Baltic Institute of Finland and UBC IS Com

An INTERREG IIIC project "Challenge of eCitizen: Promoting eGovernment Actions in European Cities" prepared by the Baltic Institute of Finland in collaboration with the UBC IS COM was launched in January 2005. Several UBC member cities participate in the project.

European city administrations are as a rule undergoing far-reaching and comprehensive transformations in their governance and processes. This implies improving participation and consultation of citizens towards local governments as well as ensuring that citizens have easy access to local government information, services and decision-making procedures online. Development of local eGovernment systems provides city administrations with a powerful tool for stimulating citizens' involvement and participation in democratic decision-making and community empowerment. Interregional cooperation between cities sharing these challenges enables them to fully exploit latest outcomes of the Information Society development and overcome the challenge of eCitizen.

This project is an outcome of cooperation between UBC member cities and other European cities sharing similar challenges in promoting information society development in regional level following principles of the EU eEurope program and local eGovernment initiatives. The cooperation between the partner cities was established as an outcome of the UBC IS COM and eCities Forum/Telecities European network meetings in 2003 and 2004. The cities are partners in the project and the Baltic Institute of Finland acts as the Lead Partner.

This three-year project is designed to support innovative on-going local eGovernment actions and strategies. The project activities are focused to facilitate development and piloting of innovative and advanced outputs including eManagement systems for city administrations, online public services for citizens with web-based, mobile and smart card applications as well as new eParticipation services with interactive consultative applications. As a cross-cutting issue, awareness of citizens on eGovernment actions is raised through implementation of information distribution strategies and local campaigns as well as publishing studies and reports on eGovernment actions in Europe and key results of the project components. Capacities and knowledge of local policy-makers, officials and experts on design and management of local eGovernment actions will be enhanced through extensive training and consultation. A follow-up strategy to ensure sustainability of the project results in the partner cities will be developed.