eGovernment may be defined as the use of Information and Communication Technologies in public administrations combined with organisational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies. The potential of eGovernment goes far beyond the early achievements of online public services and it is understandable that eGovernment has been defined as a priority in the eEurope 2005 Action Plan.

In a Communication published on 29 September 2004, the Commission urged Member States to take political leadership in developing a world-class online public administration.  It is stated that eGovernment is one of the key elements of the EU's eEurope 2005 Action Plan. It also plays an important role in realising the Lisbon strategy for economic, social and environmental renewal. However, the final responsibility to introduce eGovernment rests with the Member States' governments, who might encounter a lot of resistance and barriers to implement effective online public administration services.

The first Progress Report of the eEurope+ Action Plan from July 2002 which was presented at the European Ministerial Conference in Ljubljana placed Slovakia at the tail end of candidate countries in most relevant indicators used to measure the current state of information society. The Final Report presented at the European Ministerial Conference in Budapest in February 2004 was not much favorable for Slovakia.

In introducing of eGovernment in Slovakia there are many barriers as organisational (e.g. need for information sharing across departments, organisation change), financial (costs), and social (e.g. trust and confidence in online interaction with governments, digital divide etc.). On the basis of the discussion at the BRT on 22nd of April 2004 with regard to the approved document Strategy for Building an Information Society and the Action plan that is derived from the tasks in the initiatives of eEurope+ and eEurope 2005 we propose following recommendations:

• a gradual centralization of jurisdictions in the area of information society to one coordinating institution, the office of the government commissioner for information society. It should be an independent central state agency responsible for development of information society with its own budget and defined competencies, 

• building information society should be a priority for the government, the tasks declared in the Action Plan should be fulfilled with the active use of Public Private Partnership,

• the new law for Information Systems of Public Affairs should correspond with EU standards and should create a space for implementation of necessary legislations for the dynamic and sustainable development of an information society,

• education and training are essential to ensure that citizens have the necessary
  digital literacy to be able to take full advantage of the services offered by eGovernment.
  Digital literacy of all state administration by the year 2006 should be the priority.