European eGovernment Award Winners Announced: Outstanding Digital Public Services

Winners of the European eGovernment Awards were announced today at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon. The city of Amsterdam from The Netherlands, the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform of Norway, the city of Besancon from France and the portal of the Federal Government of Germany each picked up one of the prestigious awards celebrating Europe's most innovative public services. The prize for the "most inspiring good practice" went to the State Police of Italy as a result of a public vote. The winners were each presented with the European Award Trophy by Vice President Siim Kallas of the European Commission and Minister Silva Pereira of the Portuguese Presidency.

The award categories, conference themes and winners were:

• For better public services for growth and jobs: Horeca1: "One-stop-shop for hotel restaurant cafe licences" submitted by the Economic Development Department, city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Horeca1 helps entrepreneurs and SMEs to easily find out which governmental documents they have to obtain for the seven local licences required in the city, by answering questions online and filling out a single form.
• For participation and transparency empowering citizens and business to influence open government, policy-making and the way public administrations operate and deliver services: Mypage: Self-service citizen portal submitted by Norge.no, portal of the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform of Norway. Mypage offers more than 200 services for citizens. More than 200,000 users registered on the portal within its first 4 months of its operation.
• For Social impact and cohesion public services: Besancon.clic submitted by the city of Besancon, France. Besancon has been recycling computers donated by firms. Once refurnished in a center for disabled workers, recipients of these computers have included primary schools, hospitals, associations, retirement homes and, since 2006, some schools in Senegal.
• For Effective and efficient administration: DVDV "German Administration Services Directory" submitted by BIT the portal of the Federal Government of Germany. DVDV is a service directory supporting the interworking of online public services at a "machine to machine" level. It lists agencies and other providers with their respective services, so that queries can be executed directly by different software applications rather than requiring human intervention.
• There was also a public vote to award the most inspiring good practice for creative solutions to common challenges that inspire others. OLPS "Online Police Station" submitted by the State Police of Italy. OLPS was launched by the Italian State Police in February 2006. It uses a virtual reality interface to provide general information and online assistance. Citizens can download forms, make complaints, receive advice and/or report events of an illegal nature.