Het GUIDE Consortium (Government User Identity for Europe) onder leiding van BT, Siemens en Visa start in opdracht van de Europese Commissie een e-governmentonderzoek. Het onderzoek bekijkt de ontwikkeling van een begrijpelijke elektronische identificatie en een architectuur die hiervoor als rechtsgeldig aangemerkt wordt. Hiermee moeten e-governmentapplicaties in en buiten de Europese Unie ondersteund worden.
De Europese Commissie wil het voor de lidstaten makkelijk maken om e-government in te voeren met behulp van een eenduidig en gebruikersvriendelijk framework. De gemeenschappelijke visie dat Europa wereldwijd leider moet worden op het gebied van e-government diensten ligt ten grondslag aan de ontwikkeling van deze open architectuur voor identiteitsverificatie en -management. Het GUIDE Consortium tekent vandaag een overeenkomst met de Europese Commissie ter waarde van EUR 12 miljoen.
Overheidsvertegenwoordigers uit 12 lidstaten ondersteunen de overeenkomst.
BT Global Services richt zich op ICT-dienstverlening en telecommunicatie voor de grootzakelijke markt. BT biedt een wereldwijd geharmoniseerd portfolio van diensten op het gebied van applicatiehosting- en beheer, bandbreedte, broadcasting, data-VPN's, internet, voice en consulting.
Daarnaast verzorgt BT oplossingen op het gebied van e-business, e-CRM, mobility, desktopbeheer, security en connectivity. BT beschikt internationaal over tientallen datacenters en levert wereldwijd netwerktransport. BT Nederland is sinds 1989 actief en is onderdeel van BT Global Services. BT Global Services is met 21.000 mensen actief in 136 landen.
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Het volledige, Engelstalige persbericht vindt u hieronder.
Voor meer informatie kunt u contact opnemen met:
Marlies Roest
PR manager BT Nederland
Tel: 020 203 8898
mailto:marlies.roest@bt.com
Leoni Janssen of Diana Budding
Edelman
Tel: 023 554 2030
mailto:nl@edelman.com
http://www.edelman.com/nl
Voor meer informatie kunt u ook terecht op de website van BT:
http://www.bt.nl. Eerder verschenen persberichten kunt u vinden op:
http://www.btglobalservices.com/nl/pressrelease/index.html.
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Released on 29th April 2004
The European Commission and Swiss government LAUNCH EUR12 million e-Government research project
BT, Siemens and Visa lead 23-strong consortium
A consortium of leading European businesses and academic institutions today announced that it has signed a contract with the European Commission to conduct research into the development of a simple, coherent and interoperable electronic identification and authentication architecture to underpin e-government applications in the EU and beyond. The aim is to increase the adoption of e-government across Europe by providing a framework to prove identities electronically between government administrations, businesses and citizens that is easy for member states to implement, and convenient for citizens to use.
The Guide Consortium (Government User IDentity for Europe) groups 23 organisations across 13 countries. It has been established with the shared vision of enabling Europe to become the global leader of e-government services through the creation of an open architecture for identity authentication and appropriate ID management.
Supported by government representatives across 12 member states, project GUIDE is multi-disciplinary and will span a range of established technologies. The project will also consider the social, economic, and ethical policy making issues across Europe. It is one of the largest projects to be funded by the European Commission Information Society Directorate-General.
The European Council's Conclusions on eGovernment in November 2003 called for projects such as GUIDE that would "evaluate necessities, obstacles and solutions to explore possible interoperable European solutions for citizens' and companies authentication for e-government in the Internal Market, in order to facilitate mobility in Europe and provide cross-border services on line". The Council also called for "remaining legal and regulatory barriers to e-government" to be identified. GUIDE's multi-faceted approach will address these elements by exploiting existing technology, trusted models and proven commercial frameworks.
Many attempts have been made to advance e-government services in Europe and to address the problem of online authentication of the identity of citizens and businesses. A number of solutions have been developed but to date these have had limited success, which has hindered the development and take-up of e-government services.
Lia Borthwick, Project Director of the GUIDE consortium, said: "A multidisciplinary and multicultural structure such as ours is ideal to achieve the aim of developing a citizen centric, user driven and technology enabled open architecture that best suits the needs of administrations, businesses and citizens. Our members are now hard at work to produce mass scale product demonstrations with governments and citizens."
The adoption of e-government services currently faces resistance from administrations, businesses and citizens due to lack of trust in system security and the potential threat of identity theft. These issues have to be addressed if EU member states are to adopt systems that can dramatically improve the efficiency of inter-administration communication and harness the full potential that pan-European integration brings.
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Notes to editors
About GUIDE
GUIDE (Government User IDentity for Europe), is a project funded by the European Commission and the Swiss Government, conducting research and technological development with the aim of creating an architecture for secure and interoperable e-government electronic identity services and transactions for Europe. The project's approach is multi-disciplinary and includes technology, procedural and policy development across Europe. The GUIDE Consortium consists of 23 organisations from 13 countries. GUIDE's vision is to enable Europe to become the global leader of e-government services through the creation of an open architecture for identity authentication.
GUIDE will bring together excellence in eGovernment across Europe through cooperation and the creation of pan-European consensus in Identity Management. The project is part funded by the EC Sixth Framework Programme.
For further information: www.guide-project.org
About BT Global Services
BT Global Services is BT's business services and solutions division, serving customers worldwide. As an information and communications technology service provider, BT provides integrated data and value-added services to meet the needs of multi-site organisations with European operations. Extensive global service capabilities and strong strategic partnerships also enable BT to serve customers in all key commercial centres of Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
The BT Global Services portfolio ranges from desktop and network equipment and software, transport and connectivity, IP-based e-business solutions, managed network services and systems integration to consultancy for complex global requirements. With 18 years of experience in global account management, BT Global Services employs 21,000 people and operates in 136 countries.
About Siemens Switzerland Ltd
Siemens today is - among many other business - one of the world's leading IT service providers. Siemens not only in the e-government sector offers manufacturer-independent IT services from a single source - ranging from consulting to system integration, operation and maintenance of IT infrastructures, right through to management of business processes. With regard to IT development and maintenance, Siemens is among the top ten providers worldwide. Thanks to our comprehensive e-government system and e-government sector know-how, we create measurable added value for more thousands of customers worldwide. Siemens Switzerland Ltd as a subsidiary of the Siemens group is also a leader in the business segments of Information and Communications. Siemens has been active in Switzerland for over a century. With a workforce of about 8,400 people, it is one of the largest employers in the country. The company has acquired remarkable development and production know-how in Switzerland. More than 600 engineers represent one of the largest development centres in Switzerland. Approximately 3,200 employees produce a turnover of 1.5 billion Swiss francs.
About Visa
Visa is one of the world's leading payment brands generating US$3 trillion in annual card sales volume. Visa has unsurpassed acceptance in more than 150 countries. The Visa organisation plays a pivotal role in developing innovative payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions and their cardholders. Visa is a leader in Internet based payments and is pioneering the creation of u-commerce, or universal commerce-the ability to conduct commerce anywhere, anytime, and any way. For more information, visit www.visaeu.com