With digital disrupting the whole of Europe's economy, now is the time to focus on the digital transformation of government, at all levels, and the public services they provide. This was the main message from Martin Andreasson, Member of Västra Götaland Regional Council, whose opinion on the eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 was unanimously adopted at the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture yesterday.
Local and regional authorities have a crucial role to play in modernising administrations as creators and administrators of digital infrastructure and services. The rapporteur is therefore convinced that the CoR should be on the eGovernment Action Plan Steering Board, in order to ensure that the discussions reflect the reality on the ground. "We must take responsibility for providing residents with modern services, which meet their expectations in today's increasingly digitalised world" Councillor Andreasson stressed.
Turning to privacy and trust, he noted that transparency and interoperability has to be the starting point, but that information must effectively benefit from proper protection. He also called for more efforts to address the groups of people, who do not have internet access or sufficient digital skills to make use of digital services.
Jean-Francois Junger, representing the European Commission, welcomed the draft opinion saying, "This opinion of the European Committee of the Regions is extremely important given that the vast majority of public and welfare services are delivered locally. If we want to transform our societies, we must make sure that all levels of government can be – and are – fully involved". It will be put forward to a vote at the October Plenary Session.