24 May 2007

Description (short summary):

As part of its mission to inform the European eGovernment community about key issues of common interest, the eGovernment Observatory maintains a series of Factsheets presenting the situation and progress of eGovernment in 32 European countries: EU-27, Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, providing for each one of them a wide and consistent range of information:

* Country Profile (basic data and Information Society indicators);

* History (major past eGovernment developments and milestones);

* Strategy (vision, objectives and principles supporting the eGovernment drive);

* Legal Framework (main legal texts impacting on the development of eGovernment);

* Actors (key organisations involved in the eGovernment drive);

* 'Who's Who' (main decision-makers and executives steering and shaping the move to eGovernment);

* Infrastructure (key components of the nationwide eGovernment infrastructure);

* eServices for citizens and for businesses (online availability and sophistication of services for citizens and businesses, based on the eEurope common list of basic public services).

EU-25 factsheets have been regularly updated since June 2005. In September 2006 the first edition of the factsheets of the following countries has been published: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

As a general rule, factsheets are updated every 6 months with a new Edition. Important updates between two Editions may result in a new Release. The version number of the factsheet consists of its Edition and Release number, i.e.: 'v.6.0': Sixth Edition, 'v.6.1': 1st Release of the 6th Edition, etc.