The Eurovision Song Contest isn't the only annual pan-European talent parade Britons pretend to ignore. Europe also runs the world's biggest and most sophisticated international e-government contest. The British government doesn't shout about it much, largely because it doesn't win.
Officially, the e-Europe benchmarking exercise, carried out for the European Commission by consultants Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, exists to stimulate progress towards "e-Europe". This was a collection of measures adopted in summer 2000 to help the continent compete in the new economy with North America and East Asia.
The action plan includes an e-government target: "basic" public services to be online by the end of 2002, since revised to all services online by the end of 2005. How are we doing? The third benchmarking study, just published, suggests that e-Europe is becoming a reality: 86% of organisations providing public services are now online. However, the sophistication of online offerings varies widely, as does the rate of progress made by different countries. The 18 countries studied (15 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) fall into three groups.
The stars are Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden. In these four countries, most online government allows two-way interactions. At the "nul points" end of the table are Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, which need "a little additional effort", as the report diplomatically puts it.
In the middle are the rest, headed by the UK, which ranks fifth for "online availability of public services". These positions are largely in line with previous surveys. The Nordic countries, with small, well-educated populations, generally do well in international e-rankings. (The World Economic Forum ranks Finland number one for "networked readiness".) Ireland was an early adopter of e-policies to support its economic boom and has invested heavily in e-government.
The laggards are equally predictable. Germany's problem is its devolved constitution. While almost every public body has a website, central government has little power to coordinate and enhance their efforts. Belgium and Luxembourg were late starters: political classes took little interest in the internet until told to by the European Commission. Belgium, however, is catching up fast: according to the latest benchmarking study, its rate of progress last year was second only to Sweden's.
And Luxembourg does some things well, such as public libraries. Neither is there much surprise in the e-services that governments choose to deliver. Like private businesses, governments put their best efforts into collecting money. Services that generate income for the government - taxes or other social contributions - are the most sophisticated.
In almost every country, public services for businesses score significantly higher than those for citizens and this gap is growing. Another recently published study, by market research firm IDC, supports many of the benchmarking findings, but identifies a new star.
Surprisingly, it's the "old Europe" exemplar of France. According to James Weir, an analyst at IDC, France ranks with Finland in the sophistication of its online govern ment services. The UK is very much second division. Weir is particularly impressed by the French government portal www.service-public.fr.
Users can do everything from checking their criminal record to bidding for government procurement contracts. France's success in e-government is in keeping with the tradition set by national hi-tech projects such as Minitel and the TGV.
Public service is still an elite profession in France and largely untouched by Thatcherite reform. Civil servants can get on with web projects knowing they are unlikely to be working themselves out of a job.
Should Britain adopt the French model if it wants to build a sophisticated e-government? Of course not: the cultures are too different, the cult of "modernisation" too embedded, the deadlines too near. Rather, we should celebrate e-European diversity as we celebrate other European diversities.
