Digital public services

These are smart public services, also known as e-government, that use technology to provide services to citizens at local, regional and national levels. These services allow citizens, businesses and organisations to carry out their interactions with governments more easily, more quickly and at a lower cost; for example, in several European Union (EU) Member States citizens can file their tax declarations online.

At EU level, the European Commission is taking action to help public administrations across the Member States to make the change to digital so that all citizens can enjoy the benefits of smart public services. Its focus is on reducing barriers to public services and ensuring they are accessible across borders.

Actions already under way include:

ensuring EU platforms can work together and interact with one another;
funding large-scale e-participation projects;
encouraging public services, businesses and citizens to share solutions through the Joinup platform, a common venue that enables IT solutions and good practices to be shared and reused, and facilitates communication and collaboration on IT projects across the EU;
standardising electronic health records.

An essential requirement of digital public services is having a secure digital identity. This allows citizens and businesses to prove who they are – or what business they own – and therefore access the relevant online services.