The UK Government, alongside countries in the EU and the European Free Trade Area, has signed up to the Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment. The declaration commits the UK to ‘digital evolution’ and the ‘digital transformation’ of public services.
Government Minister, Caroline Nokes MP, signed the declaration behalf of the UK. The document states that parties to declaration will:
“Strive to be open, efficient and inclusive, providing borderless, interoperable, personalised, user-friendly, end-to-end digital public services to all citizens at all levels of public administration.”
The key points set out in the document include commitments to take steps in the next five years to:
- ensure that European citizens and businesses may interact digitally with public administration;
- work to increase the readiness of European citizens and businesses to interact digitally with the public administrations;
- work to increase the uptake of national eID schemes;
- make it possible for citizens to better manage their personal data held by public administrations;
- devote resources for more and faster experimentation with emerging ICT within the public administration.
Estonia is well-known for its leading work on so-called ‘e-Government’ and is a country that has been using online voting for elections for more than a decade.
The declaration was signed in Tallinn on the 6th of October during the Ministerial meeting of the eGovernment Ministerial Conference. Representing the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Urve Palo said:
“This marks a new political commitment at EU level on priorities that will ensure high quality, user-centric digital public services for citizens as well as seamless cross-border public services for businesses.”
The full text of the declaration can be accessed here.
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