Conference: Azerbaijan-EU Digital Agenda

By Anna van Densky at the European Parliament in Brussels.

At the European Parliament conference on digital co-operation between the EU and Azerbaijan, which took place on 19 February, the latter offered a new dimension in which to co-operate with Europe – a virtual one.

This was an unexpected approach towards the traditional energy partnership with this Caucasus country, which is rich in oil and gas from the Caspian Sea.

Following the example of Estonia, the EU's champion in digital technologies, Azerbaijan proposed an ambitious plan to invest part of its benefits from natural resources into modernizing and facilitating the lifestyle of its citizens.

The conference focused on an exchange of experience between MEPs, European Commission officials, Estonian and Azerbaijan civil servants and business representatives, all engaged in spreading IT.

At the moment, the Estonian government offers around 600 services on the internet and Azerbaijani’s around 400, but they are rapidly expanding in an attempt to reach 500 by the end of this year, to change the face of public administration. Births, marriages, adoptions, insurance, company registrations - all these from now onwards can be registered electronically.

"Estonia has been a front-runner and Azerbaijan has been a good pupil, but now the situation is changing because they are moving faster than an average EU country," conference host MEP Kristiina Ojuland (Estonia, ALDE) told EU Reporter.

"Our main goal is to create possibilities for citizens to use easy, secure e-services without being limited by place, time or devices, and to confirm operations with their mobile signature," Azerbaijan State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovation Head Inam Karimov told EU Reporter.

"Mobile ID is becoming a central element in this service, providing the authentication of a user by mobile phone and digitally signing documents," Karimov added.

"It is pleasing to see that some of the income from Azerbaijan's tremendous natural resources is being invested in the Digital Agenda," MEP Martin Callanan (GB, ECR) said. "They have  political will behind it."

The experience of Estonia should be followed by the EU, continued Callanan, overcoming obstacles such as the construction of broadband infrastructure outside cities reaching remote areas and "of course putting political will behind it".

"They wanted to improved public services, they had money, they had a goal, they wanted to succeed and they succeeded," Estonia Deputy Secretary General for Communications Taavi Kotka said, reflecting on the success of Azerbaijan, which is far ahead of many of the EU countries in persuing the Digital Agenda.

"EU countries should implement the Digital Agenda as soon as possible, as it saves millions of euro. There are some good examples such as Denmark, but others have to follow rapidly, otherwise the EU will not be able to compete globally," Kotka added. "One of the reasons we are here is to challenge EU countries to accelerate the implementation of the Digital Agenda. Azerbaijan is a great example of what can be achieved in a short period of time, almost two years, if political will is behind it."

However, there is still much to be done in creating a common digital space in the EU.  Participants discussed a number of structural problems to be resolved in spreading e-services in public administration, such as cross-border recognition of national mobile IDs in an international digital environment; the resolution of legal and technical problems of cross-border e-services, and the exploration of the potential of public-private partnerships in the promotion of IT.

Anna van Densky

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