European e-Government to get €37.5M from EU eTEN programme

These projects cover, for example, eGovernment services, such as e-procurement and the provision of on-line services for citizens or eHealth services that make use of electronic health records and smart cards within healthcare systems.

This support shows how financial resources are being mobilised in support of the Union's eEurope Action Plan. The proposals show how public-private partnerships can help drive the roll-out of new services, exploiting the potential offered by rapid take up of high speed Internet access across the Union.

The proposals show the capacity of electronic solutions to drive far-reaching changes in the way services which directly concern citizens are delivered. They aim to contribute to better, more easily accessible services for citizens and offer important improvements in productivity for public administrations. Moreover all of the proposals involve partners from different Member States, allowing experience and best practice to be shared across the Union.

The eTEN programme runs from 2003 to 2006, providing euros 172.5 million over four years . The proposals were selected following a call for proposals in May 2003. This resulted in proposals involving over 1000 participants from 27 countries. The call focused on proposals that would help make new, on-line services available across the European Union. Proposals were invited in five areas: eGovernment; eHealth; eInclusion; eLearning; and Trust and Security services.

The eTEN programme's level of funding varies depending on the nature of the project. Up to 10% of the initial deployment costs involved in starting up a service can be covered. In the case of demonstrations of the technical and economic feasibility of a service up to half the costs concerned can be covered.

Proposals were selected in all areas of the call. The selected eGovernment services address electronic procurement services and services to citizens e.g. in the area of e-democracy. The selected e-Health proposals include tele-medicine (transfer of data through telecommunication channels), electronic health records and the use of smart cards in health services. In the area of e-Inclusion, the selected proposals include services for elderly and disabled citizens, and measures to overcome problems created by geographic isolation. The eLearning proposals cover education services provided over the web, and Trust and security proposals include biometrics technology (like facial recognition) and measures to ensure the security of electronic transactions.

As contracts are signed, projects will be listed and described on http://europa.eu.int/eten.

The main focus of eTEN in 2003 was the practical realisation of eEurope general interest services objectives – addressing a broad set of applications and generic services in the area of eGovernment, eHealth, eInclusion, eLearning, eBusiness, advanced mobile services and trust and confidence services. The performance of the programme in 2003 and the results of the eTEN Call for Proposals 2003/1 have been very encouraging.

The eTEN Work Programme 2004 builds on this success and addresses the priority issues identified during 2003. It takes into account the comments received from those consulted and the results of the eTEN Call for Proposals 2003/1 and updates the relevant sections from the Work Programme 2003 accordingly.

Operational Objectives

The following operational objectives have been defined for eTEN in 2004 with reference to the strategic objectives and in the context of the objectives of the Trans-European Networks:

> To stimulate and support the deployment of services in support of eEurope;

> To support market validation and deployment with priority on projects addressing deployment;

> To increase participation in the programme by its full range of stakeholders;

> To reinforce and extend national, regional and local initiatives;

> To integrate the 10 new Member States into the programme;

> To continue to improve the procedures, methods and mechanism in relation to the call and project lifecycle.

Objectives common to all actions

One of the objectives of the information society is to provide seamless access to secure services to all citizens, throughout the European Union. With this in mind a set of objectives, common to all Actions, have been defined. These must be addressed by all proposals. The extent to which proposals meet these will be taken into account in the evaluation. Proposed services should:

> Be Trans-European in scope.

> Be in the common interest.

> Address relevant security and trust and confidence issues where appropriate and in the context of the services proposed.

In addition, proposals should endeavour to:

> Conform to open standards and existing or emerging norms, where appropriate.

> Address relevant interconnection and interoperability issues, taking account of national interoperability frameworks and the coming European Interoperability Framework, where appropriate.

> Address delivery over mobile and broadband networks and on multiple platforms where appropriate or advantageous.

Related links to this article:

EU eTEN programme