Description (short summary):
The Italian E-Government Code is a legal text that aims at providing a clear framework for the development of e-government and for the emergence of an “efficient and friendly” public administration. It contains a number of rules, obligations, recommendations and targets to boost the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Italian public sector. It aims at contributing to removing obstacles to further e-government development, such as “cultural difficulties” and “obsolete norms”. Among other things, the Code mandates public administrations to: share relevant information among them by electronic means, in order to make life easier for citizens and businesses; make a minimum set of contents and services available on their websites; communicate by e-mail, namely for the exchange of documents and information; accept online payments from citizens and businesses (starting on 1 January 2006); use the Electronic ID Card and the National Services Card as standard means of granting access to online services (starting on 1 January 2007). The E-Government Code also gives citizens and businesses the right to demand and obtain that public administration bodies use electronic means in their day-to-day relationship with users. The Code, which is technologically neutral, rewrites and modernises many rules that directly or indirectly affect the use of ICT in the Italian public administration. In addition to replacing obsolete regulations, it aims to contribute to the establishment of a paperless public administration and to generate important savings and great efficiencies both for public services and their users.

Number of pages (Original version)
64