At the beginning of February, Luxembourg's Government Council adopted the “Electronic Governance 2021-2025” strategy, jointly developed by the Ministry of Digitalisation and the Government IT Centre.
One of the strategic axes of the Ministry of Digitalisation aims to strengthen eGovernment and enable the transition to digital government, a concept which designates the use of technologies within the framework of state modernisation strategies with the objective of creating real added value for individuals, businesses and public administrations.
The Electronic Governance 2021-2025 strategy forms part of this approach by setting the essential elements for a successful digital transition of the state in order to ensure quality services to digital citizens and a gradual transition to a digital government, as recommended by international bodies.
The 2021-25 strategy highlights the principles to be observed when digitalising public services in order to offer individuals and businesses public services that meet their needs. The aim is to promote transversal digital accessibility, develop user-centred services, offer attractive online public services and invest in the public's trust in online state services.
The strategy also analyses the conditions needed for the central public administration to enable it to respond effectively to the needs of society. The primary objectives in the digital context are to facilitate the transition to an efficient paperless administration and to have an IT environment favourable to new ways of working. In addition, the strategy underlines the importance of being able to rely on a central IT partner which is competent, agile and reliable. To do this, the Government IT Centre aims to strengthen its digitalisation services, develop cutting-edge infrastructures and further guarantee very high levels of security and reliability.
Finally, the six key principles are set out to guide and support the digitalisation of public services and to ensure that online public services meet the needs of society: Once Only; Digital by Default; inclusion and accessibility; openness and transparency; reliability and security; interoperability and standardisation. It is on the basis of these six principles that concrete actions and initiatives will be articulated to support the Luxembourg public administration in its digital transition. The principles of Once Only, Digital by Default and transparency have been anchored in the Luxembourg government strategy since 2015. The 2021-2025 strategy thus adds three new principles.
The Government Council has also mandated the interministerial committee for digitalisation, chaired by the Ministry of Digitalisation and the Government IT Centre, to coordinate the implementation of the strategy.
6 Key Principles
- Once Only: The public administration will consistently reuse the data it has already requested from an individual or a company in order to offer simple and rapid procedures and to improve the quality of the data which are the basis for efficient and tailor-made services. This reuse will only be done on condition that the individual or the company has given their explicit agreement to this principle.
- Digital by Default: The public administration will eventually offer an electronic alternative for all of its services. Its internal flows will be dematerialised and administrations will be able to gain in-depth knowledge of the files and process them more efficiently.
- Inclusion and accessibility: People, their skills and their needs will be put at the centre of efforts to create better online public services accessible to everyone, regardless of their location, their level of competence or the tools they use.
- Openness and transparency: Direct dialogue with individuals and businesses will be strengthened in order to offer innovative services through citizen participation and technological exchanges with the private sector.
- Reliability and security: The state will ensure that when individuals and businesses interact with public authorities, they continue to do so in a safe, reliable environment that complies with applicable legal standards. They will enjoy a top level data rotection as well as quality and highly available online services.
- Interoperability and standardisation: State IT systems must be compatible with each other and promote the exchange of data both between public sector organisations and between the public and private sectors while ensuring respect for private data. Administrations will benefit from better quality data, dematerialised and collaborative organisational flows and agility for the development of new services.
