Main strategic objectives and principles

Last updated: May 2011

Federal eGovernment Strategy (2009-2011)

Vision, objectives and actions

The Belgian eGovernment strategy aims to create a single virtual Public Administration while respecting the privacy of users, as well as the specificities and competences of all Government bodies and administrative layers.

Its main objective is to improve the delivery of public services for citizens and businesses by rendering it faster, more convenient, less constraining and more open.

In order to make all the above possible, the following actions were undertaken:

• organise service delivery around users' needs (intention-based services), despite of the administrative structure;
• eEnable full administrative procedures, regardless of the administrative entities that are involved;
• avoid requests of already submitted data from users ('unique data collection' principle);
• simplify administrative procedures and cutting of red tape for citizens and businesses;
• share and exchange data and information across Government.

Four strategic streams

In order to meet the objectives stated above, the Belgian eGovernment strategy comprises four main strategic streams, as follows:

1st stream - Re-engineering and integrating service delivery

This first stream focuses on users' needs, life events and simplification of all administrative procedure.

2nd stream - Cooperation among all levels of Government so as to provide integrated services across organisational boundaries and administrative layers

The eGovernment cooperation agreement, signed in March 2001 by the Federal, Regional and Community authorities, laid down the framework of this cooperation. In particular, all layers of Government committed to use the same standards, the same identification infrastructure and the same eSignature.

This agreement was re-conducted and enhanced by a cooperation agreement on the principles of a seamless eGovernment, signed in April 2006, by the same parties. The objective of this agreement is to harmonise initiatives relating to:

• the use of ICTs that provide information to all citizens, businesses and public institutions in a user-friendly way;
• the secure and confidential eTransactions with public authorities at all administrative levels.

To such end, all data retained and all services provided by the parties should be, when possible, uniformly accessible and distributed through different communication channels to citizens, businesses and other organisations, as well as the Federal Government, Regions, Communities and Local Governments themselves.

With the renewed agreement, the Belgian authorities have agreed on strengthening the following principles:

• deliverance of intention-based services;
• implementation of the 'unique data collection' principle so as to prevent citizens and businesses from having to provide authorities with pieces of information that can be retrieved elsewhere within the Administration;
• re-use of data collected by using authentic sources thanks to which public entities manage the specific data they have stored and exchange missing data among them;
• ensurance of interoperability at organisational, semantic and technical levels when conceiving and developing eGovernment solutions;
• possible re-use to the maximum of eGovernment developments and services delivered by another party to the agreement;
• optimal integration of the eGovernment efforts made at local level.

This second agreement was concluded for a four-year period. A resolution on a seamless government agreed on by the ministers responsible for eGovernment at Federal, Regional and Community levels was adopted in November 2006 in order to achieve the objectives of this second cooperation agreement.

The resolution focuses on a close cooperation, when possible, on two levels:

• conceiving and implementing principles for a seamless eGovernment; and,
• building, using and/or managing the services and developments of a seamless eGovernment.

Taking into account the objective of improving the efficiency of public services and the fact that Communities and Regions already use services initially developed by the Federal State, the Ministers have asked the strategic committee of the cooperation agreement to:

• consolidate the existing active cooperation among the administrative units of the Federal State, the Regions and Communities;
• make an inventory of existing or 'to be created' core components, which are needed for a seamless eGovernment;
• study the common services, used at Federal, Regional and Community levels, which could likewise be offered to provinces, cities and municipalities;
• keep on supporting current initiatives such as BELGIF (the Belgian Interoperability Framework);
• implement the seamless eGovernment principles, especially in the fields of eProcurement, birth declaration online and social security rights for migrant workers.

3rd stream - Simplification of administrative procedures for citizens and businesses

This requires an increased exchange and sharing of both data and information among Government Departments and Agencies.

4th stream - Back office integration and protection of personal data

The Department or Agency that requires specific data will be considered most frequently as a trusted source by other Administrations that may need such data. Hence, the Department or Agency in question will be responsible for maintaining a personal data repository.

The exchange with other Administrations is channelled through the Universal Messaging Engine (UME). This exchange is however ruled by a legal basis and the respect of principles of purpose and proportionality. The Commission for the Protection of Privacy monitors and controls the process.

Federal Plan for Administrative Simplification (2009-2011)

In line with the provisions of the 2009 action plan of the Agency for Administrative Simplification (ASA), a Federal Plan for Administrative Simplification has been established, upon the request of the Minister for Enterprise and Administrative Simplification, in collaboration with all the Federal Government Departments.

The Federal Plan for Administrative Simplification is made up of a list of ongoing or achieved projects that are structured by responsible Government Department. Most of the projects listed consist of the implementation of eGovernment-related measures, applications or services in a very wide range of fields, including:

• eProcurement
• Paperless Customs
• Electronic road-fund license
• 'My Rent' electronic application
• Tax returns - submission online
• eInvoicing
• Electronic exchange of data among the insurance companies and the hospitals
• eHealth (e.g. ePrescribing).

The Plan was proposed to the Council of Ministers of 17 July 2009. It is the counterpart of the Kafka Plan adopted during the previous legislature. The ASA has been tasked with reporting twice per year on the state of implementation of the Plan.

Previous eGovernment Strategies

Federal eSociety Policy (2007-2010)

In the aim to make sure that eGovernment services are accessible to all and do not widen the digital divide, the Government develops a strategy to train and stimulate citizens to use the Internet ('Computerisation of the society' or eSociety policy), while encouraging private or voluntary organisations to act as intermediaries by providing value-added public services.

Areas of focus and achievements

The Belgian Minister previously responsible for the computerisation of the State used to issue annually 'Computerisation strategic notes' featuring the priorities for the development of the federal eGovernment.

The Computerisation Strategic Note for 2007 was presented in December 2006 by Mr. Vanvelthoven, the former Minister for Employment and the Computerisation of the State (currently the Minister responsible for eGovernment issues is the Minister for Enterprise and Simplification).

According to this note, the year 2007 marked the upgrade of the Federal eGovernment portal Belgium.be both in terms of content and functionalities. A thorough two-year review had given way to the release of a renewed version in May 2008. The information which was available in Dutch, English, French and German was displayed in a more user-friendly manner, according to the main life-events of both citizens and companies. A major section of the portal linked to all the available public services online (eServices), some of which are fully transactional. More information on this portal is available in the Infrastructure section of the present factsheet.

Various projects and services were implemented within the same context and their most tangible results follow:

• The ePolice office or 'Police-on-Web' service: it allows Belgian citizens to report online a number of crimes to the police 24 hours a day. To register an eComplaint, people need to use their eID card or token. Any violent or dangerous crime requiring an immediate police response should be reported to the police in the usual manner.
• The eHealth platform: an integrated platform aimed at delivering all health and healthcare-related information and services online through a single portal. It provides, among other, health-related information and advice for health and healthcare actors, secure electronic communication among health professionals and healthcare organisations, and further collects health-related data (e.g. spending, statistics, etc.). This platform makes extensive use of eGovernment infrastructure services (e.g. federal intranet, eID card).
• The Front Office Employment: a specific application, allows the job seeker (in particular the unemployed persons) to know which financial support s/he is entitled to receive in order to help him/her to find a job. Employers can also find out which subsidies (or financial aid) a company can receive when hiring specific categories of people. This application integrates an overview of all employment stimulating measures in a particular situation, the prior conditions to qualify for these measures and the related application procedure (www.autravail.be in French, www.aandeslag.be in Dutch and www.andiearbeit.be in German).
• The electronic birth declaration: in the Brussels-Capital Region, the secure electronic counter system IRISbox, a digital service platform, enables citizens to securely request and pay for civil certificates online (birth, marriage, death, residence, nationality, etc.). Payment is made for a set of 10 certificates at once. The system is provided by the Brussels Regional Informatics Centre (BRIC) and is currently used by 5 of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region.
• The project of Belgian eID cards for children under 12 ( Kids-ID): it was launched in October 2007, as a pilot. In addition to the classic ID functions, it can provide access to children-only Internet chat rooms and to a cascade of phone numbers should the child be in danger. Following the successful piloting phase, the card was finally launched on 16 March 2009 and gained great momentum since then: on 4 July 2009, new electronic kids-ID cards had already been issued for half of all Belgian children.
• The Tax-on-Web: an online service where the Belgian taxpayers may fill in their tax returns online via the dedicated online application. The Belgian online tax filing application, provided by the Federal Public Service Finance, was first launched in 2003 and has since then been extended. The applications allow taxpayers to calculate the amount of their income tax, validate and save their data online, submit their returns electronically, and receive a receipt from the Tax Administration. Users are moreover able to find details of their outstanding tax liabilities, backtrack over their past tax history, build up a preference list and keep an eye on the progress of their tax return, as it is processed. An online help system assists them for going through the different steps of the process.

Interoperability and the promotion of open standards remain at the core of the eGovernment Strategy. In such context, the 2007 note underlined that Open Document Format (ODF) standard was to be gradually adopted as an exchange standard for internal documents.

The Federal Government also strongly promotes Belgium as an ICT knowledge Region by highlighting the country's expertise of eGovernment and eSociety projects. The aim is to interact with interested countries, institutions and international companies willing to develop their own competences and bring their own knowledge.

Regional eGovernment Strategies

Non-federal Belgian administrative entities have developed their own eGovernment strategies within their respective areas of competence. Wallonia and Flanders Regional Governments have created dedicated structures to implement their respective strategies.

eGovernment Strategy of Wallonia

The eGovernment strategy of Wallonia was first based on the 'Wall-On-Line' project, adopted in June 2001. This project was managed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals, the 'Wall-On-Line' cell, working under the authority of the Minister-President of the Walloon Region.

A set of principles was established in 2002 in order to achieve an ultimate objective; that of an efficiently modernised Walloon Government placed at the service of citizens, businesses and associations.

Since 2005, the eGovernment cell and the existing administrative simplification cell have been merged to create 'EASI-WAL'. In charge of eGovernement and administrative simplification, this body plays a key part in the Walloon eGovernment and simplification strategy. EASI-WAL is still placed under the authority of the Minister-President of Wallonia.

In June 2005, the Walloon Government adopted an 'action plan for eGovernment, simplification and readability' set to run over the 2005-2009 period. This plan was fully and successfully evaluated by the Walloon Government in 2009.

In February 2010, the new Plan 'Ensemble simplifions' 2010-2014 was adopted by the Walloon Government. The Walloon Region took joint action with the French-speaking Community, as far as this plan is concerned. Its aim is the reduction of the administrative burden, firstly for the administration users and secondly for the administration itself. This aim is related to the European 25 % administrative burden reduction target.

As it was the case in the previous plan, the entire simplification chain is taken into account in order to reduce the administrative burden: establishing readable and accessible regulations for users, processing harmonisation with the aim of simplifying procedures and developing new tools to ease procedures for users.

The concept of target group is also important. Simplifying procedures for users means taking into account the specificity of various users: a firm, a commune or an entity of the non-profit sector will not be addressed by the administration in the same manner. The specificity of the target group has therefore to be taken into account and the administration also has to fit its response to the audience specificities.

The idea of the Walloon Government's plan 'Ensemble simplifions' is to fully involve the administrations as simplification actors so that they actively participate in the implementation and the simplification of the current projects.

The Plan 'Ensemble simplifions' 2010-2014 is organised around 6 objectives and 22 specific projects.

The objectives are:

• Simplification and improvement of regulations
• Process simplification and harmonisation
• Process dematerialisation
• Electronic management of administrative documents
• Simplification and dematerialisation of data collection and sharing
• Improving information and communication to target groups.

These 6 objectives comprise some measures called 'transversal measures' and some projects that will allow the concrete realisation of the Plan. Apart from these projects related to the objectives, 22 specific projects have been identified as important in order to reduce administrative burdens for users. They will be simplified as well. For example: environment permit simplification, building permit simplification, procurement process harmonisation and dematerialisation and others.

Some support actions are also part of the Plan; they are necessary tools to set up in order to ensure the successful implementation of the objectives and projects.

The concrete realisation and implementation of the Plan is planned through implementation notes validated by the Walloon Government. They contain a schedule and an action plan concerning the realisation of the objectives and the specific projects. Various steering committees and project monitoring committees will concretely monitor and implement the Plan.

The Walloon Government will follow the progress of the Plan through regular monitoring during the Government sessions and via the 'Simplification Task Force' that will bring together all the actors concerned by the projects' reporting. An evaluation of the actual administrative burden reduction generated by the Plan will be held in 2014.

Some results of particular relevance are mentioned below:

• in the regulatory field : 250 'kafka tests', more than 300 advice of simplification and 10 SCM (Standard Cost Model) measurements were carried out.
• 503 electronic forms are available at http://formulaires.wallonie.be including 138 simplified forms, 112 interactive forms, 50 integrated back-office forms and 32 transactional forms. This website recorded 613 747 visits in 2010.
• the portal 'wallonie.be' recorded approximately 1 200 000 visits in 2010 (40 000 users have registered in the section 'my personal space' since 2005).
• 350 000 visits to the Regional Portal of Public Procurement since 2008 (e-gov award in 2007).
• more than 1 079 000 visits on the Energy portal of the Walloon Region.
• 6 000 searches performed on the new website: http://subsides.pouvoirslocaux.wallonie.be since July 2010.

eGovernment Strategy of Flanders

In the Region of Flanders, the eGovernment strategy is placed under the responsibility of the Minister-President of the Flemish Government. As an inter-departmental project within the Government of Flanders, it is managed by the Coordination Cell Flemish eGovernment (CORVE), which has become part of e-IB (the eGovernment and ICT management unit) in January 2009.

The main responsibility of the CORVE unit is to determine the strategic aims and priorities for eGovernment while taking part in eGovernment in an advisory and supportive capacity. Among other duties, the unit is also tasked with: developing eGovernment-related knowledge and skills; coordinating and providing incentives; creating a generic infrastructure to facilitate cooperation among the administrative entities within Flanders' eGovernment administrative levels; following up the progress of eGovernment projects.

Flanders' past eGovernment policy has given priority to front-office applications, including the Flanders' portal website, with comparatively little attention paid to the underlying 'back-office applications'. As a result, the present priority objective of Flanders' eGovernment policy rests on developing the back-office dimension of eGovernment.

Main policy objectives for the year 2007 were discussed in the Policy document 2007. A key policy element was the further development of authentic sources of information. These are databanks which can be used to obtain complete, correct and up-to-date data on companies, natural persons, addresses, plots, buildings, maps, etc. Authentic data sources can also be used for unambiguous identification and registration. While every application has required the creation of its own solutions in the past, a system of Flemish authentic data sources and related services has been planned to build up in order to be used for the registration of companies or natural persons.

In parallel to that, further development of the MAGDA infrastructure platform, originally introduced in February 2006, was foreseen so as to promote the integration of Government services and facilitate both the access to authentic data and the data exchange among public bodies. Related costs have been estimated to approximately € 1.2 million in 2007.

The majority of the projects selected as finalists in the SPITS 2007 programme (a programme which aimed to stimulate innovative Flemish public servants) have been made possible with the support of CORVE and its MAGDA platform for data. Hence, Flemish eGovernment efforts are an important catalyst for innovation and change in the Flemish Administration.

As part of the Flemish eGovernment strategy, in December 2007, the Flemish Minister responsible for eGovernment, Geert Bourgeois, launched a call for ideas to facilitate eGovernment and the sharing of data in the Flemish municipalities, focusing on the use of the Flemish Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (VKBO). The call was a search for local Government applications which would make life easier for citizens or enterprises. CORVE gave financial support and helped the municipalities realise their ideas.

In 2008, a fourth and final call for Flemish Integration Projects (VIP projects) was made. In this call, eGovernment projects which make life easier for citizens or enterprises by using authentic data sources and sharing data among Government organisations received financial support. VIP 2099 did not exist due to the long-term character of the VIP 2008 projects and thus all newer projects were labelled VIP 2010.

eGovernment Strategy of the French Community

Continuing the trend set through the ISA 1.0 and ISA 2.0 programmes during the years 2005 to 2010, the Walloon Government and the Government of the French Community of Belgium have coordinated their strategies and objectives for simplifying administration and eGovernance through a joint multi-annual plan (2010-2014) revolving around 6 axes constituted by the 200 specific projects of the French Community:

1. Simplifying and improving rulings

2. Simplifying and harmonising processes

3. Dematerialising processes

4. Managing administrative documents electronically

5. Simplifying and improving the collection and sharing of data

6. Improving information and communication to users.

In this simplification programme, structured and organised according to the management method of project portfolios per programme, several transversal projects of the eGovernment type receive priority of implementation:

• SUBSIDE (Development of a generic software common to the Management of subsidies awarded by the Ministry of the French Community)
• GED (Electro nic Management of Documents)
• CERBERE (Secured Management of the Access to Computer Resource)
• MIMESIS (Management of Data of third persons)
• DATAWAREHOUSE (Storing and Exploiting data)
• CADASTRE (Non-profit Sectoral jobs register).

The information related to the implementation of and the follow-up to this programme of administrative simplification and eGovernment is available on the site ensemblesimplifions.