The three keys to Spain's success with eGovernment according to the speaker are: 1) Establishing a strong legal framework centered around the eGovernment Law, 2) Developing common infrastructures and services, and 3) Fostering strong collaboration between public administrations. Some of the main accomplishments highlighted include implementing a National Security Framework and National Interoperability Framework, developing services like the Red SARA communications platform, and facilitating collaboration through committees and working groups.

1. Experience and strategy of Spain in eGovernment:
three keys to sucess, the basis for next steps
12th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2012), 15 June 2012
Miguel A. Amutio
Opening
Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I appreciate very much the invitation of ECEG 2012 to speak here today.
My talk is about the experience and strategy of egovernment in Spain.
In particular, I will identify the three keys to sucess up till now, and we
will see what's happening now, and the next steps.
Did you know that … Facts and figures
First of all, let´s see some facts and figures that deserve to be know.
During the last decade, the Spanish Government and all public
administrations have made a large effort to build eGovernment.
The outstanding facts are that the right of the citizens to interact with public
administrations by electronic means is recognized by law and that there is a
wide offer of services available as evidenced by the assessment of the
citizens.
The following facts and figures explain why we are here today:
• First of all, eGovernment services in Spain are provided in a
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2. complex scenario which involves the interaction of the General State
Administration, 17 regional governments and 2 autonomous cities, plus
over 8,000 municipalities; together with the relationships with EU
institutions and agencies and other Member States.
• 90% of the services provided by the central Government and 78%
by the regional Governments1 are available online.
• Spain also scores high in:
◦ Full available public services
◦ Online sophistication
◦ Usability
◦ User satisfaction
◦ Accessibility
• According to the European Commission, Spain is above the
European average in eGovernment with 95% of full online available
public services (out of 20 measured services); 8Th of 32 countries.
• Furthermore, the online sophistication of public services reaches
98% in the European context.
• Spain’s eServices score 91% on usability and 90% on user
satisfaction monitoring.
• We have recently received an UN award; and there are other awards
and recognitions: UN award: 2012 United Nations Public Service
Award, 2nd place, category of “Improving the Delivery of Public
1
Fundación Orange (2011), eEspaña Report
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3. Services” for the initiative “Total Citizen Access to Public Services”
Did you know that … Facts and figures
The context of eGovernment Services - European Union
Furthermore there has been a series of strategic plans aligned with EU
policies, acts and action plans.
All of them aimed at providing the best possible service and increasing
the efficiency of the public administration by using ICT technologies.
Why have we achieved these results … Three keys to
success
(1) The legal framework
We have a sound and comprehensive legal framework for eGovernment,
oriented to implement the legal safeguards that exist in the real world to
the virtual world.
This legal framework provides legal certainty.
[Let's remember that] the core of administrative services have to do with the
exercise of rights and the fulfilment of obligations.
The legal framework has a direct impact in eGovernment quality of
service as well as in the perception of the citizens and, at the same time,
as a driver of the digital society.
The OECD highligths the legal framework as an important aspect of
eGovernment readiness.
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4. The great achievement is the Law 11/2007 on electronic access to public
services for citizens, published on 24 June 2007.
Its aim is to enhance efficiency by doing away with the need to present
paper documents to authorities, to promote “closeness to the citizen and
administrative transparency” and to contribute to the development of
eGovernment.
The eGovernment Law establishes the basic principles for the use of IT
in the relationships between citizens and the Government, but also
among (central, regional and local) Governments.
So this Law regulates:
• (1) a number of principles and rights,
The main one is right to interact with Public Administration by
electronic means, i.e. to conduct their administrative business by
electronic means on a 24-hour basis any day of the year.
In consequence there is an obligation of public administrations to
enable electronic access to their services.
• (2) the main elements of the administrative procedure by
electronic means: e-registry, e-site, e-identification and
authentication, notifications and communications, e-document, e-file,
e-archive
• (3) the cooperation between public administrations, there is a title
on this question,
The law 11/2007 has been developed with lower level legal instrumentos
to deal with more specific aspects which allow that the right of the
citizens to interact by electronic means with public administrations may
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5. be a reality.
In particular, the article 42 creates the National Security Framework and
the National Interoperability Framework.
These frameworks are the result of a collective effort of all public
administrations and also of the Industry through their main
associations.
Additionally an action plan was approved in December 2007 to enable the
implementation of the provisions of the Law 11/2007 by all bodies of the
General State Administration. It defined a set of specific actions necessary to
ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the Law that would
enable the development of new services and enhance interoperability in the
existing ones.
(1) The legal framework: the National Security
Framework
Information and services on electronic means are exposed to potential
risks from the threat of malicious or illegal actions, errors or failures and
accidents or disasters.
And Public Bodies are interconnected and interdependent; information
and services cannot be secured by partial approaches. There is a need
for a comprehensive framework to address security.
We, as citizens, expect that eGoverment services are provided under
conditions of trust and security comparable to those we find when we go
personally to the offices of the Administration.
The Spanish NSF is a legal text, Royal Decree 3/2010, which develops the
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6. provisions about security foreseen in the eGovernment Law. It establishes
the security policy for eGovernment services. It consists of the basic
principles and minimum requirements to enable adequate protection of
information, to be followed by all Public administrations in Spain.
The Security Framework introduces common security elements applicable
to eGovernment services and it is in the service of the right of citizens to
interact electronically with their government.
• To create the necessary conditions of trust and interoperability, through
measures to ensure IT security for the exercise of rights and the fulfillment of duties
through the electronic access to public services.
• To facilitate the continuous management of security, regardless of the impulses
of the moment or lack thereof.
• To facilitate an homogeneous approach to security.
• To provide common languange, concepts and elements of security
interoperability, helpful:
◦ to provide guidance to Public Administrations in the implementation of ICT
security,
◦ to enable cooperation between Public Administrations to deliver eGoverment
services
• To facilitate the communication of security and interoperability requirements
to the Industry. Surely, it is easy to imagine what this means in terms of calls for
tenders, technical specifications, predictive offer. The Industry finds all Public
Administrations speaking the same language.
• And, why not? to stimulate the IT Industry. AMETIC, the multi-sector partnership
of companies in the fields of electronics of Spain, telecommunications and digital
content, is collaborating to promote the adoption of the NSF.
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7. (1) The legal framework: the National interoperability
Framework
Cooperation between all Public Administrations is essential to provide
services to citizens and guarantee their right to communicate electronically
with them. And there are many actors involved, from local to European Union,
including citizens.
But cooperation requires the right conditions, that is, it must have what
is called interoperability, which should embrace all aspects of interaction
between organizations, whether legal, organizational, semantic and technical.
The Spanish National Interoperability Framework is also a legal text,
Royal Decree 4/2010, which develops provisions about interoperability stated
in the eGovernment Law; and it is applicable to all public administrations in
Spain.
This legal approach to implement the NIF embeds interoperability
requirements in the legal framework of administrative procedure and
eGovernment, thus configuring an integrated coherent and comprehensive
approach.
It has the aim of creating the necessary conditions to ensure an
adequate level of organizational, semantic and technical interoperability
of systems and applications used by Public Administrations, in the
service of the exercise of rights and the fulfillment of duties through the
electronic access to public services; it also pursues providing benefits in
terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
In order to create such conditions, the NIF introduces common elements to
guide the action of the Public Administrations regarding interoperability.
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8. Particularly, the NIF introduces the following main elements: the NIF
specifically addresses requirements in relation to the implementation of
interoperability principles, levels, agreements and governance, plus other
issues related to interoperability, such as the interoperability dimensions,
standards, common infrastructures and services, reuse, esignature,
eDocuments.
The NIF takes into account the European context and
recommendations; it is aligned with the EIS and the EIF; and
systematically refers to the linking of the interoperability instruments of
Spain with the equivalent ones in the EU environment.
The NIF is extended through a number of technical interoperability
regulations which develop specific requirements necessary to guarantee the
more practical and operational aspects of interoperability between public
administrations, agencies and citizens.
Some of them have already been published in the Official Gazette in 2011
(about issues like eDocument, eFile, Digization, Authentic Copies, eSignature
policy and certificates, connection to the administrative network ‘Red SARA’
and the exhange of information between input/output registries).
And others under development (Catalogue of standards, Brokering services,
Semantic assets, eDocuments management policy, Reuse of public
information resources and compliance with the NIF) are to be published in
2012.
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9. (2) Common infrastructures and services
An ecosystem of common infrastructures and services is available and
growing, built to support the whole administrative procedure lifecycle
as defined in our legal framework.
These common infrastructures and services have legal support.
They are enablers of the massive and full-implementation of e-services.
There are agreements for the use of these services between National and
Regional Govs.
So new low-cost electronic public services are really easy to create. There
are actions ongoing to extend and improve them and to add new ones.
Common infrastructures and services are recognised to be relevant
instruments that contribute to the simplification and propagation of
interoperability, and facilitate multilateral interactions.
The development and extensive use of a series of infrastructure and
common services that the General State Administration offers, for free,
to all Public Administrations, has greatly facilitated interoperability
between them. This approach contributes to service quality and allows to
provide many more services, more channels and better quality and
management parameters at much lower cost.
There is a call to public administrations in the NIF to link their
infrastructures and services to those ones provided by the General
State Administration. In particular there is a call to public administrations to
link their networks with the administrative communications platform provided
by Red SARA to facilitate exchanges of information and services between
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10. them and with the EU.
Some relevant common infrastructures and services are the following:
• Communications platform: Red SARA allows the interconnection of
the Spanish Public Administrations enabling the cooperation and the
exchange of information and services between them as well as with the
EU and other Member States through the link with sTESTA. It is
evolving to become a cloud of services (SARA Cloud).
• Electronic identification, authentication and signature:
◦ National eID card – DNIe : The national eID card makes it possible
to digitally sign elec-tronic documents, identify and authenticate
citizens in a secure digital environment.
◦ @firma: National platform for electronic signatures creation/
validation as well as for time stamping services.
• Intermediation services: SVD is intended to simplify administrative
procedures, so that citizens or businesses do not have to deliver data
or documents already held by public authorities, and to reduce fraud in
applications and related procedures.
• ‘060 Network’ provides citizens and businesses with a unique multi-
channel and a key entry point to the administrative services. Three
channels: local offices, ‘060.es’ web portal, telephone hotline number
‘060’. Contact points for entrepreneurs have been incorporated in the
‘060’ network of integrated offices.
• Service Directive Point of Single Contact EUGO.ES: This website is
the Point of Single Contact of the Services Directive(SD) in Spain.
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11. • eNotifications allows citizens and businesses to receive free online
administrative notifications and correspondence in the Electronic
Administrative Address. eGovernment Law, article 28. Approximately
2.27 M eNotifications sent in 2011. The Ministry of Finance and Public
Administrations owns the service and its provider is the state-owned
public company Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos.
• 'eGovernment pack': Aimed to provide the basic elements for the
implementation of eGovernment services to administrative units
(whatever the tier it belongs) It includes 4 building blocks:
▪ ORVE: Register for face-to-face application.
▪ ACCEDA: Register for e-channel applications, includes CMS for
a basic website
▪ PORTAFIRMAS: Corporative eSignature application.
▪ INSIDE: eFile
▪ + a Portal for local entities
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12. (2) Common infrastructures and services - Reuse of
Public Sector Information
There has also been an effort in relation to the reuse of public sector
information with the creation of:
• Legal basis
• Instruments
• Communities
• Creation of a culture of reuse
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13. (3) Strong collaboration
Strong collaboration has contributed to the development of eGovernment.
eGov is the result of a collaborative effort with the participation of all
Public Administrations (General State, Regional, Local, Universities, Justice),
[plus the opinion of Industry through their main associations].
There is an strcuture of committees and working groups to articulate this
collaboration.
For instance, during the last five years more than two hundred experts of
Public Administrations (with different profiles: ICT, legal, archives, etc...)
have contributed to the elaboration and development of the NIF and the
NSF es ; together with a wide number of experts who have contributed with
their opinion through the main associations of ICT Industry.
Now the Government needs to carry out cultural and organizational changes;
this will require more intensive cooperation between stakeholdes
engaged in the development of eGovernment.
(3) Strong collaboration - The role of our DG
Our DG has the leadership of coordinating eGovernment committees for
collaboration together with a catalogue of competences in relation to
administrative organization, services, procedures, quality of regulations,
promotion of eGovernment, promotion of the access of the citizens to public
services, and development of systems to support the management of human
resources.
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14. (3) Strong collaboration – European Union
Collaboration also takes part in the EU context where we apply the
following strategies:
• Early alignment with EU strategies.
• Contribution and feedback.
• (Re)Use of policies, results and products.
• Common services of Spain are linked to the equivalent ones in the EU.
• Participation in projects:
◦ LSP-CIP: STORK, STORK2, GEN6
◦ Sectorial cross border services.
We can use the approaches, architectures and complex solutions from
the EU and our feedback is interesting in the complex European
context.
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15. What is the situation now … Present socio-economic
context
Spain is struggling to go out of a deep crisis with high unemployment
rates, small credit availability which hinders the creation of small and medium
enterprises (SME’s) and high risk of poverty and exclusion of the population.
This year the GDP has notably decreased, driving the country to recession
levels.
Furthermore, the unemployment reaches more than 22%, a figure difficult
to sustain for a developed country, and far away of countries of our
entourage.
Within the Government, budget has been severely reduced.
It is more necessary that ever to advance in eGovernment and to optimize
the investments and resources in order to maintain the offer of quality public
services.
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16. Room for improvement
There are solid grounds to keep on building eGovernment but there is some
room for improvement:
• In the legal framework, to simplify procedures and support eGov.
• In organizational structures to improve coordination.
• In the design and promotion of use of eGov services.
• In ICT procurement to achieve a better optimization of spending
• In the use of ICT resources to reduce or eliminate redundancies and
islands.
• In the use of the possibilities offered by innovative ICT.
Strategic Plan for eGovernment
A strategic plan that addresses all these issues and meets the
commitments of Spain with EU strategies is almost ready.
This Strategic Plan for eGovernment 2012-15 sets strategic objectives
for the Spanish Administration to continue the journey down this critical
context using all the transformational possibilities that ICT can provide.
This plan builds on and extends the gains made through the eGovernment
Law.
It will be formally presented soon and it will be opened to opinion and
participation.
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17. It addresses big challenges:
1. Adapt to fast changing needs and policies and contribute to general
economic objectives of Spain.
2. Provide more and better cost-effective services in an scenario of
budget constraint.
3. Reduce burdens and advance to a paperless government.
4. Optimize the use of resources.
5. Foster the open Government and maximise the value of the public
sector information through its massive reuse.
Aligned with EU policies
It is inspired in the Malmö Declaration and outlines the way forward to
implement the European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 on a national
scale.
The Strategic Plan for eGovernment will be involved in a more ambitious
strategic iniciative, the Spanish Digital Agenda, which will set the strategic
ICT Spanish framework according to the Europe 2020 strategy and the
European Digital Agenda.
The relationship between the Strategic Plan for eGovernment and the
Spanish Digital Agenda will follow the model set by the relation between the
European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 and the European Digital
Agenda.
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18. Some lines of action included
Simplification
• eGov legal framework: reform of administrative procedure, adjustments
to support eGov.
• Reduce administrative burdens and simplify administrative procedures.
• Cut red tape, so documents within Gov’s possession will not be asked
to the citizens.
• Promote the transparency of Administrative procedures.
• Increase the use of public services by citizen and businesses.
Rationalization
• Reduce redundancies, overlapping and islands in ICT infrastructures
and solutions.
• Harmonize ICT procurement and Administration as a single client to
great ICT providers.
• Promote and extend shared services and arrange their sustainability.
• Take advantage of ICT potential: cloud computing, mobile techn.,
eSignature, …
• Design citizen-driven electronic services.
Share, reuse and collaborate
• Promote the reuse of resources and services.
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19. • Reinforce cooperation framework.
• Reinforce the collaboration best practices.
Some of these objectives are focused to improve user satisfaction and
participation, others seek to achieve more operational efficiency for the
Government under a cost-reduction policy and others are addressed to build
an open government. These goals materialise the main principles of the
Spanish Government: transparency, democracy and efficiency.
All of them show long term intent, and guide the ICT investment for the next
years, being coherent with the Spanish economic context and the European
Action Plan for e-Government 2011-2015.
Conclusions
The three keys for the success of development of eGovernment in Spain up
till now:
• a sound and comprehensive legal framework,
• the development of an ecosystem of common infrastructures and
services with adequate legal basis,
• and strong collaboration.
The eGovernment Law approved in 2007 has been a major driver for the
development of eGov.
Spain has showed a great commitment to align with EU strategies.
Now it is necessary to move to a more citizen-centric service delivery.
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20. The new strategic plan introduces cultural and organizational changes in
order to have a more open and efficient Administration, to improve its
relationship with citizens, and boost the cooperation.
The key words of the new strategic plan are: simplify, rationalize and
reuse:
• Alignment with EU strategic plans.
• Simplify procedures and reduce burdens.
• Citizens and business in the center of eGov services.
• Rationalize use of resources and structures.
• Promote use of services.
To know more about eGovernment in Spain
Here we have some references for more information about
eGovernment and Spain:
• The eGovernment legal package is available in English.
• The ePractice factsheet of Spain provides a comprehensive
overview of eGovernment in Spain.
• The eGovernment Portal provides more information.
• OBSAE
• 060 web portal
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21. Thank you very much for your attention
Miguel A. Amutio
Head of Area
DG for Administrative Modernization, Procedures and the Promotion of eGovernment
Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations
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