Digital Government Factsheet 2019

Czech Republic

Table of Contents

Country Profile 3

Digital Government Highlights 6

Digital Government Political Communications 8

Digital Government Legislation 14

Digital Government Governance 19

Digital Government Infrastructure 27

Digital Government Services for Citizens 35

Digital Government Services for Businesses 47

Country Profile

Basic data

Population: 10 610 055 inhabitants (2018)

GDP at market prices: 206 822 million Euro (2018)

GDP per inhabitant in PPS (Purchasing Power Standard EU 28=100): 89 (2017)

GDP growth rate: 3%

Inflation rate: 2%

Unemployment rate: 2.2%

General government gross debt (Percentage of GDP): 34.7% (2017)

General government deficit/surplus (Percentage of GDP): 1.5% (2017)

Area: 78 900 km²

Capital city: Prague

Official EU language: Czech

Currency: Czech koruna (CZK)

Source: Eurostat (last update: 15 March 2019)

Digital Government State of Play

The graph below is the result of the latest eGovernment Benchmark report, which monitors the development of eGovernment in Europe, based on specific indicators. These indicators are clustered within four main top-level benchmarks:

User Centricity – indicates to what extent (information about) a service is provided online and how this is perceived.

Transparency – indicates to what extent governments are transparent regarding: i) their own responsibilities and performance, ii) the process of service delivery and iii) personal data involved.

Cross-Border Mobility – indicates to what extent EU citizens and businesses can use online services in another country.

Key Enablers – indicates the extent to which five technical pre-conditions are available online. There are: Identification (eID), Electronic documents (eDocuments), Authoritative Sources, and Digital Post. Digital Post refers to the possibility that governments communicate electronically-only with citizens or entrepreneurs through e.g. personal mailboxes or other digital mail solutions.

These top-level benchmarks are measured using a life-events (e.g. mystery shopping) approach. Eight life events are included in the overall eGovernment performance score. Four of these life events were measured in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and the other four were measured in 2012, 2014, 2016, and again in 2018. The life events measured in 2017 were Regular business operations, Moving, Owning and driving a car and Starting a small claims procedure. The life events measured in 2018 are Business start-up, Losing and finding a job, Family life and Studying.

Source: eGovernment Benchmark Report 2018 Country Factsheet

Digital Government Highlights

Digital Government Political Communications

The Government launched the programme Digital Czechia which covered three main concepts:

Digital Economy and Society Concept.

Digital Government Legislations

Various Digital Government legislations was amended in 2018:

Act on Electronic Identification;

Act on Citizen Identity Cards;

Act on Information Systems of Public Administration;

Act on Public Procurement

Act on Base Registers;

Act on Electronic Communications and on Amendment to Certain Related Acts;

Act on Cyber Security;

Act on Health Services.

Digital Government Governance

Mr. Jan Hamáček became the Minister of the Interior.

Mr. Karel Havlíček became the Minister of Industry and Trade.

Digital Government Infrastructure

A new version of the Public Administration Portal was launched.

The Citizen’s Portal was launched, offering over 80 eServices to citizens.

The next phase of modernisation of the public administration communication infrastructure took place, and its central element is the central place of services 2.0.

The eIDAS node was launched in September 2018 under the name CZ.PEPS.

Since 1 January 2019, all contracting authorities are obliged to accept incoming eInvoices in ISDOC/ISDOCX formats.

Digital Government Services for Citizens and Businesses

Various new services are now available for citizens on the Citizen’s Portal:

Reservation system for filing applications for ID cards and travel documents;

Services of the Czech Social Security Administration (access to pension data, etc.);

Criminal record;

Electronic submissions for financial management (VAT control reports, tax returns);

Driver’s ranking listing;

Access to a list of properties owned by the user (preview of the cadastre);

Access to the patient’s drug account (eRecept);

Information on incapacity for work;

National eHealth contact point;

Submission of a request for information.

New services for citizens are also accessible on the Public Administration Portal:

Application for birth allowance;

Application for parental allowance;

Application for child allowance.

The Citizen’s Portal also made new services available for businesses:

Extract from the Trade Register;

A single registration form;

A non-public extract of the natural person’s business;

Extract from the list of qualified suppliers;

Extract from the insolvency register.

Digital Government Political Communications

Specific political communications on digital government

Digital Czechia

1. Czech Republic in Digital Europe:

Institutional provision of coordination and financing of the implementation.

Ensuring communication on current topics and opportunities in the digital agenda.

1. Information Concept of the Czech Republic:

User-friendly and efficient online services for citizens and businesses.

Digitally-friendly legislation developing an overall environment conducive to digital technology.

Increase of staff capacities and competences in public administration.

Efficient and centrally coordinated ICT for public administration.

1. Digital Economy and Society Concept:

Functional financial and non-financial support for research, development and innovation.

The maturity and preparedness of the economic sectors for digital transformation.

Citizens' readiness to change the labour market, education and digital skills development.

Supporting the connectivity and infrastructure of the digital economy and society.

Ensuring security and confidence in the environment of the digital economy and society.

Legislation supporting all aspects of the digital economy and society.

Optimal system for financing the digital economy and society.

Institutional provision of central coordination of policies to support the digital economy and society.

The digitisation of public administration services.

Better public administration monitoring system.

Launch of the Citizen’s Portal as a transactional part of the Public Administration portal.

Implementation of eInvoicing.

Cross-border electronic identification.

Implementation of ongoing eHealth and eJustice strategies.

The implementation of individual measures and activities leading to the implementation of both specific and strategic objectives was, to a certain extent, interconnected.

In respect of the strategic objective No. 1: the modernisation of the public administration, a key task was, to optimise and streamline the performance of individual (selected) agendas, primarily via their initial mapping and subsequent standardisation. These activities would, at the same time, contribute to the reduction of the regulatory burden. The established quality management systems and the system of public administration evaluation subsequently identified the potential for further optimisation of the public administration system.

Key enablers

Access to public information

eID and Trust Services

Digital Czechia

The Programme Digital Czechia includes the strategy of the implementation of full electronic submission using eIdentification, in accordance with the eIDAS and in compliance with a “digital by default” principle.

Security aspects related to digital government

The Action Plan of the Strategy defined its concrete steps, deadlines, responsibilities and the supervision of their implementation. The main goals were divided into the following seven priority areas:

1. Ensuring efficiency and strengthening of all structures, processes and cooperation in the field of cyber security;
2. Active international co-operation;
3. Protection of national Critical Information Infrastructure and Important Information Systems;
4. Co-operation with the private sector;
5. R&D/Consumer’s trust;
6. Support to the education, awareness and the development of the information society;
7. Support to the development of police capabilities to investigate and prosecute information crime.

Interconnection of base registries

The concept of Czech legislation is four base registers, but data from other public registers is used for the VS services and is linked to the core registries (e.g. driver register, criminal record, trade register).

eProcurement

The strategy includes an evaluation of the functioning of electronic marketplaces of public administration and a proposal for further use, an evaluation of the National Electronic Instrument (NEN) and a proposal for its mandatory use by 2020 for all contracting authorities with the exception of individual certified electronic tools

Domain-specific political communications

The relevant part of the strategy (pillar 2) on modernisation of institutions and public administration in general sets out the following objectives:

The systematisation and improvement of public administration by promoting professionalism and efficiency;

The efficient management of public assets and resources with a focus on tight control of public finances;

The simplification of public access to government services and information provided by public administrations;

The systematic improvement of the process of regulation and of the ability of the public to access legislation online.

The strategy outlines that these objectives will be tackled by:

Promoting effective governance;

Streamlining the management of public assets and resources;

Facilitating access to services of public administration;

Improving quality and availability control.

National Architectural Plan for eGovernment

The National Architecture Plan (NAP) and National Architectural Framework (NAF) are being prepared as a part of National Architecture of eGovernment. It aims to streamline the work of public authorities with information technology. NAP is an activity that includes not only central architectural models of shared services, but also individual models of public authorities. The aim is to prepare the initial state of Czech eGovernment with its development plan. Specifically, it is the modelling of central shared eGovernment services and individual systems and their services by public authorities. The Ministry of Interior will issue and publish the NAP and the NAF on its website by the end of September 2019.

National eHealth Strategy

Above all, however, the National eHealth Strategy, based on Czech and foreign experience, and using the principles promoted by the Czech Medical Society JEPurkyně, takes precedence over six principles:

The primary goal of eHealth development must be to benefit patients and the quality of healthcare.

The patient's right to adequate care, the protection of personal dignity and the protection of personal data must not be weakened but rather strengthened by the introduction of eHealth resources.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals need to be involved in projects already at the planning stage, in designing solutions. Expert opinion must be actively collected and appropriately taken into account in the projects.

Before implementing new eHealth tools and services, their usability, quality, stability and performance must always be sufficiently validated and evaluated.

The introduction of e-health on the basis of a flat-rate obligation is in principle incorrect. When introducing new eHealth services and tools, positive motivation needs to be used, and new technologies introduced gradually and judiciously so as not to jeopardize the continuity and safety of operations, patient threats or deterioration of health professionals.

Wherever possible and useful, all available scientific knowledge and proven technologies, including standards for exchanging and displaying medical information, should be used to create new solutions.

Resort Strategy for eJustice Development

The strategy is a long-term perspective for the area of eJustice. It describes and evaluates past achievements and failures in this field, identifies and analyses currently used information systems and technologies that have the potential for further development, completes them with suggestions arising from the practice of individual departments and experience of foreign courts and other organisations, and sets goals development in different variants.

GeoInfoStrategy

Interoperability

Interoperability initiatives

The National Architecture Framework is under preparation, as is the National Architecture Plan that will define interfaces between public administration information systems.

New laws have been adopted and existing relevant legislation has been updated to reflect the eIDAS regulation and to ensure delivery of the secure and modern public administration eGovernment services.

Central government provides technological and methodological support to all public administration bodies in relation to open data publication and catalogues.

On a local level, both regional and municipal governments have developed digital strategies as part of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Development.

Emerging technologies

Industry 4.0

National Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Memoranda of Cooperation

The Czech Government signed two memoranda in 2018 on cooperation between the Office of the Government, Ministry of Industry and Trade and, on the one hand, the AI Platform and on the other hand, the Blockchain Republic.

Digital Government Governance

National

Policy

Ministry of the Interior

Since mid-2007, all eGovernment activity (e.g. policy formulation) has been firmly positioned in the Ministry of the Interior, as one of the six main activities of the Ministry. eGovernment focuses on public service delivery and the reform of government and is distinct from general information society policy. Political responsibility lies with the Minister and the Deputy Minister for Strategies and Programme Management under the Ministry.

The chief architect of eGovernment at the Ministry of Interior continues to perform its guidance and supervision role in respect to the central, regional and local public administrations to ensure compliance with the National Architecture Plan as well as with ICT systems and services sharing and reuse principles. The department continues to publish shared service models (templates) differentiated by the type of public administration, using enterprise architecture principles.

Jan Hamáček Minister of the Interior Contact details: Ministry of the Interior Postbox 21 Prague 7 - Letná 170 34 E-mail: ministr@mvcr.cz Tel.: +420 974 833 151 Source: http://www.mvcr.cz/

Jaroslav Strouhal Deputy Interior Minister for Information and Communication Technologies Contact details: Ministry of the Interior Nám. Hrdinů 1634/3 Prague 4 140 21 E-mail: jaroslav.strouhal@mvcr.cz Tel.: +420 974 817 702 Source: http://www.mvcr.cz/

Ministry of Industry and Trade

Karel Havlíček Minister of Industry and Trade Contact details: Ministry of Industry and Trade Na Františku 32 Prague 1 110 15 E-mail: karel.havlicek@mpo.cz Tel.: +420 224 851 111 Source: https://www.mpo.cz

Government Council for Information Society and the Government Council for Public Administration

According to Government resolution No. 961 of 24 November 2014, two expert advisory bodies were established, the Government Council for Information Society, and the Government Council for Public Administration. Both Councils perform the role of permanent advisory, initiation and coordination body to the Government.

Since 2007 and until this government decision was made, the relevant agenda was performed by the predecessor of both Councils, the Government Council for the Competitiveness and Information Society. By dividing this rather large and very important agenda between two separated yet effectively cooperating bodies, the government expects to achieve a better focus and more effective coordination. Another driver behind the decision was the need to focus on continuous eGovernment and public administration development in line with defined priorities and strategic national and EU documents.

Vladimír Dzurilla Chief Digital Officer Contact details: SPCSS, s.p. Na Vápence 14, Prague 3 130 00 E-mail: N/A Tel.: +420 225 515 737 Source: https://www.spcss.cz/kontakty/spcss

Coordination

Ministry of the Interior

The Ministry of the Interior coordinates the development and implementation of eGovernment, with emphasis placed on public administration information systems and the public administration portal. It also contributes to the promotion of the information society as a whole.

Government Council for the Information Society

The activities of the Council also bring significant savings due to new implemented provisions. The Ministry of the Interior has the leading and strategic role in the Council. The Council contributes to implementation of unanimous rules for approving investment intentions and rules of purchase of ICT products and services.

Department of eGovernment

The Department of eGovernment is situated within the Ministry of the Interior and is responsible for drafting and implementing the national eGovernment strategy together with other public administrations. The Department is responsible for implementation of key eGovernment projects, and administration of several central information systems. It provides support and guidelines to the Czech POINTs, the national network of public administration contact points. It also actively participates in the process of drafting national eGovernment legislation.

Roman Vrba Director of eGovernment Department Contact details: Ministry of the Interior Nám. Hrdinů 1634/3 Prague 4 140 21 E-mail: roman.vrba@mvcr.cz Tel.: +420 974 817 544 Source: http://www.mvcr.cz/

Implementation

Ministry of the Interior

The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for implementing national eGovernment infrastructure projects and projects related to digital services.

Department of eGovernment

One of the current projects of the Department of eGovernment is the process modelling of public administration agendas with the aim to prioritise services that will become fully digitised and standardised across the country. The department is also responsible for implementation of the new Citizen's Portal as a transactional part of the Government (Public Administration) Portal. The department administers the Contract Registry and provides user support. The eGovernment department also performs the role of technical administrator of the national identity scheme in compliance with the eIDAS regulation.

Support

Ministry of the Interior

The Ministry of the Interior provides support to other Government departments and bodies for the implementation of their eGovernment projects.

Government Council for the Information Society

The Government Council for the Information Society is an expert advisory body made up of senior officials and major stakeholders in key institutions of the Public Administration and local governments who are involved in ICT and the implementation of eGovernment. It aims to support the development of the information society by creating a platform for discussing strategies and projects of the respective Government departments. Furthermore, it deliberates over materials submitted to the Government for ICT implementation and for the computerisation of the Public Administration.

For effective work of the Council, the following working groups were set up:

The Executive committee for the Digital Economy and society,

The Executive Committee on horizontal cooperation.

Base registry coordination

National Registries Authority

The National Registries Authority provides necessary organisational and technical support to public administrations, their system administrators and system developers. The National Registries Authority ensures for proper interoperability between their registered systems and the four base registries, through the Information System of Base Registries. Furthermore, it includes instructions and guidelines to be followed in order to achieve interoperability. These can be retrieved in the form of:

A global architecture description of the base registries;

A catalogue of services of the external interface of the information system of base registries, ensuring the data exchange between systems as well as access rights management;

A list of data elements used in the information system of base registries, in terms of data semantics in public administration;

An operation manual of the information system of base registries;

A description of the processes and conditions for the interconnection of registered public administration systems and the information system of base registries; and

A “reference agenda” tool and test data for system developers.

Michal Pešek Director of the National Registers Authority Contact details: Správa základních registrů/National Registers Authority Na Vápence 14 Prague 3 130 00 E-mail: szr@szrcr.cz Tel.: +420 236 031 751; +420 236 031 759 Source: http://www.szrcr.cz/kontakty

Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK)

The Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK), is the administrator of the base registry of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estates (RUIAN). CUZK cooperates with relevant local municipal, cadastral and building offices and municipal councils. CUZK coordinates and manages all the processes concerning information collection and distribution for RUIAN and coordinates the large network of cadastre offices, municipal offices, local and specialised building authorities, and local councils when editing RUIAN. CUZK’s rights and duties are defined in Act No. 111/2009 Coll. and the Decree No. 359/2011 on RUIAN. Local cadastre offices are primary editors of information using for that function the Cadastral Information System (ISKN). The other local or specialised editors contribute with particular data in their territorial and subject competence through the Information System of Territorial Identification (ISUI).

Czech Statistical Office (CSO)

The Czech Statistical Office (CSO), in cooperation with relevant local administrations, is the administrator of the Legal Persons Registry (ROS). CSO defines and manages all the processes around information collection and distribution of ROS. CSO rights and duties are defined by the Act No. 111/2009 Coll. There is a network of various local, regional and central public offices working as primary editors of ROS and coordinated by CSO. Editing agencies are supported by more than 40 information systems connected to the System of Base Registries.

Ministry of Interior

The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with relevant local administrations, is the administrator of the Registry of Natural Persons (ROB). The Ministry defines and manages all processes around information collection and distribution for ROB. Its rights and duties are defined by Act No. 111/2009 Coll., where the local councils are set as the primary editors of citizens’ information using the Agenda Information System (AIS).

Also, the Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with other central government administrations, is the administrator of Registry of Rights and Duties (RPP). The Ministry defines processes for agenda definition and registration. The actual registration is done by the responsible Ministry or other central offices. Part of the agenda description is a definition of access rights to information stored in base registries and other agendas. A short description of registered agendas and public offices working on those agendas is published as output from the RPP. Additionally, a list of editing agendas for different registries is also published from RPP.

Office of Personal Data Protection (OPDP)

There are four main base registers^[1], based on the Act No. 111/2009 Coll. on Base registers, managed by different institutions, and the connection between them is ensured by the Office for Personal Data Protection (OPDP). These registers are governed by the Administration of basic registers. They are not interconnected with each other. The Office of Personal Data Protection is the administrator of the system of personal identifiers (ORG). It does not use a potentially exploitable birth number, but a randomly generated ID. That is why it is also called the identifier converter. The OPDP also defines and manages all the processes regarding the creation and changes of personal identifiers and manages the services for the personal identifiers (“AIFO”) usage. The office has no rights to access information from base registries except for the audit purposes.

Audit

Supreme Audit Office

The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) is an independent institution that is responsible for auditing the management of public finances and State property. The National Audit Office (NKÚ) is one of the indispensable pillars of the democratic State.

Data Protection

Office for Personal Data Protection

Personal data protection is a special type of personality protection, especially privacy protection. The determination of the purpose of processing personal data must be assessed with regard to privacy. The Office for Personal Data Protection supervises the implementation of the Data Protection Act and compliance with the GDPR.

Subnational (federal, regional and local)

Policy

Individual Regions and Municipalities

Coordination

Ministry of the Interior

The Ministry of the Interior is in charge of the coordination of municipalities in the eGovernment domain.

Department of eGovernment

The Department of eGovernment is responsible for the coordination of service development, implementation projects and regional activities in the computerisation of public administration with other state and local governments.

Implementation

Individual Regions and Municipalities

Within their respective spheres of competence, regional and municipal authorities ensure the implementation of their eGovernment strategies, while the central coordination is ensured by the central authorities and the Ministry of Interior.

Support

Ministry of the Interior

The Ministry of the Interior provides cities and municipalities with quality eGovernment services through technical solutions and support. The aim is to ensure that the implementation of eServices does not hinder the economic stability of cities and municipalities and their citizens and businesses have access to modern digital services regardless their location.

National Registers Authority

The National Registers Authority, as part of the Czech eGovernment, makes it possible to centralise and keep the most common and widely used information up to date. This central administration body supports national public administrations, their system administrators and system developers, to ensure proper interoperability between registered systems and base registers.

Base registry coordination

Interconnection between Base Registries and Public Administration Information Systems

Audit

Supreme Audit Office

The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) is an independent institution that is responsible for auditing the management of public finances and State property.

Data Protection

Office for Personal Data Protection

Digital Government Infrastructure

Portals

Public Administration Portal

The Public Administration Portal serves as an official single electronic gateway for citizens, businesses and institutions, enabling them to communicate with Public Administration entities. The portal gathers necessary information on central and local Government.

The portal will soon provide access not only to key public administration information, but also to available digital services grouped by life events. The transactional part of the portal called Citizen's Portal offers the option of digital identification, several fully automated digital services, provision of extracts from state base registers, information on the current status of individuals’ submissions to public administration as well as a personal archive of public administration-related documents. Personal identification and authentication at the Portal is to be done by the new national eID card.

Regional public administrations and municipalities, as well as local administrations, continue to improve their portal in order to provide up-to-date information on public services, opportunities and local tourist attractions. Individual portals are accessible from the central portal. Various digital services are available at the regional level, for example, citizens of Vysočina region can now make their online appointments to local health care providers, while the South Bohemian region provides an online UtilityReport service, which helps to obtain information on all utility networks at a particular location at once, as well as contact them online to request official statements.

On 3 January 2018, a new version of the Public Administration Portal was launched, one that corresponded to current user requirements for clarity and intuitive operation. The Portal was customised to display on a variety of devices including mobile phones. The content of the portal will be gradually updated to make it a place where everyone finds all necessary information related to the public administration. A number of issues are directly managed by the online applications available here.

In connection with the reconstruction of the PVS (Public Administration Portal), its transactional personified part called the Citizen's portal was built, which was launched on 1 July 2018.

Citizens’ Portal

In context with the reconstruction of the Public Administration Portal (PVS), its transactional personalised part, called Citizen’s Portal, was launched on 1 July 2018. The Citizen’s Portal will offer the citizen, in particular, the implementation of a full electronic submission, the provision of outputs from public administration information systems, information on the status of individual acts performed by a citizen against specific public authorities, and for example, a personal archive of documents. The Citizen’s Portal currently offers about 80 services such as: access to data in base registers, access to pension data, information on sickness insurance benefits, access to a patient’s drug account (eRecept), driver ranking listings, incapacity for work information, extract from the criminal record, request for information under the Act on Free Access to Information, the possibility to attach a data box of a natural person or a natural person doing business and to submit a document, storage of documents (e.g. attachments of data messages), access to a list of properties owned by the user, tax filings (VAT control reports, tax returns…) and other services. The development of the Citizen’s Portal will continue even after the project has been completed, e.g. the National Strategy the Digital Czechia included the Citizens Portal as a key objective and counts on its development at least until 2024.

Electronic Portal of Local Self-Governments (ePUSA)

Towns and Communities Online Portal (TCOP)

Portal for Data Boxes

The Portal for Data Boxes was launched in June 2011 to provide a more comprehensive service to users of Data Boxes, which serve as a secure repository of official electronic communications with public authorities. The new portal provides, in one place, comprehensive information on, and the services for the information system of Data Boxes (ISDS). In addition, the portal provides users with several secure ways to log in, and also makes interactive electronic forms available. These changes are expected to significantly streamline the communication of citizens with the state.

Czech Social Security Administration

Citizens and employers can access their information registered in the Czech Social Security Administration’s databases, send their requests online and receive replies digitally. There are online services available for different groups of clients, i.e. individuals, employers, self-employed individuals, pensioners, physicians and social service facilities.

Services for individuals, for example, include online access to information on sick pay leaves during a person’s work career, information on health insurance payments for the self-employed individuals, online calculation of the retirement pension based on the insurance periods and other services. Currently, to access this personal information online, citizens need to identify and authenticate via the Data Box. In the near future, these services will also be available when the eID is issued as a personal identification means.

Networks

Public Administration Communication Infrastructure (KIVS)

The KIVS enables the interconnection of all Public Administration bodies (e.g. ministries, central administrations, regional authorities, municipal offices, labour offices, revenue authorities and public libraries), ensures secure and cost-efficient data and voice communications, as well as access to central information resources. Simply put, the KIVS is a combination of different data lines between public administration bodies in a single data network. The major benefit of the KIVS is that it streamlines services and leads to significant cost savings.

CzechPOINT network

The Czech POINT system is a network of one-stop access points to eGovernment services intended to prevent citizens from visiting several offices, thus significantly reducing excessive administrative burden. Through these one-stop points, the general public is able to access all public records and to obtain transcripts/extracts, as well as information statements from the national registers.

The Czech POINTs are primarily located at post offices, municipal authority offices, registry offices and Czech embassies. As of December 2018, the network is comprised of 7,461 local and regional physical contact points. An interactive map on the website serves as a Czech POINT location finder. By the end of 2018, the number of issued excerpts reached 21,021,279 million.

In the future, the accessibility of Czech POINT remotely from the Public administration portal will make it possible to obtain required documents from home. In this light, the Act on Electronic Actions and Authorised Document Conversion, which gives electronic documents the same legal status as traditional stamped hardcopy equivalents, will have significant impact on the effectiveness of the network. Since July 2009, Czech POINTs have been in charge of converting paper-based administrative documents into electronic form, processing applications for the establishment of personal Data Boxes and terminating/re-creating these Boxes, when needed and upon request.

Gradually more services are introduced, such as:

New map service makes it possible to find Czech POINT offices on the map, including the address and office hours;

E-mail alert service of the crime register is for those who applied for the excerpt from the crime register. The applicant can provide his email, to which an alert message is being sent when the excerpt is ready;

The Validation of the cadastral map image at the public administration contact point (i.e. any of the CzechPOINT offices), as well as on the CzechPOINT@office interface for clerks;

Excerpt from the Driver’s Point Account as a free service for the Data Box holders at the CzechPOINT@home interface and more.

New Technology Centre

Through its new Technology Centre, the Vysočina region provides several ICT services to the regional administration, its municipalities and organisations financed by the region. The centre is in two locations connected by two separate optical fibre cables. Among the services offered by the regional technology centre are a document management service, secure storage management, spatial information system, interface to central registers, and videoconferences for the regional and local administrations, eProcurement system, eHealth services and the services for the national integrated rescue system. The technology centre also provides a security dashboard of the region for the cybersecurity administrators of the regional information systems and the public wi-fi hotspots supporting the EDUROAM project.

Services 2.0

The next phase of modernisation of the public administration communication infrastructure took place, and its central element is the central place of services 2.0. It ensures mutual, controlled and secure interconnection of public and state administration entities, it also ensures communication of public and state administration entities with other entities in external networks such as the Internet or the EU communication infrastructure.

“What to do, when…”

The mobile application “What to do, when…” provides information on key government services for life situations of citizens. The application includes solutions to the following situations and related agendas:

Newborn baby;

Change of residence;

Loss of documents;

Family deaths;

Property transfer;

Localisation of the nearest Czech POINT;

My Office.

Data Exchange

'Data Box' Information System

A 'Data Box' is an eDelivery solution intended for delivery of official documents and for communication with public authorities. It is not obligatory for citizens and private individuals who carry out business activities; however, its establishment is obligatory for legal entities and public bodies (Public Administration). A document (data message) which is sent to a Data Box is delivered at the moment the authorised individual logs in. Delivery of the document has the same legal provisions as personal delivery. A Data Box is not an email box; it cannot be used to communicate directly with individual public sector clerks, only with an entire office, nor can it be used to communicate with another private individual, a private individual carrying out business activities and/or a legal entity.

With regards to natural persons (citizens), they are able to open their Data Box on a voluntary basis and use the contained documents in their dealings with public authorities. Citizens can access their Data Box at the Czech POINT network's one-stop contact points.

As of 1 November 2009, every Czech public body and legal entity registered in the Commercial Register is required to use Data Boxes in place of the traditional paper form. The Data Boxes information system is currently operational for other types of communication, namely C2C (citizen to citizen), C2B (citizen to business) and B2B (business to business) communications. To date, there are 975,937 accessible Data Boxes, while 648,119,378 messages have been sent through them, scoring a 99.5% average delivery successful login.

eID and Trust Services

eSignatures

The identification of persons, the authentication of documents on the Internet and access to several transactional electronic public services are based on electronic signatures. Currently, there are three certification service providers (First Certification Authority, Czech Post and eIdentity) accredited by the Government to issue eSignatures (qualified certificates, qualified system certificates and qualified time stamps) valid for communicating and transacting with the public administration. Their qualified certificates can be used for online transactions. eSignatures based on non-qualified certificates issued by other businesses can only be used for commercial services.

ePassports

Following a testing period, Czech authorities launched a first version of the Czech electronic passport at full scale in September 2006. On 1 April 2009, authorities started rolling out new electronic passports, which featured a chip that contained two biometric identifiers. Issued in compliance with the requirements laid down in the European Union Regulation regarding passport security and biometrics, the passports included new security features such as intricate designs and complex watermarks, as well as a chip and an antenna. The chip stores the electronic facial scan of the holder, in addition to personal details. Facial recognition maps various features. The addition of fingerprint details on the chip is being planned to take place at a later stage.

eID

Czech National Verification Authority (CVCA)

This CVCA is a public Certification Authority that meets the need for securing control systems accessing sensitive personal data on stored documents with biometric data. The aim of the CVCA is to provide certification services for public entities administering sets of inspection systems. The CVCA certificate policy stipulates the requirements relating to the activities, obligations and commitments of all participating parties that, directly or indirectly, come to contact with certification services or are dependent on them.

eProcurement

eProcurement portal

The public procurement legislation requires all public tenders and awards to be published on the free-of-charge eTenders portal. This obligation concerns State bodies as well as regional and municipal authorities. Information to be published on the portal includes public tender announcements, publication, results and cancellations of public tenders and price differences between received offers. The procedures for the notification and publication of these public tenders have been automated to a large extent.

Public Procurement and Concessions portal

The Public Procurement and Public Private Partnership Department of the Ministry for Regional Development has designed a portal where comprehensive and well-organised information relating to public procurement can be found. The user is provided with an opportunity to be orientated in national and European laws, regulations and administrative provisions concerning public contracts and concessions. Supply of information on eProcurement at both national and European levels is an innovative feature.

National Electronic Tool (NEN)

As part of the strategy adopted by the government in June 2017 Resolution No. 467, which obliges selected contracting authorities to use NEN from 1 July 2018 for public procurement. The implementation of these measures is expected to save several tens of millions of CZK on the operation of electronic public procurement tools.

eInvoicing

National eInvoicing Forum (NMFČR)

ePayment

Payment Gateway

Implementation of the payment gateway for selected services is planned for the first half of 2019.

Knowledge Management

Digital Map of Public Administration

The Ministry of the Interior began implementing a project to create Digital Government Maps (DMVS). The digital map of Public Administration unifies data from various geographic information systems in one application. The project aims to facilitate the exercise of public administration and accessibility of spatial data for the authorities and the public in line with Smart Administration, promoting efficient and user-friendly public administration, and development of eGovernment in the country.

Cross-border platforms

Czech Base Registry of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estate (RUIAN)

The Czech Base Registry of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estate (RUIAN) provides interoperable data and services to the European Location Framework Platform. ELF is a technical infrastructure that delivers various online services for locating, accessing and using reference location data from across Europe through a single point of access. In doing so, RUIAN’s location data contributes to a new ELF cross-border product, the Cadastral Index Map.

Base registries

National Register for Identification and Authentication (NIA)

In accordance with the Electronic Identification Act, which is based on the eIDAS Regulation, the National Register for Identification and Authentication was established by the Base Registers Administration and launched into production mode on 1 July 2018. NIA is a public administration information system supporting the process of electronic identification and authentication at the national level. NIA is a key tool for enabling electronic identity verification and forwarding of verified user information needed to use remote services. A separate part of the NIA is also the so-called eIDAS node, which facilitates interconnection to notified electronic identification systems (i.e. interconnects NIA with foreign notified systems of electronic identification).

The eIDAS node was launched on 28 September 2018 under the name CZ.PEPS. eIDAS nodes allow sign-ups between EU Member States for services provided in one Member State through an electronic identification mean issued in another Member State, subject to meeting the conditions of the eIDAS Regulation. Currently, work is underway to ensure the routine operation of NIA and CZ.PEPS and the ongoing development of both systems in relation to the gradually notified systems of electronic identification of other EU Member States.

eGovernment Service Bus

Information System of Base Registries (ISZR)

The Information System of Base Registries (ISZR) serves as the base registries’ control system and links the four main base registries to the Individual Identifiers’ Converter and data editors. The Information System of Base Registries also publishes a catalogue of base registry services which is used for both the editing and reading performed by the Agenda Information Systems (AIS). Additionally, the mentioned Converter (ORG) is an information system which ensures the protection of personal data in base registries. To do so, it essentially administers all reference data in the individual registries in a way that makes it impossible to automatically link the reference data to information in other registries or between different agenda information systems.

Digital Government Services for Citizens

The information in this section presents an overview of the basic public services provided to the citizens. These were identified taking inspiration from Your Europe, a website which aims to help citizens do things in other European countries – avoiding unnecessary inconvenience and red tape in regard to moving, living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling abroad. However, the categories used in this factsheet aim to collect a broader range of information, focusing therefore not only on cross-border services, but also on national services.

The groups of services for citizens are as follows:

Travel

Work and retirement

Vehicles

Residence formalities

Education and youth

Health

Family

Consumers

Travel

Work and retirement

Vehicles

Residence formalities

Education and youth

Health

Family

Consumers

Digital Government Services for Businesses

The information in this section presents an overview of the basic public services provided to the Businesses. These were identified taking inspiration from Your Europe, a website which aims to help citizens do things in other European countries – avoiding unnecessary inconvenience and red tape in regard to moving, living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling abroad. However, the categories used in this factsheet aim to collect a broader range of information, focusing therefore not only on cross-border services, but also on national services.

The groups of services for businesses are as follows:

• Running a business
• Taxation
• Selling in the EU
• Human Resources
• Product requirements
• Financing and Funding
• Dealing with Customers

Running a business

Taxation

Selling in the EU

Human Resources

Product requirements

Finance and funding

Dealing with customers

The Digital Government Factsheets

The factsheets present an overview of the state and progress of Digital Government European countries.

There are published on the Joinup platform, which is a joint initiative by the Directorate General for Informatics (DG DIGIT) and the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT). This factsheet received valuable contribution from Renata Brozkova (Ministry of the Interior).

The Digital Government Factsheets are prepared for the European Commission by Wavestone

An action supported by ISA²

ISA² is a EUR 131 million programme of the European Commission which develops digital solutions that enable interoperable cross-border and cross-sector public services, for the benefit of public administrations, businesses and citizens across the EU.

ISA² supports a wide range of activities and solutions, among which is the National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO) action.
ISA² solutions can be used free of charge and are open source when related to IT.

Contact ISA²

isa2@ec.europa.eu

Follow us

@EU_ISA2

@Joinup_eu

isa² programme

1. These are: the registers of natural and legal persons (ROS and ROB), register of territorial identification, adresses and real estate (RUIAN) as well as register of rights and responsibilities of public administrations (RPP). ↑