site.btaBulgaria Joins Tallinn Declaration on E-Government

Tallinn, October 6 (BTA) - State E-Government Agency Chair Rossen Jeliazkov signed a Tallinn Declaration on E-Government here Friday, the agency said in a press release. The declaration is the concluding document of a EU ministerial e-government meeting in Tallinn organised by the Estonian EU Presidency. In the Tallinn Declaration, the Member States agree on measures to be undertaken in this sphere in the next several years, including: increase of the citizens' digital skills, application of consumer-oriented design, provision of digital public services, and creation of opportunities for citizens and the business community in the EU to interact only electronically with public administrations in the Member States.

With the Tallinn Declaration, the EU ministers responsible for e-government confirmed the Member States' will to continue their efforts for accelerated development of e-government, which has a central role in meeting the challenges related to digital transformation.

From 2018 to 2022, the EU Member States will undertake steps towards the implementation of the principles set in the European E-Government Action Plan 2016-2020 and the European Interoperability Framework, including the design of all public processes as digital ones so as to bring to a minimum the need of citizens and business to interact with public administrations.

The Member States also declared their will to accelerate the introduction of the requirements set in Regulation No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market.

Addressing the participants in the ministerial e-government meeting, Jeliazkov said that it is very important for the EU Member States to provide adequate financial resources for the digital transformation process. "This is the only way for us to progress from declarations to real actions in this direction," he added, as quoted in the press release.

"Cloud technologies, ICT, human resources, and digital skills are a key part of digital transformation. It is up to the Member States to accelerate this process by providing the necessary resources and turning this change into a priority, which leads to economic growth and prosperity for society," Jeliazkov also said.