The European Commission today released a Eurostat study for the first quarter of 2004 showing that almost half of Internet users in the Europe of 25 access government services online. In companies, the rate of use of eGovernment slightly higher, exceeding 50 percent.
In Portugal the levels of access to information among individual users are below the European average, with only 35 percent against 45% in Europe of 25, but in transactional services, such as downloading forms and filling out online forms, Internet users Portuguese appear well placed, with 26 per cent of use in both cases against the 20 and 12 per cent found in the average of the countries.
In the leadership of ranking of the individual users who most access e-government services is Finland, with 62 per cent, followed by Denmark with 56 per cent and Luxembourg with 55 per cent. At the end of the table are the Czech Republic (12%) and the Netherlands (23%), both with figures still for 2003.
In the use of electronic services in companies Portugal appears to be better positioned, with all figures above the average, but still far from the rates obtained in Sweden or Finland, both above 90 percent. In the responses to the survey carried out, 66 percent of Portuguese companies said they resorted to public administration websites to obtain information, while 60 percent said they had done so. download of forms and 65 percent filled out forms online.
The Eurostat report points to 51 percent as the average usage of Internet services in Europe by companies, while the download of forms is carried out by 46 per cent of respondents and filling out forms by only 32 per cent.
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