Smart Cities contributed to a workshop at the SOCITM conference in Brighton that brought together e-government experts from across Europe to discuss how local e-government could get better support from national and EU authorities.  The aim of the workshop was to create the basis for a formal consultation on ‘what local governments need from National and EU decision makers in order to better implement e-government’. 


Ideas and lessons


The results from the workshop and the subsequent public consultation will be used to help formulate a shared European eGovernment Statement (provisionally named the Citadel Statement) that will be launched at the ‘Lift off to Open Governent’ pre-conference hosted by the Flemish Government on the 14th December in Ghent, Belgium.

As a preparation for the workshop, the Smart Cities network created a document with lessons learned and ideas for better support by national government. These ideas have been integrated with other ideas provided by the other organising partners, as LOLA (Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies).

Input Smart Cities: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1lHHArmND5VDG4-ZLumUeL2ZgLMCDNS4839b67r4F_8k


The Statement


The aim of the Citadel Statement is to produce a call to action  that builds upon the objectives of the Malmo Ministerial Declaration to demonstrate to national Governments how they can best support/promote eGovernment in their own local authorities.

Initial research and discussions  have identified that whilst there are many great visions for eGovernment, many identified requirements, and many manuals for on-the-ground implementation, in reality these are not being translated down to the local community level.

The Citadel project aims to understand why local communities find it challenging to implement eGovernment and will provide practical solutions to combat identified barriers (ie. bureaucratic red tape, data laws, working cultures etc.) . The Statement will therefore bridge the gap between the vision presented at Malmo and the on-the-ground reality that cities/communities face.

It will be possible in the coming weeks to discuss the statement on http://egovstatement.wordpress.com

and in the meanwhile you can post suggestions on https://egovernmentstatement.uservoice.com/forums/79147-local-egovernment-statement-for-europe


Why "Citadel"?


The 2010 Local eGovernment declaration has been name the ‘Citadel Statement’ for two strategic reasons:

   1. The word citadel is originally derived from the phrase “citta ideale”, meaning the ideal city. 
   2. The launch event for the statement is located in the Citadel Park within Ghent.  The conference building itself is on the site of a former citadel (built during the Dutch era, at the beginning of the 19th century).  A citadel was used to protect its city.

 Therefore the Flemish Government hope to see many of you in the perfect place to launch an ideal cities statement – the site of the old Ghent Citadel.


The conference


The Belgian Presidency is hosting a Conference in Brussels on December 15th-16th titled “Lift-off towards Open Government”.  To kick start proceedings the Flemish Government and SmartCities are hosting a pre-conference in Ghent on the 14th December, where our declaration on how national and local governments can work together to achieve better e-services for citizens will be launched.

Smart Cities, represented by lead beneficiary Leiedal and helped by Edinburgh Napier University and our government partners, is cooperating with the e-government administration unit of the Flemish Government to organise this large-scale conference. The question “How national Governments can support/promote ICT and e-Government in local authorities” is an interesting and often overlooked issue that affects municipalities in all member states. A key theme in the presentations will be the search for “shared services” that can be shared/delivered with smaller municipalities with limited resources.

Smart Cities is helping to develop the conference programme and to organise the conference. This event will be the project’s principal mainstreaming event, presenting the Smart Cities project’s transnational work to attendees from the NSR and elsewhere in the EU.

The NSR is being involved in the organisation of the conference and the preparation of the statement, and will get maximum exposure on this conference.

Conference website: http://www.opengov2010.be