The European Commission will get together and finance a project managed by Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Poland to help the public administration to improve its online services within the service sector.
This will in turn lead to both increased job opportunities and to establish on a new market. In the end of 2009, all EU Member States will set up common social networks, where companies can carry out administrative procedures electronically.
A Belgian service supplier, for example, will be able to complete all formalities to open up a cafe in the Netherlands, but the pilot project will also further improve the electronic procedures.
More than 14 million Euros will be invested. However, with increased globalization these projects are required in order to monitor progress and facilitate for foreign companies that want to establish abroad.
-Investment in the latest information technology is necessary to promote coordination between public administration and make it easier for companies to access markets in other Member States, said Viviane Reding, European Commissioner and responsible for Information Society and Media.
-To provide services online and without bureaucracy will allow European companies to grow on new markets, which will promote trade within the EU. The result will be more growth and jobs on the internal market.
In recent years, services have generated 95 percent of all new job opportunities. Goods are freely traded on the EU internal market, but the full potential has not yet been implemented. Because of legal and administrative obstacles, it is still difficult for service providers to establish themselves in other countries and trade across borders. This project is now supposed to change this and make it easier to reach new markets, which will also increase job opportunities in different countries.
Cecilia Helland