Towards common digital government indicators and support for European cities

Cities are at the forefront of delivering digital government in Europe, but they are not sufficiently involved in the policy debate and do not encounter sufficient support. UserCentriCities is a project driven by six cities and regions to deliver the goals of the Tallinn declaration at local level, supported by Eurocities, the largest association of European cities, VTT, a world-class research centre, and led by the Lisbon Council, a Brussels based think tank which has advised the Estonian presidency on the Tallinn declaration. UserCentriCities aims at delivering a better buy-in of the Tallinn declaration by local authorities, a set of common indicators to benchmark progress, a toolkit and mutual learning activities to share insight, and the involvement of a large number of new cities. The goal is to help cities move towards user centric services by providing data and support. In addition, UserCentriCities aims to stimulate healthy competitions among cities and to involve them on a permanent basis in EU-level technical debates.