site.btaE-Government Minister Alexander Yolovski Talks about New Service, Ministry's Performance

E-Governance Minister Alexander Yolovski Thursday said the first service under the new Electronic Government Act would be demonstrated shortly. He told a hearing by the parliamentary Committee on e-Government and Information Technology that with the new service, once a person has identified himself or herself with an electronic signature, an application does not need to be signed. "This will be used in issuing a European Health Card, which we will introduce together with the National Health Insurance Fund," the Minister said.

Legislation is being drafted to eliminate some of the seals in the administration and a preliminary partial impact assessment of the possible amendments is under way. The bill could remove the requirement for affixing of stamps and introduce a ban and penalties for civil servants who want to affix stamps.

Regarding his performance as minister, Yolovski said that "with small steps, we have managed to achieve real results". There are great opportunities to improve the Bulgarians' lives through e-governance. "I want to see that those measures are implemented because really little is needed to get very good results," he said.