Ewa Ziemba and Tomasz Papaj
2.4 Maturity of e‐Government in European Union state members
The five level maturity model( described above) is used in the European Union to asses e‐Government development in individual countries. The e‐Government benchmarking has been based on the measurement of 20 key government services for citizens and enterprises in terms of online sophistication and full online availability( Digitizing …, 2010; Reis, 2005; Matei and Savulescu, 2011). Those service are:( C. 1) income taxes,( C. 2) job search services,( C. 3) social security benefits,( C. 4) personal documents,( C. 5) car registration,( C. 6) building permission,( C. 7) police statement,( C. 8) public library catalogues,( C9) personal certificates,( C. 10) enrolment in higher education,( C. 11) announcement of moving,( C. 12) health‐related services,( B. 1) social contributors to employees,( B. 2) company tax,( B. 3) VAT,( B. 4) company registration,( B. 5) submission of statistical data,( B. 6) customs declarations,( B. 7) environment‐related permits,( B. 8) public procurement. The online sophistication indicator represents the extent to which the 20 key government services allow for interaction and / or transaction between government agencies and citizens or enterprises. Whereas, the full online availability indicator displays the extent to which there is fully automated and proactive delivery of the 20 key government services. Certain services are limited to an appropriate level, according to their character and required government processes and procedures, and confined by law.
The benchmarking of e‐Government services has been systematically carried out in the European Union from 2001. The maturity levels of the 20 key government services are measured and the indicator of full online availability is calculated( The user …, 2007, Benchmarking …, 2009; Digitizing …, 2010). The online sophistication ranking assesses government services delivery against the 5 levels of the maturity model. Whereas the full online availability indicator( measured introducing a threshold to the 5‐level maturity model which is mostly above the 4 th or 5 th sophistication level, depending on the service in question), the EU27 + average stood at 82 % in 2010. The benchmark reveals that in Italy, Malta, Austria, Portugal and Sweden all 20 government key services are now 100 % accessible electronically. For Poland the indicator reached 79 % in 2010( Digitizing …, 2010).
Moreover, Eurostat has been measuring the indicator showing the percentage of 20 key government services, which are fully available online, from 2001. The measurement methodology is the following: if 13 of the 20 government services in a country were measured as being 100 % available online and one government service was not relevant( e. g. does not exist), the indicator is 13 / 19 which is 68.4 %( Eurostat, 2012). Unfortunately, the maturity of e‐Government is lower in Poland than the EU average and in the preeminent countries in this category. In 2006 it amounted to 21.25 % with the score for the EU27 + – 58.27 % and the average for the four EU countries that are the leaders in this category – 100 %. In 2009 it amounted to 55.26 %, with the average for the EU27 + – 72.87 % and the average for the four EU countries that are the leaders in this category – 100 %. In 2010 the indicator was appropriately – 78.75 %, 84.28 %, 100 %( Eurostat, 2012).
In 2010, for the first time, the benchmark took an in‐depth look at the difference in performance at subnational NUTS( Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics)( Digitizing …, 2010) levels in addition to the aggregate country level. It indicates the discrepancy between e‐Government service maturity at different levels( national, regional and / or local) and investigates further the governance efficiency within and across government agencies, and this is the field which may undergo deeper studies. Moreover, the European Commission has recommended to shed light on e‐Government services which are mostly used by enterprises, their degree of sophistication, and in relation to the main barriers to their usage. In its opinion, current reflections and tests on measurement should be pointed to measuring the 20 basic government services at a city and regional level( Benchmarking …, 2009).
The European Union strategic plans for the maturity of e‐Government services in the coming years are set out in“ The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011‐2015”( COM, 2010b). This Action Plan determines key objectives for the European Union state members, in particular by 2015, 50 % of EU citizens and 80 % of EU enterprises will have used e‐Government services. Those e‐Government services will enable entrepreneurs to set up and run business anywhere in the European Union and will allow citizens to study, work, reside and retire anywhere in the European Union. These plans are the part of the European Commission activities to support the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy( COM, 2010a), in particular the flagship initiative called " A digital agenda for Europe " to enhance the development of high‐speed internet and produce the advantages of a unified digital market for households and enterprises( COM, 2010).
563