The European Commission announced on August 24th 2009 the names of the 52 finalists that are going to compete for the European eGovernment Awards 2009, as well as those projects which have been awarded with a Good Practice label in the framework of these Award. The Awards ceremony will take place on November 19th 2009 in Malmö, Sweden, within the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference.

The 4th edition of the prestigious European eGovernment Awards aims at promoting best practices and the most innovative electronic solutions that public authorities in Europe have developed to facilitate citizens' and business' access to public services, reduce the administrative burden and increase public administrations' efficiency.

The 52 selected projects are managed by public authorities at local, regional or national level from 17 different European countries, providing services in their own locality or cross-border. All projects make a significant contribution to increasing the efficiency of public services in Europe through the use of digital technologies. All finalists competing for the Awards use state-of-the-art applications such as innovative websites and portals, SMS-based services, web 2.0 as well as other ICT-based solutions.

The winners of the 2009 Awards will be announced on November 19th in Malmö (Sweden) during the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference, a joint event organised by the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, which will close the informal Ministerial agenda under Swedish Presidency. This event aims at monitoring progress in eGovernment, accelerating the adoption of eGovernment policies in Europe and identifying research priorities for the future.

During the event, the finalists will participate in a large-scale exhibition to showcase and promote their projects. A committee of judges composed of independent experts in the field will visit the exhibition and will select amongst the 52 finalists the best project in each of the following four categories:

• eGovernment supporting the Single Market: strengthening the Single Market by increasing mobility for businesses and citizens in the EU
• eGovernment empowering citizens: improving access to public services for citizens
• eGovernment empowering businesses: improving access to public services for companies, by creating business opportunities and generating savings for businesses (particularly SMEs)
• eGovernment enabling administrative efficiency and effectiveness: making public services and administrative processes simpler and more efficient, thus reducing the administrative burden

A separate public prize will be awarded in Malmö based on the online votes cast by members of ePractice.eu (membership open to all).

In addition to the nominations for the eGovernment Awards 2009, the European Commission has also announced the list of projects that have been awarded with the epractice.eu Good Practice Label in recognition of their grade of excellence.

European eGovernment Awards

The European eGovernment Awards is an initiative of the European Commission organised every two years, coinciding with regular high-level EU eGovernment conferences. The purpose of these Awards is to support the implementation of European eGovernment policy and strategies and facilitate good practice exchange. In this context, since their launch in 2003 the Awards have been promoting the best ICT-based solutions for public services in Europe.