EU wants 80 per cent of enterprises to use online public services by 2015

The eGovernment Action Plan aims to increase access to public services across the EU

The European Commission (EC) aims to see 80 per cent of businesses using e-government services by 2015.

With this in mind, it has launched the European eGovernment Action Plan, a programme that aims to support the transition at local, national and EU levels.

Neelie Kroes, commission vice president for the Digital Agenda, said: "This Plan will help public authorities use information and communication technologies to offer better services at lower cost, while making life easier and better for businesses in terms of improved access to public services."

Belgium provides an example of how this may benefit businesses, as the time taken to register a new business has fallen from 56 days to just three following the implementation of online company registration.

The programme intends to ensure that key public services are available online so that entrepreneurs can set up and run a business from anywhere in the EU, regardless of their original location.

An example of what the Plan hopes to achieve includes the implementation of a once-only secure registration of data with authorities, in the hope that this will mean organisations will not have to provide information on numerous occasions to different parts of government.

In addition, the development of an EU-wide national electronic identity (eID) will make cross-border procedures, such as starting a company abroad, more manageable.

Further to this, the EU plans to make data available for re-use by third parties so that new public services and applications can be developed, such as maps for navigation systems, or travel information applications.