E-Government Challenges in European Countries

To what extent and in which direction does the recent so-called “shift from e-Government to e-Governance systems” take place in European governments? Much has been claimed and written about the influence of e-Government on the modernization and growth of public sector initiatives in Europe. Little is known, however, about how the shift from e-Government to e-Governance takes place in European governments. In particular, in this chapter, an overview of both challenges and advantages of implementing e-Governance strategies is presented, by examining how closely and critically intertwined e-Government and e-Governance are in European countries, with particular reference to the emerging ones. In fact, according to the European Commission indexes, European countries have been split in two groups: Pioneers (P) that are the “best-in-class” EU members, and Followers (F) that have only recently undertaken their path towards the ICT and e-government implementation and still have to foster the e-governance development. The authors judge this comparison as particular instructive in order to draw out some lessons that can be learnt by emerging countries about how to face these challenges.