VIP Talk: Progress and New Challenges of eGovernment

Digitization of public administration has long been one of the government's top priorities. It is no exaggeration to say that 2022 is the year of eGovernment and significant changes. In practice, for example, the Act on the Right to Digital Services or the Law nicknamed DEPO, which amends over 160 pieces of legislation in connection with the further computerization of the procedures of public authorities, will come into operation. The package of changes deepens the computerization of public administration in the Czech Republic.  

The Act on the Right to Digital Services includes, for example, the introduction of mandatory receipt of postal data messages by legal and entrepreneurial natural persons or provides for the possibility of driving a car without the need to carry a physical driving licence. Gradually, other digital rights from the so-called digital constitution will also come into force. Examples include the legalisation of an electronic signature, the right to use data or the right to certify a digital act.

It seems that in the coming years we could also see the end of identification by means of a personal identification number. It is to be replaced by the concept of electronic identification based on the principle of decentralized identity without an intermediary in the form of the so-called national point (NIA). In addition, in 2023, a provision will come into effect that obliges every entrepreneurial legal and natural person to set up a data box.

Is the Czech Republic finally really "digital"? Will we see a situation where, following the example of Estonia, we will have to physically go to the office only in exceptional cases? What other news awaits us this year? And will the Citizen's Portal become a real center of communication between the state and the citizens?