E-government services in Europe – a comparison of seven countries

E-government services in Europe – a comparison of seven countries

E-government services in Europe – a comparison of seven countries

Over recent years most European countries have gone to considerable effort to offer their citizens as comprehensive an e-government infrastructure as possible, with the aim of efficiently structuring and managing contact with public authorities. However, the divergent framework conditions mean that e-government solutions have developed differently in the individual countries, resulting in a heterogeneous e-government landscape across Europe. This analysis seeks to establish an overview of the state of development of e-government in selected European countries, predominantly taking a citizen’s-eye view of e-government offerings. Individual e-government services were used to establish the status quo and Internet research was undertaken to assess the availability of these services in the selected countries.

This showed that there are significant differences across Europe in terms of the e-government services provided.

Whilst countries such as Estonia or Austria provide a relatively broad range of e-government services for their citizens, there is definite room for improvement in other countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.