INTRODUCTION

723. A DEFINITION OF “E-GOVERNMENT” – Public service delivery is increasingly permeated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICTs are deployed for a variety of reasons: cost reduction, convenience, citizen empowerment, fraud prevention, etc. Historically, the public sector has always shown a strong interest in the use of ICT. Somewhere in the 1990s, the trend towards increased ICT usage in the public sector received the label of “e-government”. E-government has been defined by the World Bank as

724. APPLICATIONS – At a high level, one can distinguish between five types of e-government applications:

725. ROLE OF “IDENTITY MANAGEMENT” – The relationship between citizens and public administrations is highly personal in nature. Many governmental services – in particular those belonging to the fifth category above – require identification of their intended recipients. Most of these services also require verification of additional attributes, such as “age”, “place of residence”, or “professional qualification”. Remote delivery of government services requires mechanisms to corroborate the identity and other attributes of the individuals concerned. This is where electronic identity management (eIDM) systems play a role. eIDM systems enable governments both to identify and authenticate the users of their systems and services.

726. NATIONAL STRATEGIES – Today, most European countries have developed – or at least launched the development of – a national identity management strategy. One of the primary objectives of these strategies is to enable remote identification and authentication of citizens. In keeping with this objective, several Member States have moved from purely paper-based identification documents towards electronic identity (eID) cards. Very often, these electronic identity cards are based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).