The key action lines regarding eGoverment put forward by the European Commission include forty specific measures to be implemented over the next five years to enable citizens and businesses to use online services for their interaction with administrations. This Action Plan highlights the benefits that promoting eGovernment can have in helping boost Europe's competitiveness and allow public authorities to offer improved services more cost-effectively at a time of budget constraints.

The European eGovernment Action Plan aims to support the transition to a new generation of open, flexible and seamless eGovernment services at local, regional, national and EU levels. More specifically, the Plan aims to make services work as well in other EU Member States as they do at home and to open the way to allowing users actively to shape the online public services which suit their needs best.

National governments will play a central role in the implementation of the Action Plan whilst the Commission’s main responsibility is to improve the conditions for development of cross-border eGovernment services. This includes establishing pre-conditions, such as interoperability, eSignatures and eIdentification.

Categories of eGovernment Action Plan measures

• User empowerment: the Plan supports the development of services designed around users' needs, using collaborative production of services by means of technologies such as Web 2.0 technologies, the re-use of public sector information including reviewing the public sector information Directive, as well as the improvement of transparency and the involvement of citizens and business in policy-making process.
• Internal Market: the Plan includes seamless services for businesses, enhances personal mobility, and supports an EU-wide implementation of cross-border services.
• Efficiency and effectiveness of public administrations: this category implies the improvement of organisational processes such as electronic procurement or faster processing of applications, as well as the reduction of administrative burdens or measures for green Government by means of electronic archiving or using videoconferences instead of travelling.
• Putting in place pre-conditions for developing eGovernment: this objective will require open specifications and interoperability such as applying the European Interoperability Framework, and providing key enablers such as revision of the eSignature Directive, a proposal on pan-EU mutual recognition of eIdentification and eAuthentication.

The Action Plan builds on the success of EU-funded large scale pilot projects in cross-border services piloted by the ongoing EU projects STORK, PEPPOL, SPOCS and epSOS, with the aim of making it easier for citizens and businesses to access online services across the EU.