikogu, Office of the President, State Chancellery, ministries, National Electoral Committee, Eesti Pank (Central Bank of Estonia), Supreme Court, local governments, administrative courts. Whole texts of acts, regulations and orders of the Government of the Republic are submitted by the Ministry of Justice. Ministerial orders are submitted by respective ministries. Depending on the use, eRT is divided into public service environment and extranet working environment for authorised users.

Users can access eRT at http://www.riigiteataja.ee/ert/ert.jsp (in Estonian) and also via links in the e-government portal http://www.riik.ee/ and other Estonian web portals. In addition to eRT, texts and whole texts of legislation can be accessed also through free ESTLEX-online services both directly via the e-government portal and via the web address http://lex.andmevara.ee/estlex/kehtivad/AktSearch.jsp (in Estonian).

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In 1997 the elaboration of the electronic public procurement information system was started. In April 2001 a government’s decision provided the establishment of the State Procurement Register, which became the basis for carrying out public procurement. As a result all activities related to public procurement are Internet-based. The register was launched on 1 April 2002.

In order to be able to enter one’s public procurement notice, tender or any other document into the register, the purchaser has to register him/herself. The purchaser registered in the state procurement register can enter a preliminary notice, notice, tender or tender for design contest through the link on the register’s homepage. Entered documents are checked by the employees of the register and if the information is in conformity with the Public Procurement Act, it will be confirmed and the next workday the confirmed document will be available for all Internet users on the register’s homepage under “Electronic Bulletin”.

Since the document is available for everyone in the Internet, all those interested in public procurements can turn to the purchaser on the basis of this information to apply for participation in the public procurement, receive the tender documents from the purchaser and make their tender.

The described procedure requires daily monitoring of the public procurement information system. In order to make it easier for tenderers to get information they are interested in, the register’s homepage includes an option to subscribe to the receival of this information via the tenderer’s e-mail address. The tenderer registers him/herself as a user of the register and notes also his/her topic of interest about which she/he wants to receive information about via e-mail. The notice with short information on a respective public procurement is sent in the morning of the first workday after the entry of tender in the register.


58

Following the procedures of public procurement the purchaser must enter also the declaration and report on respective public procurement in the register. Information about disputes is entered by the employees of the management division of the Public Procurement Office.

The homepage of the Public Procurement Office http://www.rha.gov.ee/, which is the connecting link between contractors of public procurement (purchasers) and companies (tenderers), includes all information that is of interest for both parties.

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On 1 May 2006, the new information system COMPLEX was introduced at the Tax and Customs Board. COMPLEX allows customs declarations to be submitted electronically. This makes it possible to change the functions of customs inspectors, who have so far been dealing mainly with the formalisation of declarations, and refer them to inspection and follow-up inspection, simultanously saving time for the users.

Taking into account the intensity of development projects related to joining the EU, it is not really a consolation that the burden on the main system - drawing up declarations - actually has decreased expectedly up to 70% after the accession to EU, as most of the goods are exchanged with the EU member states. At the same time, Estonia has become the external border of EU and requirements regarding reliability, availability and functionality of systems have increase.

At the same time cooperation with other offices and interfaces to the systems of other offices are enhanced - X-Road project, the project for automating internal services introduced in the Ministry of Finance, information system of the Tax Board, database or register of the Motor Vehicle Registration Centre, the Border Guard, the Police or some other agency. The implementation of digital signature and ID-card in the development of IT environment of the Customs Board should also be mentioned.

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Thanks to the cooperation initiative between commercial banks and Eesti Telefon in 1999, the modernisation plan for the work organisation of the Tax Board and the general e-strategy of the Tax Board were elaborated by the beginning of 2000. The e-strategy comprised several smaller projects and the first stage of one of the e-projects was aimed at providing self-employed taxpayers with the opportunity to submit their income tax returns of 1999 to the Tax Board in March 2000 via the Internet portals of Hansapank and Ühispank. This was the beginning of the present e-TaxBoard. The project was successful and citizens reacted positively.

On 1 November 2002 the IT departments of the Tax Board and the Customs Board were joined. The purpose of the consolidation was to establish a joint information system for tax authorities of national taxes, which would help to enhance the performance of IT processes for tax authorities and the performance of duties of structural units in order to improve services for the taxpayers and to help achieve the Government priorities.

The e-TaxBoard application was launched in November 2000 and the e-TaxBoard portal was opened on the Tax Board’s homepage. Since February 2002 ID-card owners have the option to enter the e-TaxBoard with the ID-card via the Tax Board’s homepage http://www.ma.ee/. If the taxpayer has not previously concluded an agreement for using e-TaxBoard, it will be concluded electronically the first time the service is accessed with the ID-card. In 2005, 409 529 or 82% of all income tax returns were submitted theourgh E-tax board (16% increase compared to 2004).

Taxpayers can perform the following procedures in the e-TaxBoard:

x� file, view and correct their VAT returns

x� file, view and correct their social tax and income tax returns


59

x� send their income tax return as a file (this option is only through the Tax Board’s homepage)

x� view precepts on imposing VAT , income tax and social tax

x� submit VAT refund applications

x� view decisions, transfers, and payment orders on submitted VAT refund applications

x� submit personal income tax return

x� view previous income tax returns

x� view social tax calculated, paid and transferred to the Social Insurance Board by employers

x� view tax account balances and tax account cards

x� send notices, proposals and questions

x� receive information about the tax arrears or lack of them of certain people.

More information on the e-TaxBoard is available at http://www.ma.ee/ema/ (information in Estonian and English).

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The Land Information System (LIS) has stemmed from the Cadastral Information System (CIS) or data production system, which mainly serves as the basis for the maintenance of the land cadastre. In addition to CIS, the land information system also includes data management and application via public services in the Internet. The Public Service System is a tool for achieving one of Estonian Land Boards’s (ELB) main objectives, i.e. to provide society with land related information, by enabling public access to spatial data maintained by ELB. The Public Service System is a group of services based on the Land Board's databases and map server available in the Internet.

Public services of LIS are divided into undirected and directed public services. Undirected services are meant for use by everyone. Access to services is free. Directed services, however, are meant for use by certain user groups (such as land surveyors, land advisers of local governments etc.). Access to such services is limited and the users must have a user name and a password to access them. The following are examples of extracts of Land Information System: cadastral map with numbers of parcels, a soil map, an historical map of a city (see Figures 2-4).


60

Figure 2. An example of the cadastral map with numbers of parcels (scale 1:10,000)


61

Figure 3. An example of a webpage with Soil Map

Figure 4. An example of a historical map of Pärnu City from 19. century

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Other e-systems include Estonian Government of Ministers Session Infosystem, e-State Treasury, Centre of Registers of the Ministry of Justice and Services of the Court Settlements Register.

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The Estonian Government of Ministers Session Infosystem (http://www.riik.ee/valitsus/viis/viisengl.html - in English) is an Internet-based information system for preparing and realising Cabinet meetings and informing the public. The system was elaborated and implemented in 2000. The implementation of the system established preconditions for organising digital records management in the Government after the implementation of digital signature and e-records management. The system has been improved with regards to the application of the results of the Records Management Program (RMP) in the State Chancellery.

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The e-State Treasury is an Internet application maintained by the State Treasury to provide agencies with an option for communicating with the State Treasury via the Internet (http://www.fin.ee/?id=227 - in Estonian only). In the e-State Treasury agencies can make payments, reservations, send notices and receive statements of payments. All this is performed quickly and securely by using the authentication service provided by banks. The services of the e-State Treasury are operations that enable agencies to submit data (reservations, payments, notices) to the State Treasury and receive data (daily journal, statements) from the State Treasury. The e-services of the e-State Treasury are grouped so that an agency can authorise different employees to use different e-services.


62

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The Centre of Registers is a state agency under the administration of the Ministry of Justice. The main functions of the Centre of Registers include the administration of central databases of court registers (commercial register, land register, register of non-profit associations and foundations, etc.) and also other databases. In 2002 the Centre of Registers started to provide several electronic services, such as replying to name inquiries of enterprises, receiving electronic annual reports of enterprises, information on compulsory dissolution, etc. Access to e-services is available at https://info.eer.ee/ari/ariweb_package.avaleht?keel=1 in Estonian, German and English.

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The Register of Court Settlements (http://kola.just.ee/, in Estonian only), which functions as a part of courts information system, is mainly an Internet-based form of cooperation for the employees of courts and the Ministry of Justice. After the Public Information Act came into force, the register also became partly available to the public. The database makes the settlements of civil, criminal, and administrative matters available to the public through the search system after their entry into force, in case no restrictions to disclosure have been provided by law. It is also possible to view statistical reports on case procedures.

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The Estonian Information Policy Framework contains priority projects, the outcomes of which create new services for citizens and entrepreneurs, as well as projects aimed at integrating IT solutions, which have so far functioned autonomously, into integral information systems functioning over the Internet. The shift towards client-oriented approach is characterized by the fact that along with the development of e-government there is a concept of e-citizen and e-services provided for e-citizen.

Main target programmes and projects involve:

x� Record Management

x� X-Road (Databases)

x� ID Card

x� Digital Signature

x� Citizen’s IT Environment

x� eJustice Project

x� eCounty Project

x� eVoting

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The development of document management is the responsibility of the Records Management Department of the State Chancellery. Its main tasks include planning public sector document management and archiving, organising drafting of relevant legislation, and co-ordinating the development of document management in state agencies (incl. transition to electronic document management).

In order to better co-ordinate public sector document management, the Records Management Department of the State Chancellery established a co-operation network of records managers in spring 2004. The co-


63

operation network supports the State Chancellery in drafting the public sector electronic document management strategy. The main objective of the strategy for the coming years is to ensure fast, simple and convenient document management in the public sector.

Within the framework of developing regulatory environment for the document management, the State Chancellery has drafted amendments to the uniform bases for the document management procedures. These amendments regulate digital signing and authentication. The integrated drafting of legislation on document management and archiving is planned for 2006-2007.

Proceeding from the Principles of the Estonian Information Policy 2004-2006, the information policy action plans for 2005 and 2006, and the Development Plan for Document Management and Archiving 2002–2005, the State Chancellery launched the electronic document exchange project in 2005. The project aims to create interfaces between the document management systems of ministries, ensure interoperability between their information systems, increase the share of electronic document management in ministries, and develop electronic document proceedings. As a result, the various document management systems of ministries will be able to exchange documents via the data exchange layer X-Road.

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The architecture of eGovernment in Estonia was developed in the framework of the X-Road project. The project was initially launched for linking Estonian state databases to the common data resource accessible over the internet. After the successful start of sending database queries and answers over the internet, the X-Road environment was expanded to send all kinds of electronic documents in XML-format securely over the internet. Furthermore, X-Road became the skeleton for all eGovernment services.

The general architecture of the eGovernment is outlined in Figure 5. The main backbone of the eGovernment environment is the X-Road network of distributed and central servers. The eGovernment project itself started in parallel to the X-Road infrastructure project and the ID card and PKI projects were launched in parallel to the development of some back-office information systems. Of course, there was a set of information systems developed beforehand.

The essence of the eGovernment is that different information systems communicate with each other via security servers (SS), which are built up as special firewalls storing all the messages (queries, services) in logs. This means that after a long period of time it would still be possible to restore past situations, e.g. who has used the service and when, as well as what kind of decisions have been made in a particular context.

In the eGovernment environment, information systems provide and also consume services. Estonian commercial banks (more precisely Hansapank, SEB Eesti Ühispank, Sampo Pank, Krediidipank and Nordea Pank) are playing three different roles in the eGovernment scheme. First, they provide portals (connected to the eGovernment environment) with the authentication service for citizens. This is because all Estonian citizens do not possess the ID card yet, but more than half of the population already has contracts with commercial banks for using internet bank facilities. The authentication mechanism provided by banks is considered as trustworthy as that based on the ID card and valid for using eGovernment services.


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Figure 5. E-goverment architecture in Estonia and X-road role it it.

Second, some of the services come at a cost and, therefore, a solution has been developed for paying these charges. At first, the citizen transfers money to the bank and right after the transfer the e-service will start automatically. Third, the banks themselves are users of data and e-services and they are using this environment just like any other information system.

Figure 5 shows that every information system is connected to the X-Road security servers via adapter servers (AS). Adapter servers are converters for translating X-Road messages in XML format to special database query language (mainly SQL) and from query answers back to XML. The data transfer protocol currently used is SOAP. At the same time, the older XML RPC protocol is used as well.

The X-Road centre is actually the heart of the eGovernment environment as all central servers (central monitoring server, certification server, etc.) of the whole network are connected and located in that centre. The centre employs special staff for managing eGovernment hardware, software, internet connections, agreements, etc. The management group organises courses, seminars, and co-ordinates co-operation with the European Union. A new central register of databases was added to the X-Road centre at the beginning of 2005. On one hand, this register includes the description of all Estonian public sector registers and databases. On the other hand, the register gathers all descriptions of e-services in WSDL (Web Service Description Language) format, which enables to develop different automatic tools by using the library of e-services for automatic generation of new services on the basis of these descriptions. This provides a new opportunity for doing research and for the development of projects in the near future.


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The Estonian Certification Agency (CA) is responsible for the developments related to the ID card, digital signature and other PKI infrastructure elements in Estonia. Direct communication between citizens and the eGovernment environment works over a set of communication portals: the Entrepreneur Portal, the Civil Servant Portal and the Citizen Portal. At the beginning of 2005, the first services for the Entrepreneur Portal started to be developed. Currently, the application for alcohol sales permit is the most popular one. At present, the Civil Servant Portal is implemented as a Mini InfoSystem Portal (MISP). It is used in nearly 70 different central and local government agencies. All the portals are organised as information portals, which can be used as user manuals and service portals for eGovernment services.

The Citizen Portal was developed three years ago and has been the main channel to mediate eGovernment services between the citizen and the government (http://www.eesti.ee/). According to the law, every Estonian citizen has the right to know what kind of data the government has gathered about him or her. Below is and overview what kind of information a citizen can attain after logging in to X-road.

Estonian Health Insurance Fund

x� European health insurance card

x� Personal data

x� Monetary compensation

x� Health insurance

Information System of Estonian Education

x� Student’s certificates

x� History of changes in student’s data

x� Student register’s data

Information System of Estonian Higher Education Admissions

x� Data of higher education admissions

Estonian Motor Vehicle Registration Centre

x� Inquiry on personal motor vehicle

x� Inquiry on driving license

x� Inquiry on personal small boats

Building Registration Database

x� Registered personal property

x� Documents related to persons

x� Registered buildings on real property

Estonian Citizenship and Migration Board̀ Information System Database

x� Person’s inquiry on his/her data inquiries

x� Person’s card

Real Property Registration Database


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x� Citizen’s real property

Citizen’s Portal

x� Entry to citizen’s portal

Registration of Compulsory Pension Fund

x� Person’s data

x� Person’s choices

x� Balance report of pension account

x� Statement of pension account

Land Information System

x� Inquiry on location

x� Inquiry on characteristics

Registration of Economic Activity

x� Inquiry on entrepreneur

x� Inquiry on registration

x� Inquiry on grant of concession

Estonian Tax and Customs Board Database

x� Inquiry on personal ID code

Registration of Pension Insurance

x� Family support application

x� Your statements

x� Your pension, supports and compensation

x� Application on continuation of parent’s compensation

Population Registration

x� Citizen’s inquiry on his/ her data

x� Citizen’s opportunity to inform about mistakes in his/ her data

x� Citizen’s opportunity to inform about changes in his/ her data

Estonian National Examination and Qualifications Centre

x� Inquiry on constitution and citizenship law examination

x� Registration to constitution and citizenship law examination

x� Inquiry on placement examination in Estonian language

x� Registration to placement examination in Estonian language

x� Viewing and changing personal data

x� Viewing data on national examinations


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x� Ordering SMS alert on national examinations results

x� Registration to national examinations

National Registration of Service and Civil Weapons

x� Weapons

x� Weapons‘ permit

Database of Persons and Procedures of Penalties

x� My files

Commercial Register

x� Company search

x� Inquiry on personal data

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The national ID-card project was elaborated in cooperation with private sector representatives, thus creating preconditions for the implementation of a common signing practice. As a final result, digital signing has become easily usable for everyone and is cheaper and more effective than traditional signatures i.e. paper and pen.

ID-card is generally suitable wherever a person needs to be authenticated or when documents have to be signed. This means that ID-cards have not been created only for a certain service or application. The authentication with an ID-card functions securely and it is convenient to use the card wherever user names, passwords, code cards etc. have so far been used - whether for Internet banking services, internal applications of a company, intranets or public portals- basically wherever identification is necessary. It is convenient mainly because, on the one hand, the system administrators need not bother themselves about the administration of user names and passwords and, on the other hand, a person does not deal with multiple passwords and password cards.

It is secure because a person can check whether his/her passwords (secret keys) are under control - whether the ID-card is still in his/her possession. In case the card is lost its, it can be blocked with a phone call. Thus a person can be responsible for his/her ID-card and the usage of it. As a result the service provider can be sure that it is namely this person (and not some third person who has got hold of the passwords) using the system and that it can be also proved afterwards.

The ID-card can be used also for signing and encrypting e-mails. Every authentication certificate includes the person’s e-mail address [email protected] (XXXX is the random four-digit number assigned to the person). The person can register his/her daily e-mail address in the mail server and respective mails will be forwarded to that address. This service is elaborated together with the national e-Citizen project, which could also become the official communication channel between the state and the person.

The main function of the ID-card is to allow digital signatures. A format description (ETSI TS 101 903) extending the XML-DSIG standard was adopted in Europe and this allows to provide a basis for common treatment of digital signature. The file signed can be as an XML file or as any binary file (.TXT, .PDF, .RTF, etc.). It is possible to sign one file or several files simultaneously, there can be more than one signature and the files can be situated by the signatures or separately. It is also possible to add certificates and their validations, etc.


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In order to make the implementation of digital signature easier for the parties, the DigiDoc project was initiated in Estonia. This project comprises agreed file formats as well as program libraries and applications for handling them. These program libraries are meant for everyone to use, whether as a direct library or as samples of a useful code. This helps to follow the common format in the applications of all parties. For example, a certificate issued by a bank must be suitable for submission and use in the Tax Board and vice versa. In case a person, who is a party to some contract, downloads a document in his/her computer, she/he should have a client program that would allow to check and put digital signatures. This, in turn, would allow to use digital signatures system also separately, for example between other companies and individuals.

As a primary application, the free secure signing portal has been elaborated for ID-card owners. Provided a person has an ID-card and a computer with a properly adjusted ID-card reader, is it possible to upload a document, which will be digitally signed, in this portal. In addition to the person’s own signature this document can be opened for signing by other people, provided they have an ID-card. It is also possible to search for persons in the catalogue, when necessary. The parties can download the signed document from the portal to their computer and retain it.

In addition to the portal technology the DigiDoc-Client applications, which allow to sign documents and check signatures in the workplace computer, have been developed. The DigiDoc-portal and the DigiDoc-Client are freely applied in whatever relations - whether the party being a state agency, a company or a private person. The party must only have an ID-card and a computer with the card reader (in order to sign).

Additional information on the ID-card and its applications is available at http://www.id.ee/pages.php/0303 summary in English); information on applying for ID-card is available at http://www.pass.ee/2.html (in Estonian, English and Russian) and on the technological infrastructure at http://www.sk.ee/pages.php/0203 (in Estonian and English).

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As a result of the first stage of the project, a document called “Introduction of digital signature in the state agencies - strategic plan” was completed by 30 November 2001 by the specialists of Privador AS and Cybernetica AS. In March 2002 the first pilot projects were launched in the Tax Board (digital signing and electronic transmission of tax declarations) and in the Centre of Registers of the Ministry of Justice (digital signing and electronic transmission of annual reports).

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The citizen’s IT environment values citizens. Every citizen has his/her own information system (office). The citizen’s information system is equivalent to that of a ministry, city government or a bank. The citizen can communicate with all national information systems through his/her personal information system (office). All information systems will have the possibility and obligation to communicate with the citizen’s office and reflect the performance of the citizen’s “business” in his/her office. The citizen no longer needs to search for the service but has the opportunity and right to order the service and monitor the performance of the service “without leaving his/her office”.

The citizen’s IT environment (CIT) is a set of information technology devices used through the Internet browser for all citizens (more precisely all inhabitants) for communicating with the information systems of state and local government agencies, private enterprises and third sector institutions (further referred to as agencies). The broader goal of the CIT’s establishment is to allow all people to obtain information about their rights and obligations, and to actively participate in the public life at national, regional as well as at local level - to be an “active” citizen. The devices of CIT can be divided into three categories:


69

x� &LWL]HQ·V� SDUW� �FLWL]HQ·V� SRUWDO� DQG� WRROV�� Every citizen can directly use the following basic components: citizen’s records management system, electronic forwardable mailbox, and a secure environment for accessing services, including digital signing.

x� .HUQHO� SDUW� �NHUQHO� WRROV� IRU� VHUYLFHV). Rules and kernel tools will be elaborated to realise and easily access citizen-oriented e-services of the information systems of agencies.

x� 3XEOLF� SDUW� �LQIRUPDWLRQ� SRUWDO�� Information portal is a web with free access for the preventive notification of people about their rights and obligations; it is also the citizen’s gate to e-services.

The services provided through CIT are divided into information services and e-services. Information services are administered in the so-called information portal. There are no restrictions to the usage of the information portal. If the information portal refers to a service that requires authentication, the user must authenticate him/herself to use the service. Information services are hierarchical and are divided into layers.

E-services are divided into three subgroups:

1. 'LUHFW� VHUYLFHV primarily comprise the citizen’s options to check data that is gathered on him/her, make changes in his/her data, participate in e-elections, etc. Direct services are realised within the X-Road project.

2. In case of a SURFHGXUDO� VHUYLFH� the citizen fills in the form and thus forwards his/her problem/question to a respective agency where a case is initiated to solve the problem. The citizen can see the procedural process of the case in his/her private area. The citizen can be informed about the solving process of his question also through e-mails or SMS messages provided she/he requires so. During the proceedings concerning procedural services, the citizen’s problem might pass through several institutions and last a while, a fact which extends the total time limits fixed in respective records of management procedures/procedural services.

3. In case of IRUP�VHUYLFHV� the citizen fills in the form and prints out his/her problem/application. The citizen forwards the filled form (sends an e-mail, a regular mail, or delivers personally) to a respective agency. In case of using form services the citizen can also request to be informed about the progress of the proceeding.

Additional information about the project, documents, solutions and components is available at http://www.riik.ee/ekodanik/ and at the website’s links (in Estonian with a short overview in English). New versions of information portal in CIT are also in preparation in English (http://www.eesti.ee/eng/) and in Russian (http://www.eesti.ee/rus/).

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The aim of the e-Justice project is to create a user-friendly cooperation environment where drafts for coordination as well as all information about the draft’s life time (draft legislation, draft elaboration timetable, coordination time limits, contacts of the draft elaboration work group, different comments, questions, search engine, etc.) are available. The project is primarily aimed at civil servants (law-makers, lawyers) who elaborate and coordinate draft legislation. The system includes the so-called chat-room where work group members and other elaborators of draft legislation can express their opinion and discuss and comment on drafts under elaboration. This provides opportunities to conduct debates over disputable standpoints before the final coordination. The implementation of the project would thus make the coordination process of law-making more transparent. The public will also be able to use the project. Citizens will be able to express their opinion about the content of drafts already during the coordination and (similarly to the portal TOM - Today I Make Decisions) the right to present ideas for initiating creation or supplementation of necessary legislation. Behind what might seem as an easy task there is actually a complicated and secured Internet-based technological


70

solution and thus the implementation of user authentication mechanism and digital signature, which should be based on agreed document formats, standards, and tools. The creation of the latter is carried out in cooperation with the records management program (RMP) of government agencies.

The eJustice system is accessible at http://eoigus.just.ee/ (only in Estonian). Further information on the eJustice project is available on the homepage of the Ministry of Justice at http://www.just.ee/index.php3?cath=1569 (in Estonian). The eJustice concept is available in English at http://www.just.ee/index.php3?cath=1573.

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The main aim for establishing a county map server is to make the information of counties and local governments that is related to planning available through the Internet (http://www.emaakond.ee/). The map server must provide interested groups (specialist of ministries and divisions, specialists of planning departments of county governments, environmental advisers of local governments, architects, land owners, real estate and tourism developers, country study and geography teachers, etc.) with the option to quickly and easily get information on the development plans of an area of interest, natural and human resources, historical and natural places of interest, objects under protection, and restrictions.

The map server enables planning and development specialists to interactively supplement data layers or download necessary data; the server also enables representatives of different interest groups to interactively participate in the planning process, i.e. comment on or criticise proposed planning solutions and make proposals to improve them. The public service of the map server helps to avoid inadequate decisions and illegal deals that are due to the lower availability of the so-called room or map data.

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The development of the Estonian eVoting system started in 2003 with the aim of providing voters with an additional opportunity to cast their votes, thereby raising voting activity and voting convenience. eVoting does not replace the traditional methods of voting: each voter can decide whether to vote electronically or in a traditional way. In Estonia, internet-based voting was used for the first time during the local government elections in October 2005. 9317 voters voted electronically, 30 of them decided to go to a polling station too and, thus, their e-votes were deleted. The number of valid e-votes was 9287 accounting for 1.85% of all votes cast. eVoting took place during advance polls and ID cards were used for voter authentication. Only authenticated people with the right to vote were able to cast their vote, meaning that a database of citizens with the right to vote was developed prior to elections. eVoting followed all principles characteristic of traditional voting. In order to avoid influencing voters there was a possibility of electronic re-vote – e-voters could cast their vote again electronically. Only the last vote was counted. Additionally priority was given to traditional means of voting (with paper ballot) - if the voter went to a polling station during advance polls and cast a vote, his or her e-vote was deleted.

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In the summer of 2002, the Government of the Republic of Estonia, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Open Society Institute (OSI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding, agreeing to jointly set up a regional e-Governance centre in Estonia. As a consequence, the e-Governance Academy (eGA) was officially founded in December 2002. The main objective of the e-Governance Academy is to train and advise leaders and stakeholders in using information and communication technology to increase government efficiency and to improve democratic processes with the aim of building open information


71

societies. Geographically, the Academy focuses on the former Soviet republics, Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia. More recently, activities in the Caucasus and in the Middle East have been developed. One of the core activities through which eGA pursues its goals is to train high level officials, specialists and representatives of the third sector. The e-Governance Academy is also an important instrument for the promotion of networking, by bringing experts and participants together. During the years 2003 – 2005, eGA has provided training to more than 400 participants from 26 countries, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Sri-Lanka. Next to these training and consulting activities, 2005 marked the completion of the online self-evaluation tool BEGIX (Balanced eGovernance Index) that has been developed in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Council of Europe. The Academy has also been active in promoting the use of free and open software, particularly in the public sector. In addition, the Academy is developing methodologies and guidelines for the reduction of corruption using ICT, and will develop this activity further. Other important issues for the coming years include the development of e-governance issues that are specifically aimed at local governments, the further extension of its activities concerning e-Democracy, and the development of materials focussing on data security and privacy protection. As the importance of research in the Academy’s activities grows, eGA will endeavour to extend its research efforts by continuing to document and systemise best practices from around the world, by initiating publications and by creating scholarship funds. All information about the activities of the e-Governance Academy can be found on its website, http://www.ega.ee/.

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According to one of the leading Estonian IT experts Villem Alango the following key success factors proved to be essential in e-Governance developments in Estonia:

x� 3ROLWLFDO� DQG� LQVWLWXWLRQDO� FRPPLWPHQW. Clear political decisions to develop and implement new paradigms resulting in today's e-Governance were made more than 10 years ago. Legislation changes facilitating these new patterns followed in a timely manner. Implementing of "e" also involved dramatic changes of working processes and overall organizational culture in public institutions. Without a clear top-level commitment, those changes could not be successful.

x� *RRG�333��3XEOLF�3ULYDWH�3DUWQHUVKLS�� Mutually beneficial partnership between public and private sector proved to be especially important in different public inclusion programs i.e. "Look at the World" involving massive cultural dissemination, building public internet points and providing free training to inhabitants.

x� 3XEOLF� LQFOXVLRQ� Underestimation of this topic would lead to digital divide and contents gaps, thus degrading the performance of the whole society. The following means are essential for public inclusion: 1) internet penetration making communication services available (PPP was successfully applied here); 2) user training must be available in order to provide basic skills and understanding on how to use PC-s and internet services; 3) ensuring equipment/connection availability for the whole population, including less-wealthy families; 4) Public Internet Points (PIP) in cities, rural centers, etc.

x� (VVHQWLDO�LQIRUPDWLRQ�VHUYLFHV. Public inclusion results in consolidation, administrative transparency and active citizenship only when a critical set of C2G and G2C services is available and functional. Without this, there is no e-Governance.

x� 6WDWH�OHYHO� LQIUDVWUXFWXUH�DQG�ZRUNIORZV. To provide basic services, state and municipalities have to maintain their information resources and specific workflows, usually implemented in form of register systems. Ensuring data quality is a permanent activity that has vital meaning both for the state and


72

citizens. To be effective, this activity has to be implemented as a part of the main workflow, not only as a set of special measures. Information availability via real-time services and cross-operation of register systems are essential and powerful instruments for achieving data quality.

A new strategy for the ”Principles of the Estonian Information Policy” that also takes into account the objectives and priorities of the EU information strategy in 2010 is currently being elaborated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The implementation of the Estonian information policy is based on annual information policy action plans, which set out concrete activities, responsible authorities, expected outputs, and evaluation of finances. The priority fields of the information policy action plan 2006 are the following:

1. *HRLQIRUPDWLRQ�V\VWHPV: development of geoinformation services so as to ensure their ease-of-use and to make digital cards available for all authorised users and other information systems. Responsible authority: Ministry of Environment

2. 'RFXPHQW� PDQDJHPHQW� DQG� GLJLWDO� DUFKLYLQJ: increasing the share of electronic document management and launching digital archiving in order to ensure faster, easier and more convenient management of public business. Responsible authority: State Chancellery

3. 5HRUJDQLVDWLRQ�RI�WKH�SRSXODWLRQ�LQIRUPDWLRQ�V\VWHP: pursuant to the Population Register Act, the register has to ensure the collection of main personal data of Estonian citizens and aliens, who have obtained residence permits in Estonia for the performance of functions of the state and local governments. Responsible authority: Ministry of Interior

4. $GPLQLVWUDWLRQ� V\VWHP� IRU� WKH� VWDWH� LQIRUPDWLRQ� V\VWHP� �5,+$�: development of a new administration system for the state information system. RIHA will be an integral system covering all components of the state information system, administrating their metadata, providing services, and performing, to the extent provided by legislation, the administrative function of support systems. Responsible authority: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

5. 'HYHORSPHQW� RI� VRFLDO� ZHOIDUH� LQIRUPDWLRQ� V\VWHPV: consolidating the performance of social welfare functions into an integral service-based system and improving, in co-operation with state agencies dealing with employment and health matters, the quality of service provision to citizens. Responsible authority: Ministry of Social Affairs

6. ,&7�LQ�HGXFDWLRQ�DQG�UHVHDUFK: supporting the follow-up to the TigerLeap programme and the Tiger University+ programme, the Estonian Grid project, the Estonian Research Information System project and the Estonian School Information System project. Responsible authority: Ministry of Education and Research

7. H,QFOXVLRQ� DQG� EURDGEDQG� VWUDWHJ\: ensuring benefits related to the use of computers and the internet for all Estonian citizens, and increasing, thereby, Estonia’s competitiveness and the creation of new jobs. This priority field mainly includes activities aimed at increasing the supply and availability of fast internet connections, while matters related to the demand-side are dealt with in other fields of the current action plan. Responsible authority: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

8. H3URFXUHPHQW: digitising the whole public procurement process, beginning from tender notifications to signing of contracts. Responsible authority: Ministry of Finance

9. 3UHVHQWDWLRQ� OD\HU�IRU�WKH�VWDWH� LQIRUPDWLRQ�V\VWHP: creation of a singe point of entry that would ensure standardised access to e-services provided by the public, the private and the third sector, and would lead to:

x� improved quality of service provision by uniform and centrally provided e-services;


73

x� increased efficiency in the public sector as a result of the re-use of similar functions and the elaboration of a framework suitable for the standardised presentation of e-services. Responsible authority: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

10. H6HFXULW\: development of a co-ordination mechanism for the management of IT security matters and organisation of respective co-operation. This priority field also includes awareness-raising activities in the field of IT security both for the public sector and for the whole society. Responsible authority: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

11. H%RUGHU: joining the Estonian border control information system with respective EU systems. Responsible authority: Ministry of Interior

12. &R�RUGLQDWLRQ� RI� WKH�VWDWH� ,7� SROLF\� DQG� WKH� UHVSHFWLYH� (8�FR�RSHUDWLRQ: ensuring that the co-ordination, implementation and monitoring of the priority fields set out in the action plan would be carried out in accordance with common principles. Responsible authority: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

13. (OHFWURQLF� OHJDO�SURWHFWLRQ is a set of projects aimed at the development of e-services for citizens and the creation of an ICT working environment for law-enforcement authorities in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior. Responsible authorities: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Police Board

14. 'LJLWDOLVDWLRQ� RI� FXOWXUDO� KHULWDJH is a project integrating several sub-projects that target the protection and preservation of Estonia’s cultural heritage and making it accessible for all by means of modern IT solutions. Responsible authority: Ministry of Culture

15. H+HDOWKFDUH: development of an intelligent patient-centred environment and creation of e-services that would enable the collection, processing and preserving of health-related information irrespectively of an individual’s location, time etc. Responsible authority: Ministry of Social Affairs

16. (QYLURQPHQWDO�5HJLVWHU: integration of environmental data into the register to an extent provided by legislation, updating the Environmental Register Act and ensuring the functioning of databases necessary for data exchange. Responsible authority: Ministry of Environment

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Recent years have seen a startling growth of data protection legislation in Estonia. The first Personal Data Protection Act came into force in July 1996. It was the first law to deal specifically with personal data. It was quickly followed by Databases Act of 1997, which regulated the establishment and maintenance of databases, and replaced the Soviet Socialist Republic State Registers Act of 1990. On 1 January 1997, the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate was established under the Personal Data Protection Act. The growth of legislation continued with the introduction of the Public Information Act and the Human Gene Research Act in 2001, both of which have repercussions on the use of personal data. A new Personal Data Protection Act came into force on 1 October 2003.

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The main task of the Data Protection Inspectorate is the independent supervision of the processing of personal data and keeping of databases, as well as organizing data protection activities. One of the most important functions of the Inspectorate is the continual monitoring and improvement of legislation of the Act. According to Article 32 of the Personal Data Protection Act the Data Protection Inspectorate is, in the performance of its


74

functions, independent and shall act pursuant to Personal Data Protection Act, other Acts and legislation established on the basis thereof. The main task of the Data Protection Inspectorate is the implementation of the independent supervision over the legality of processing personal data and keeping databases, as well as organizing data protection activities. The issue of precepts to the chief and authorized personnel dealing with databases, and the administrative penalization for violating the order of keeping and processing of personal data, also falls within the competence of the Data Protection Inspectorate.

In addition to the abovementioned, Data Protection Inspectorate supervises compliance with the Public Information Act. The purpose of the Act is to ensure that the public and every person has the opportunity to access information intended for public use, based on principles of a democratic and social rule of law and an open society, and to create opportunities for the public to monitor the performance of public duties.

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The area of activity of the Inspectorate is state supervision of the processing of personal data, management of databases and access to public information and the discharge of other functions imposed by law or on the basis of law.

The principal functions of the Inspectorate are:

x� exercising state supervision over the observation of requirements deriving from the legislation regulating the area of activity of the Inspectorate and, if necessary, application of enforcement of powers of the state;

x� participation in the development of legislation related to its area of activity, and proposing the amendments and supplementations to such legislation;

x� participation in the development of policies, strategies and development plans related to its area of activity; preparation and implementation of projects related to its area of activity, incl. participation in preparation and implementation of international projects;

x� participation in international working groups and the work of international organisations related to its area of activity.

In performing its principal functions, the Inspectorate:

x� cooperates with natural and legal persons, state and local governments and with corresponding institutions of other states and international organizations within the limits of its competence;

x� represents the Republic of Estonia within the limits of its competence in international organizations with the same area of activity;

x� organises and performs the exercising of obligations of the Republic of Estonia arising from international agreements and legislation of the European Union related to its area of activity and participates in inspection operations deriving from those;

x� prepares the draft of the budget of the Inspectorate and the report on the execution of the budget of the financial year;

x� develops and implements the strategy and work schedules of the Inspectorate;

x� monitors and evaluates the current situation in its area of activity and informs competent authorities of the situation;


75

x� informs the public of developments, changes and accomplishments in its area of activity;

x� adjudicates petitions, complaints and challenges in its area of activity; participates in court proceedings within its competence;

x� issues precepts in cases and on procedures prescribed by law;

x� carries out misdemeanour procedures within its competence;

x� manages the national registry of processors of personal data;

x� issues activity licences and other documents within its competence and following procedures provided by legislation;

x� consults other parties in questions related to its area of activity and holds information days, training days and professional trainings;

x� fulfils other obligations set forth in legislation.

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The structure and composition of the Inspectorate is confirmed by the Minister of Justice based on the motion of the Director General. The structural units of the Inspectorate are departments, which can also include divisions. The departments do not have executive powers regarding people outside the Inspectorate, unless otherwise stated in the law. The department is supervised by its head or an official appointed by Director General, who is a direct subordinate of the Director General or Deputy of Director General. The competence and functions of the director of the department are defined in the statutes of the department and job description.

The departments of the Inspectorate are the development and analysis department, control department and general department.

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x� compiles the priorities of the activities of the Inspectorate and organises the preparation of the required instructions for supervision functions;

x� compiles reports on the progress and developments in the field of data protection, and on the activity of the Inspectorate;

x� organises foreign relations and international cooperation of the Inspectorate, including participation in the work of international data protection and information freedom organisations;

x� organises foreign aid related matters;

x� organises disclosure of information related to the activity of the Inspectorate.

7KH�&RQWURO�GHSDUWPHQW, which is comprised of registration, proceedings and supervisory divisions:

x� carries out supervision and control over data processing and access to public information;

x� resolves complaints, challenges and disputes that fall under the competence of the Inspectorate and carries out misdemeanour procedures within the Inspectorate’s competence;

x� processes incoming applications for registering the processing of sensitive personal data;

x� prepares precepts in cases and manners prescribed by legislation.


76

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x� organises the work and administration of the inspection and the preparation of the corresponding reports;

x� organises personnel and training work and the preparation of the corresponding reports;

x� organises establishing, implementing and reporting of the budget of the Inspectorate;

x� organises the public procurement of state property and resources and the corresponding reports.

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The Inspectorate is managed by the Director General, who is appointed to office by the Government of the Republic on the basis of the recommendation of the Minister of Justice for five years.

The Director General cannot be appointed to office for more than two successive terms.

During the absence of Director General he or she will be substituted by the Deputy of the Director General or in the absence of the latter Head of Department designated respectively by the Director General.

The director general of the Inspectorate is independent when exercising his or her obligations and acts on the basis of the constitution, the law and legislation enacted pursuant to the former.

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x�is responsible for the precise and expedient observation of laws and legislation enacted on the basis of law regulating the activities of the Inspectorate;

x�acts in the name of the Inspectorate and represents the Inspectorate and authorises other officials to represent the Inspectorate;

x�issues the service-related directives for implementation, according to law, regulations or provisions of the Government of the Republic, or regulations or directives of the Minister of Justice, which are binding for all the employees of the Inspectorate;

x�manages the activities of the Inspectorate through the Deputy of the Director General and the Heads of Departments, decides over and organises the implementation of the tasks within the competence of the Inspectorate and is responsible for the results of the activity;

x�presents the Minister of Justice recommendations for organising the area of activity of the Inspectorate;

x�confirms the statutes, operations procedures, internal procedure rules, accounting policies and procedures and other documents organising work and the job descriptions of the employees of the Inspectorate in accordance with legislation;

x�appoints and releases from office the employees of the Inspectorate and signs, amends and terminates employment contracts;

x�presents the Minister of Justice with recommendations for appointing a substitute in case of suspension of the service relationship of the Director General of the Inspectorate;

x�applies incentives and imposes disciplinary penalties for the employees of the Inspectorate pursuant to the grounds and procedure prescribed by law;


77

x�confirms the salary grades of the Inspectorate based on the current legislation and remuneration fund;

x�presents the Minister of Justice with recommendations concerning the approval and alteration of the structure and composition of employees of the Inspectorate;

x�presents the Minister of Justice with recommendations concerning the Inspectorate’s budget of expenditures, is responsible for the accurate and expedient execution of the budget and for intentional exploitation of state assets;

x�owns the right for first signature on the Inspectorate’s bank and accounting records, designates other officials holding signatory rights;

x�makes contracts on behalf of the Inspectorate;

x�issues orders, which are binding to all employees of the Inspectorate;

x�undertakes public procurements within his or her competence;

x�decides over the state assets possessed by the Inspectorate based on the State Assets Act and the legislation based on that;

x�informs the Constitutional Committee of the Riigikogu and the Chancellor of Justice of the compliance of the activities of the Inspectorate with the constitution and other Acts and legislation;

x�participates in the development of acts and other legislation dealing with the area of activity of the Inspectorate;

x�performs other tasks assigned to him or her in an Act or legislation issued on the basis of an Act.

'HSXW\�RI�WKH�'LUHFWRU�*HQHUDO�RI�WKH�,QVSHFWRUDWH�

x�coordinates, guides and controls the activities of the Development and Analysis Department and Control Department;

x�coordinates, guides and controls the participation in preparation of and making proposals for amendments and alterations of legislation related to the area of activities of the Inspectorate;

x�issues oral and written orders to the structural units of the agency within his or her competence;

x�demands that the Heads of Departments under his or her supervision report on their activities;

x�represents the Inspectorate within his or her competence and powers conferred to him or her by the Director General;

x�signs the documents of the Inspectorate within his or her competence;

x�in the absence of the Director General, substitutes for him or her, where necessary;

x�makes proposals for the Director General for promotion of or applying incentives for employees;

x�develops co-operation with other executive state authorities;

x�performs other tasks assigned to him or her by legislation or lawfully presented by the Director General.

Estonia’s Data Protection Inspectorate is participating in many European working groups and projects. One of the main working groups is Article 29 Data Protection Working Group. Also, the Inspectorate is the partner of INTERREG IIIC project called e-PRODAT.


78

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Article 29 Data Protection Working Group was established by Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC. It is an independent EU Advisory Body on Data Protection and Privacy. The main tasks of the Working Group are:

x�To provide expert opinions from member states to the Commission on questions of data protection;

x�To promote the uniform application of the general principles of the Directive in all member states through co-operation between data protection supervisory authorities;

x�To advise the Commission on any Community measures affecting the rights and freedoms of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and privacy;

x�To make recommendations to the public at large, and in particular to Community institutions on matters relating to the protection of persons with regard to the processing of personal data and privacy in the European Community.

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e-PRODAT:

The Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate participated in the project named "e-PRODAT", which wanted to promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences between Agencies and other public bodies concerning the protection of personal data used by Governments and Public Administrations for the provision of public services, and specially those related to e-Government or based on the Internet, helping in particular to create best practices recommendations in this area.

The Project has three main goals:

x�The exchange of knowledge and experiences related to personal data protection in public bodies belonging to different European countries;

x�To create an Internet based "European e-Government data protection observatory", for the permanent assessment on the accomplishment with European data protection laws and principles and the awareness of data protection issues among European citizens;

x�Identifying best data protection practices already in place for e-Government or other public bodies’ services, and building recommendations for increasing data protection standards in the public sector.

The project lasted 24 months and started on 1 February 2005. The total budget was 820.000,00 euros, while 515.000,00 was provided by the European Union INTERREG IIIC-South (FEDER) program, and partnership included:

- Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid (Spain, leading partner)

- Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Estonia)

- City of Bologna (Italy)

- Abruzzo Region (Italy)

- Region of Western Greece (Greece)

- City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain)

- Association of local Authorities of the Municipality of Kavalas (Greece)


79

- University King Juan Carlos (Spain)

- University of Patras (Greece)

Links:

e-PRODAT: http://www.eprodat.org

Article 29 Working Group: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/workinggroup/index_en.htm

European Data Protection Supervisor: http://www.edps.eu.int

Data Protection - European Commission: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/

Data Protection Authorities: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/nationalcomm/index_en.htm

Data Protection Inspectorate: http://www.dp.gov.ee/index.php?id=14

�� 7KH�$6�6HUWLILWVHHULPLVNHVNXV��6.�&HUWLILFDWH�&HQWUH��

SK (Certification Centre, legal name AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus) is Estonia’s primary and currently the only certification authority (CA), providing certificates for authentication and digital signing to Estonian ID Cards.

The core function of AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus (SK) is to ensure the reliability and integrity of the electronic infrastructure behind the Estonian ID Card project. It functions as a CA, provides certificates to the card and also to the services necessary for utilizing the certificates and giving legally binding digital signatures. It also operates as a competence centre for ID Card and spreads the knowledge necessary for creating electronic applications to the card. In Estonia it’s already possible to give legally binding digital signatures using applications based on SK-s DigiDoc architecture. Established in February 2001 by two leading Estonian banks Hansapank (member of the Swedbank group) and SEB (member of SEB Group) and two telecom companies, Elion and EMT (members of the TeliaSonera group), SK has the backing of Estonian and Nordic financial and telecom sector. SK is currently offering its services, incl. involvement in R&D projects, across the Baltic.

Its customers include the Estonian court system and notaries, Central Bank and commercial banks, enforcement organisations (e.g. Police) and many others. They are contributing the results of their work on digital signatures to the international digital signature community as an open user group, open source project OpenXAdES.org available at http://www.openxades.org/.

SK closely cooperates with the Estonian government, working together with the Estonian Citizenship and Migration Board in issuing the ID cards. The first Estonian ID cards were issued in January 2002. In five years, more than 1,000,000 certified ID cards have been issued (more than 65% of the whole population, above 80% of the population aged 15-74). SK as a service provider played a crucial role in the first e-voting in 2005 (local elections in Estonia) as well as in 2007 (parliamentary elections in Estonia). In co-operation with Estonia’s leading mobile operator EMT, SK has launched the first commercial wireless PKI service in the Baltic region, which is called Mobiil-ID. SK has also partnered with the largest Lithuanian mobile operator Omnitel with the aim of launching the service in Lithuania. In order to promote common technical PKI standards, SK was among the parties which established the Baltic WPKI Forum in February 2007. SK and its partners have developed a secure, reliable, easy-to-use digital signature architecture named DigiDoc. Based on European standards, combined with Estonia's clear digital signature legislation and the society's receptiveness to new technologies like the Internet and mobile solutions, DigiDoc is already helping people to transform private, business and state communications. People can use Estonian ID cards and DigiDoc to give digital signatures in any form of communications and acting in any role. This technology has become a de facto standard in Estonia. More than two million digital signatures have been given using DigiDoc. The system is used by most


80

of the public sector, e.g. by the Estonian courts, central government, local municipalities as well as the businesses, banks being the leaders.

ID cards have an impact on more than one business process and enable new business practices that were unforeseen at the time of the initial setup. Since 1 March 2004 the public transportation system of Tallinn has employed a new fully electronic ID card-based sales, payment and control system. The ID-ticket system enables the passengers to purchase suitable electronic ID-tickets (e.g. 1-hour-ticket, one day ticket, 30-day travel card etc.) either via a secure website and an internet bank, mobile or ordinary phone, special ATM or for cash at selected outlets. The ticket is personalised (considers the unique personal code of the individual), its validity can be configured by the individual to start from a suitable date. The system is paperless. For checking of ID-tickets, the inspectors are equipped with special hand-held terminals so they can instantly check on-site whether a person has a valid right to travel. Within three years, the system has grown and accounts now for nearly 70 per cent of the municipal ticket income. A total of over 2 million ID-tickets have been sold, ID-tickets are regularly used by more than 120,000 persons. The success of the system has been recognised by the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (officially abbreviated to ITL) which awarded SK the title “IT Accomplishment of the Year” in 2006. In the context of the pan-EU tachograph system, which has been launched in full-scale in 2006, SK has created a unique software and service system which enables to issue, maintain and control the certificates for the digital tachograph cards. SK as a partner in the consortium which won the respective national tenders, is involved in the relevant projects in Estonia, Latvia as well as Lithuania.

For more information on SK: http://www.sk.ee/

ts: www.pilet.ee

ID Card practices: www.id.ee

Digital Signatures: www.openxades.org

Baltic WPKI Forum: www.wpki.eu

�� (�JRYHUQPHQW��7KH�(VWRQLDQ�*RYHUQPHQW�H[DPLQHV�WKH�,WDOLDQ�0RGHO�

In February 2007 the Italian model of e-Government was at the centre of attention of the Estonian Government. A North-European Ministry delegation paid a visit to CNIPA (National IT Centre of the Public Administration) to acknowledge features and progress of the process of e-Government in Italy. The official delegation was received by the Director General of CNIPA, Caterina Cittadino; among others, its mission was to study in depth the specific technological applications for the modernization of the public and private machinery, ranging from SPC (Public Connectivity System) to digital signature services, certified e-mail, IT protocol and dematerialization of documentation. Director General Cittadino outlined CNIPA’s strategies and in particular, emphasized the objective to thoroughly support Minister Luigi Nicolais’ political choices through actions aimed at enhancing potentials and effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) in terms of efficiency, productivity and improvement of the PA services which are provided to citizens and businesses in light of the increased competitiveness of the Italian system. In this regard, Ms Caterina Cittadino underlined the Government’s intention to improve connectivity also in those Italian areas which were not served by wideband and last but not least, to pay particular attention to overcoming the digital divide. The Estonian delegation expressed great interest in the ICT development in Italian public administrations, above all with reference to the tax system and electronic identity, including all the related services. The decision was taken to share documentation and information, in order to jointly utilize the technological experiences of the two countries. During the three days in Rome, the Estonian delegation visited


81

CNIPA, but also CONSIP, the Market and Competition Authority and the Monitoring Authority on public work and service contracts.


82

��

��,'$%&�3URJUDPPH�IDABC stands for Interoperable Delivery of European e-Government Services to public Administrations, Business and Citizens. It takes advantage of the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies:

x� to encourage and support the delivery of cross-border public sector services to citizens and enterprises in Europe;

x� to improve efficiency and collaboration between European public administrations and;

x� to contribute to making Europe an attractive place to live, work and invest.

To achieve its objectives, IDABC issues recommendations, develops solutions and provides services that enable national and European administrations to communicate electronically while offering modern public services to businesses and citizens in Europe. The programme also provides financing to projects addressing European policy requirements, thus improving cooperation between administrations across Europe. National public sector policy-makers are represented in the IDABC programme’s management committee and in many expert groups. This makes the programme a unique forum for the coordination of national e-Government policies. By using state-of-the-art information and communication technologies, developing common solutions and services and by providing a platform for the exchange of good practice between public administrations, IDABC contributes to the i2010 initiative of modernising the European public sector. IDABC is a Community programme managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Informatics.

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On 9 March 2005 the European Parliament and the Council approved the eContentplus Programme, a multiannual Community programme to make digital contents in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable. The 4-year programme (2005–08), proposed by the European Commission, has a budget of ��

million to tackle organisational barriers and promote the taking up of leading-edge technical solutions to improve accessibility and usability of digital material in a multilingual environment.

The Programme addresses specific market areas where development has been slow: geographic information (as a key constituent of public sector content), educational content and digital libraries (cultural, scientific and scholarly content), in particular the creation of the European Digital Library.

�� 9,,�)UDPHZRUN�3URJUDPPH�±�&RRSHUDWLRQ�3URJUDPPH��

The specific programme on 'Cooperation' supports all types of research activities carried out by different research bodies in trans-national cooperation and aims to gain or consolidate leadership in key scientific and technology areas. FP7 allocates EUR 32 413 million to the Cooperation programme. The budget will be devoted to supporting cooperation between universities, industry, research centres and public authorities throughout the EU and beyond. The Cooperation programme is sub-divided into ten distinct themes among which Information and Communication Technologies. Each theme is operationally autonomous but aims to maintain coherence within the Cooperation Programme and allows joint activities cutting across different themes, through, for example, joint calls. The ten identified themes reflect the most important fields of

f�g�h�i�jk i�l m�l i�j�n�m�l�o p�m�k o i�l�m�q rj�m�s�g�t�i�j�u i r v�w x�y v�i�s"h�m�j�m�k o z�g p�k {�|�} m�l�| ~�i�s�s({�l�o ~�m�k o i�l v)m�s*h�m�o n�l

83

knowledge and technology where research excellence is particularly important to improve Europe’s ability to address its social, economic, public health, environmental and industrial challenges of the future. Their continued relevance will be guaranteed by relying on a number of sources from the research sector, including the European Technology Platforms (ETP).

Important themes identified in the Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs) developed by the ETPs are therefore covered by the Cooperation programme.

Across all these themes, support to trans-national cooperation will be implemented through.

x� Collaborative research

x� Coordination of national research programmes

x� Joint Technology Initiatives

x� Technology Platforms

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CIP aims to encourage the competitiveness of European enterprises. With small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as its main target, the programme will support innovation activities (including eco-innovation), provide better access to finance and deliver business support services in the regions. It will encourage a better take-up and use of information and communications technologies (ICT) and help to develop the information society. It will also promote the increased use of renewable energies and energy efficiency. The programme will run from 2007 to 2013.

The CIP is divided into three operational programmes:

x� Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP)

x� Information Communication Technologies Policy support Programme (ICT PSP)

x� Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE)

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Information Communication Technologies Policy support Programme is aimed at:

x� Developing a single European information space

x� Strengthening the European internal market for ICT and ICT-based products and services

x� Encouraging innovation through the wider adoption of and investment in ICT

x� Developing an inclusive information society and more efficient and effective services in areas of public interest

x� Improving the quality of life

�� /RRNLQJ�IRU�D�(XURSHDQ�6WDQGDUG�IRU�H�*RYHUQPHQW�

Seeking a Standard for E-government

The Comité européen de normalisation organised an eGov-Share Workshop in September 2008 with the intention of creating a benchmark for sharing the information about e-government practices. CEN – European


84

Committee for the Harmonization of Technical Standards launched the eGov-Share Workshop, a project conceived to join the electronic government practices which have been experimented by the European Union in recent years. Basically, CEN provides guide-lines to the information system developers from the various administrations in order to allow for one access point for users. The aim of the initiative is not to harmonize the approaches and solutions adopted by the various countries which will always be subject to cultural divergences, but to create a standard for the sharing of information about more effective e-government strategies.

The community of IT managers, designers and programmers were invited to the workshop, and ensured that the standards and tools provided respond to the needs of every country.

An integral part of the eGov-Share Workshop are two meetings: the Second Summit on "Interoperability in e-Government" which took place in Rome on October 20th 2008, as well as a meeting in Brussels scheduled for January 2009. These two important events will allow interested participants to understand the actual opportunities that the project provides to countries for the creation of electronic services of public use.


85

��

Department of State Information Systems: http://www.riso.ee/en/

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications: http://www.mkm.ee/

State Chancellery: http://www.riigikantselei.ee

Estonian Informatics Centre: http://www.ria.ee/atp/eng/

Estonian Tax and Customs Board: http://www.emta.ee/

Estonian Land Board: http://www.maaamet.ee/

Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate: http://www.dp.gov.ee

Estonian National Communication Board: http://www.sa.ee

Estonia Educational and Research Network: http://www.eenet.ee

eGovernance Academy: http://www.ega.ee/

Look@World Foundation: http://www.vaatamaailma.ee/

Archimedes Foundation: http://www.arhimedes.ee

Tiger Leap Foundation: http://www.tiigrihype.ee

Estonian Information Technology Society: http://www.eits.ee/

Estonian Information Technology Foundation: http://www.eitsa.ee/

Association of Estonian Information Technology and Telecommunication Companies: http://www.itl.ee

IT College: http://www.itcollege.ee/

Estonian eUniversity: http://www.e-uni.ee/main.php

eCitizen portal: http://www.eesti.ee/

eGovernment portal: http://www.riik.ee/en/

eDemocracy portal TOM: http://tom.riik.ee

Use of ID cards: http://www.id.ee/

Passport and ID card: http://www.pass.ee/2.html

Sertifitseerimiskeskus AS: http://www.sk.ee

Business portal: http://www.aktiva.ee

Centre of Registers: http://www.eer.ee

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, E-Estonia, 2005 http://www.vm.ee/estonia/kat_175/pea_175/2972.html

Principles of Estonian Information Policy: http://www.esis.ee/

State Information System: http://www.riso.ee/


86

�� ¢

Linee guida per l’adozione del protocollo informatico e per il trattamento informatico dei procedimenti amministrativi

http://protocollo.gov.it/documenti/Linee_guida.pdf

Protocollo Informatico del Ministero della Difesa:

http://www.difesa.it/ProtocolloInformatico/Principale+normativa+di+riferimento.htm

L'evoluzione dell'e-government in Italia: quale strategia di sviluppo?:

http://www.fondazionepolitecnico.it/contenuti/file/ICT%20&%20Tech%20Solutions%20200206%20.pdf

E-government: sustainable development

http://www.club-cmmc.it/lettura/e_government_2003.htm

L'evoluzione dell'e-government in Italia: quale strategia di sviluppo?:

http://www.fondazionepolitecnico.it/contenuti/file/ICT%20&%20Tech%20Solutions%20200206%20.pdf

Direttiva del Ministro per le Riforme e le Innovazioni nella Pubblica Amministrazione in materia di interscambio dei dati tra le pubbliche amministrazioni e pubblicità dell'attività negoziale:

http://www.funzionepubblica.it/dit/ita/Documentazione/normativa/eGovernment/DigitalizzazionePA/digitalizzazione_direttiva_%20n_%202.pdf

Siater database

http://www.agenziaentrate.it/ilwwcm/connect/Nsi/Servizi/Servizi+telematici/Siatel/

Sister database

http://sister.agenziaterritorio.it/

Telemaco database

http://www.registroimprese.it/dama/comc/comc/IT/bd/index.jsp

Consip database

http://www.acquistinretepa.it/portal/page?_pageid=173,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&firsttab=home

Codice dell'amministrazione digitale (The Code of Digital Administration)

http://www.cnipa.gov.it/site/_files/Opuscolo%2013II.pdf

Linee strategiche verso il sistema nazionale di e-government - Strategic guidelines toward a national e-Government System

http://www.innovazionepa.it/dipartimento/docs_pdf/linee__strategiche_it.pdf


87

��

Schengen Agreement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

IDABC Programme

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/

European Committee for Standardization (CEN)

http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/sectors/sectors/isss/cen+workshop+agreements/index.asp

EU Funding opportunities in the Information Society sector

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/news.cfm?redirection=1&item_type=fo

ICT research funding opportunities under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7, 2007-2013)

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7ActivityCallsPage&id_activity=3

VII Framework Programme

http://cordis.europa.eu/home_en.html

The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)

http://ec.europa.eu/cip/index_en.htm

Information Society and Media Directorate General

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/information_society/index_en.htm

ICT – Information and Communication technologies on Cordis

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/

i2010 - A European Information Society for growth and employment

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm

Key Documents in European ICT Research

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/tl/research/key_docs/index_en.htm

Epractice EU

http://www.epractice.eu/


88

��¢

1. Power Point Presentation: The Italian public interoperability framework and related services - Bruxelles June 25th 2008 - Francesco Tortorelli - Director of Interoperability and applicative cooperation Office at the Italian National Centre for IT in the Public Administration – CNIPA

2. Improving Technology Utilization in Electronic - Government around the World, 2008 - Darrell M. West

3. Benchmarking e-Government in Europe and the US - Rand Europe

4. How to Build Open Information Societies - A Collection of Best Practices and Know-How - Bosnia-Herzegovina – UNDP

5. E-government in Central Europe - Rethinking public administration - Economist Intelligence Unit

6. Comparative study of Public e-service centres in Europe - A contribution to the "e-Inclusion: be part of it!"

campaign of the European Commission - June 2008

7. The User Challenge - Benchmarking The Supply - Of Online Public Services - 7th Measurement | September 2007

8. eGovernance and eParticipation: lessons from Europe in promoting inclusion and empowerment - Jeremy Millard, Danish Technological Institute

9. The Development of eServices in an Enlarged EU: eGovernment and eHealth in Estonia - Authors: Tarmo Kalvet and Ain Aaviksoo

10. Report ‘eGovernment progress in the EU27+’ at the ePractice Library – European Commission – September 2007: http://www.astic.es/eAdministracion/Documents/egovprogress7.pdf

11. eID Interoperability for PEGS - Analysis and Assessment of similarities and differences - Impact on eID interoperability - November 2007 – IDABC

12. The future of eGovernment: – examining the evidence and state-of-play - Trond Arne Undheim, European Commission - February 11th, 2008, Brdo, Slovenia

13. Regional Indicators of e-Government and e-Business in Information Technologies - REGIONAL-IST

14. UN E-Government Survey 2008 - From E-Government to Connected Governance - United Nations

15. ICAR Brochure

16. Good Practice Case - ICAR - a System for e-Enabled cooperation among Regional, Local and National Administrations in Italy - Case Study - 22 August 2006. PPT presentation in the Italian Regions.

17. Interoperability and applicational cooperation - Two years of work – October 2008 (the second part of this study is in English. The first one is in Italian)


89

'RZQORDGV�IURP�,QWHUQHW�

EU: National Progress Report reveals impressive achievements in eGovernment across the EU

http://www.epractice.eu/document/3915

Harnessing ICT to improve public services

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/index_en.htm

Europe’s Information Society Thematic Portal – eGovernment news

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/news.cfm?redirection=1&item_type=news&tpa_id=105