eGovernment in Austria
Country Profile
Austria is a federal republic. Legislative and executive powers are divided between the Federal Parliament and the nine Provincial Parliaments (Länder).
At federal level, legislative power is held by a bicameral Federal Parliament (National and Federal Council). The National Council (Nationalrat) has 183 members elected for a period of five years by proportional representation of the parties. The Federal Council (Bundesrat) consists of 61 members elected by each of the provincial parliaments. The number of seats for each of the nine Länder depends on their population (e.g. Lower Austria having the highest population, holds most of the seats - twelve). The Federal Council reviews legislation passed by the National Council and can delay but, hardly ever veto, its enactment.
Executive power is held by the Federal Government, led by the Federal Chancellor, answerable to the National Council. The Head of State is the Federal President who is elected by popular vote for a six-year term. The Federal Presidency has a mainly representing role and usually acts on the advice of the Government. The President represents Austria, signs laws, convenes and concludes parliamentary sessions and under certain conditions can dissolve Parliament. The President chooses the Federal Chancellor customarily from the leading party in the National Council. The Vice-Chancellor and Federal Ministers are chosen by the President on the advice of the Chancellor.
The Austrian Federal Constitution was adopted on 1 October 1920, revised in 1929, and reinstated on 1 May 1945. Since then the Austrian Federal Constitution was regularly revised and reassessed.
Austria became a member of the European Union on 1 January 1995.
Head of State: President Alexander Van Der Bellen (elected December 2016).
Head of Government: Chancellor Christian Kern (since May 2016).
Generic Indicators
The following graphs present data for the latest Generic Information Society Indicators for Austria compared to the EU average. Statistical indicators in this section reflect those of Eurostat at the time the Edition is being prepared.
The following graphs present data for the latest eGovernment Indicators for Austria compared to the EU average. Statistical indicators in this section reflect those of Eurostat at the time the Edition is being prepared.
The graph below is the result of the latest eGovernment Benchmark1 study, which monitors the development of eGovernment in Europe, based on specific indicators.
These indicators are clustered within four main top-level benchmarks:
- User Centricity – indicates to what extent (information about) a service is provided online and how this is perceived.
- Transparent Government – indicates to what extent governments is transparent regarding: i) their own responsibilities and performance, ii) the process of service delivery and iii) personal data involved.
- Cross Border Mobility – indicates to what extent EU citizens can use online services in another country.
- Key Enablers – indicates the extent to which 5 technical pre-conditions are available online.
There are: Electronic Identification (eID), Electronic documents (eDocuments), Authentic Sources, Electronic Safe (eSafe), and Single Sign On (SSO). These top-level benchmarks are measured using a life-events (e.g. mystery shopping) approach. The following life-events were used for measuring the eGovernment Benchmark top-level indicators: Business Start-Up and Early Trading Operations, Losing and Finding a Job, Studying, Regular Business Operations, Moving, Owning and Driving a Car, and Starting a Small Claims Procedure. The figure below presents the development of eGovernment in Austria compared to the EU average score.
eGovernment Recent Developments
December 2016
In accordance to the positive trend regarding the activation of Mobile Phone Signatures, the Austrian mobile eID solution (“Handy-Signatur”), demonstrates the growing acceptance of the technical implementation of the Austrian citizen card concept. Currently there are more than 725 000 active Mobile Phone Signatures in use and every month some 10 000 to 15 000 new Mobile Phone Signatures are activated.
The Digital Roadmap is currently in progress and set to be finalised until the end of the year 2016. Besides net neutrality, transparency and openness are additional main goals named in the Digital Roadmap (www.digitalroadmap.gv.at).
July 2016
Accompanying the eIDAS regulation, the new Signature and Trust Service Act (SVG) as well as an amendment to the E-Government Act (E-GovG) entered into force on 1 July. (www.ris.bka.gv.at)
In July Muna Duzdar launched a project against hate on the internet. The initiative #GegenHassimNetz clarifies that societal rules are also valid on the Internet, and that discrimination, sedition and mobbying are never in order. The State Secretary especially wants to encourage the use of digital means for positive and open debates. (www.digitales.oesterreich.gv.at)
Launch of the funding program AT:net for the promotion of digital innovation. From 27 July to 4 October 2016 EUR 4.7 million have been made available for projects corresponding to following sectors: eGovernment, eHealth, eLearning, Support of SME, etc. (www.ffg.at/atnet)
On 5 July the national Open Innovation Strategy was adopted by the Austrian Federal Government. The strategy contains a vision for 2025 and names the main challenges in three key areas of action. These were the basis for 14 specific measures to establish open innovation as a guiding principle for action in the Austrian “innovation system”. Austria is one of the very first countries in the world to have developed a national Open Innovation Strategy. (openinnovation.gv.at)
June 2016
On 28 June 2016 the Austrian Open4Data Challenge was held to foster innovative and creative services and solutions using Open Data ended with an award presentation. A jury of 44 experts and the crowd (online voting of 228 people) assessed in total 44 projects. The awards were presented in the following categories: Ideas, Records and Solutions. (www.open4data.gv.at)
In June 2016 PrimeSign GmbH has started as third trust service (TSP) provider in Austria. TSPs are required to comply with the requirements specified in the eIDAS Regulation. Compliance with these requirements is verified by the Telekom-Control-Kommission (TKK) on the basis of Articles 12 to 15 SVG; in this task the TKK is assisted by the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (RTR). (www.primesign.com/trustcenter)
The Federal Ministry of the Interior implemented a new eGovernment service to citizens who want to deregister their residence electronically by using the mobile phone signature. (www.bmi.gv.at)
April 2016
Since April (2016) the already established Handy-Signatur (mobile phone signature) – for qualified electronic signatures and unique identification online – is also available as a mobile app. Thanks to sophisticated security mechanisms the usage of the app is highly secure and due to additional features (e.g. speed-sign function), it is a very user-friendly way to navigate the digital world. The Handy-Signatur App facilitates the easier use of the Handy-Signatur. (https://www.handy-signatur.at)
February 2016
On 18 February 2016, the Federal Government presented a draft for the Digital Roadmap Austria. The Digital Roadmap Austria is an initiative of the Federal Government, coordinated by the State Secretaries of the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, State Secretary Mag. Muna Duzdar, MSc and State Secretary Dr. Harald Mahrer. The Digital Roadmap is seen as a key to optimally exploit the digital transition that is taking place, strengthen Austria as a business location and innovation leader and to foster the participation of all people in the digital world. The Digital Roadmap Austria is a comprehensive digital strategy, including numerous eGovernment activities in areas such as security, data protection and trust, but also digital infrastructure, politics, public administration, society, economy, future, research and innovation.
January 2016
Since January 2016, Austrian social insurance institutions are using the electronic delivery (www.zustellung.gv.at) via delivery service for sending official notifications. Another important step in the field of e-delivery.
From January 2016 onwards, the fees for various (federal) applications are reduced by 40 percent, if the application is submitted electronically by using the Austrian citizen card. This achievement should contribute to the efficiency of administrative procedures and to the quality of data as well as to the positive trend in the fields of eID and eDelivery.
Seprember 2015
An updated version of the Austrian eGovernment services catalogue Elkat has been published by the government of Austria. This catalogue serves the purpose of classifying the eGovernment services and interfaces such as standardisation and naming of eServices, and definition of Internet application interfaces. Furthermore, the catalogue improves the interoperability of the country’s eGovernment services and belongs to the Austrian eGovernment interoperability architecture.
The first version of Elkat was released in 2009. The update is a reaction to the process of transposition of the EC directive for the recognition of professional qualifications and updates the catalogue with new data fields (PPQCrossBorder and PPQEstablishment) whilst changing two of the existing ones (PSDCrossBorder and PSDEstablishment).
July 2015
The eGovernment project was awarded a prize at this year’s eGovernment-Wettbewerb (an eGovernment competition). The winning online family allowance application Antragslose Familienbeihilfe (ALF) portal allows citizens to file requests for family allowance online and was launched on 1 May 2015, and as of the beginning of July 2015 over 9,400 applications have been processed. Citizens do not need to visit tax offices, and some documents do not need to be presented. The tax authorities follow now a process that is more automatised, for example in terms of the checking for eligibility. The portal is predicted to save 39 000 hours of time annually to the Austrian citizens, as well as to reduce time and cost to the Austrian public administration.
May 2015
In May 2015, the Austrian Graph Integration Platform (GIP) has made its national transport graph available to the public for re-use, published in full under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, allowing for any re-use – even commercial – as long as the source of the information is specified. The network information is being collected from the federal states, cities, the municipalities, the Highway Corporation and the infrastructure department of Austrian Federal Railways by the Agency for Traffic Information.
April 2015
As part of the Vienna Open Data Government (ODG) initiative has the Vienna Municipal Department of Land Surveying, MA41, made all of its geodata, including multi-purpose (surface) maps, orthophotos, terrain models, structure models, and surface models (all part of the Geodata Infrastructure) available for free. The geodata forms the basis for the analysis and presentation of the city's urban planning. The data can be processed using generic CAD or GIS software and is available as open source. Image data can be process and visualised using standard visualisation software. Geodata remains licensed under the Creative Commons Attributions – ShreAlike 3.0 license.
The Austrian Interoperability Framework (AIFv1.0) as drafted in 2014 has been adopted, replacing the former reference document for the interoperability framework. Austria is currently focused in the promotion of interoperability. The former interoperability framework was aligned with the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) at the rate of 75%, whilst the AIF reached a rate close to 95%, i.e. signifying a strong level of maturity.
The key solutions underpinning the framework are following: to promote and support the delivery of European public services by fostering cross-border and cross-sectoral interoperability, to guide public administrations in their work to provide European public services to businesses and citizens, to complement and tie together various National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) at European level.
March 2015
The new "Commercial Information System Austria" (GISA) was put into operation on March 30. GISA replaced the previous 14 decentralised commercial registers. A significant ease in the areas of business registrations, relocations and company openings for entrepreneurs who can save a lot of time, effort and cost by using the GISA.
Since March 2015, courts and prosecutors are using the electronic delivery (www.zustellung.gv.at) via delivery service for citizens and businesses. Thus electronic deliveries in nearly all judicial and prosecutorial procedures are possible. Electronic delivery for citizens and businesses is a significant step forward since the system had already been in use for years between courts and lawyers as well as notaries (Electronic Legal Correspondence, ERV). The electronic delivery is an additional important part of a serviceoriented public administration. E-delivery gives private individuals and businesses easy, costeffective access to their electronically delivered documents. Public authorities themselves also profit from more efficient processes and sinking costs within the framework of e-delivery.
The Austrian mobile phone signature is expanding abroad. In future, opportunities provided by the mobile phone signature will enable Austrians living abroad to conduct transactions with Austrian authorities from their home or when travelling. A pilot project involving the registration of foreign mobile phones was launched. The registration process for the mobile phone signature is already available at embassies or consulate general in Berlin, Bern, Brussels, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Stockholm.
eGovernment Strategy
A successful eGovernment needs well-informed citizens, businesses and public authorities who work with eGovernment and realise new electronic developments. This is only possible with the right strategy. The Austrian eGovernment strategy outlines basic concepts, base components and new standards which serve as guidelines for the implementation of electronic services and its infrastructure.
Even though eGovernment has been an area of discussion since 2001, there is still much left to be done, as eGovernment is a living system that constantly grows, learns and improves itself. Citizens and businesses breathe new life into it by using it and growing with the system. eGovernment should also be viewed on a European-wide scale. In an increasingly global world, the EU and its institutions have to put eGovernment and its advantages to use for its approximately 500 million citizens and businesses, so that they can communicate and interact electronically with governments across all borders.
On 18 February 2016, the Federal Government presented the draft for a Digital Roadmap Austria. The Digital Roadmap Austria is an initiative of the Federal Government, coordinated by the State Secretaries of the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, State Secretary Mag. Muna Duzdar, MSc and State Secretary Dr. Harald Mahrer. The Digital Roadmap is seen as key to optimally exploiting the digital transition that is taking place in order to strengthen Austria as a business location and innovation leader and foster the participation of all people in the digital world. The Digital Roadmap Austria as comprehensive digital strategy for Austria includes numerous eGovernment activities in different areas, such as digital infrastructure, security, data protection and trust, digital politics and public administration, digital society, digital economy, digital research and innovation and digital future.
The Digital Roadmap is currently in progress. Besides net neutrality, also transparency and openness are additional main goals named in the Digital Roadmap (www.digitalroadmap.gv.at).
The Platform Digital Austria (PDÖ), being the coordination and strategy committee of the Federal Government for eGovernment in Austria, has formulated the principles for a continued fruitful cooperation in the field of eGovernment, which are included in the short document 'eGovernment Vision 2020'. This document is not a legally binding strategy; it rather sets out the mission statement and the basic strategic principles to be followed in the years to come in relation to eGovernment initiatives. The guidelines of Vision 2020 are relevant to the objectives of the 'eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015' for electronic public services launched by the European Commission on 15 December 2010. Establishing eID as a key enabler and advancing the inclusion with innovative public services, are among the priorities of the Austrian eGovernment strategy. The Vision 2020 particularly aims at development of the following areas: comfort and simplicity, increase in efficiency, reliability and security, transparency and openness, participation, innovation, businesses, national and international convergence and synergy.
In the past Austria has taken decisive action to implement the eGovernment project swiftly and efficiently. In May 2003, the Austrian Federal Government launched an eGovernment initiative to coordinate all eGovernment activities, by setting up two cross-departmental coordination bodies (eGovernment Platform and eCooperation Board). At the same time, a roadmap was agreed taking account of all on-going activities.
The eGovernment Act that entered into force on 1 March 2004 was a milestone achievement. Austria was one of the first EU Member States to adopt a comprehensive legislation on eGovernment. As security and trust are critical factors in eGovernment and eCommerce, Austria uses the same standards and tools for both areas (Citizen Card function, electronic signature, electronic payment), which secures its position as a business location.
In September 2005, a new organisational structure was implemented that took into account future challenges like sustainability, international cooperation and ongoing innovation, thus stabilising the federal ICT strategy, the coordination procedures and the formulation process of resulting tasks.
The basic elements of the structure specified in 2001 were retained, but the different committees that pre-existed were brought together more closely. The tasks specified by the ICT board and the eCooperation Board have been consolidated and are carried out in the context of the ICT strategy as before. The obligations of the two boards are coordinated by the ICT strategy platform. The joint presidency of these bodies by the federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) ensures a coordinated approach with no overlaps.
The Federal eGovernment Strategy provides an efficient implementation of electronic government services, based on the basic premise that all businesses and citizens must be able to perform all the procedures of public administration quickly and easily, electronically and without having special technical expertise. To achieve this goal, the Austrian eGovernment strategies are based on the involvement and close cooperation between the federal state, cities and municipalities.
The Federal eGovernment Strategy is structured in a modular fashion:
eGovernment Strategy, Part I: online procedures
Part I deals with online procedures from the perspective of the user and provides framework, objectives and implementation directives of online processes. Online processes or online transactions are official channels and contacts with authorities, which can be conducted electronically from citizens. They should be open 7 days a week around the clock.
eGovernment Strategy, Part II: methods and procedures
Part II focuses on methods and procedures within the administration. Well-functioning automation-assisted methods require joint action by the authorities. Thus, standardised processes and systems that communicate with each other are necessary. Technical and organisational agreements must be respected and use common standards. For the realisation of electronic methods as such, it is therefore appropriate to analyse current business processes and where necessary, to restructure them.
Development of modules for online applications (MOA)
The modules for online applications are provided by the Federal government to serve as a tool by which eGovernment applications can be created efficiently and safely. The MOA are components that will facilitate the use of electronic signatures and other applications such as delivery to the public agencies. The modules have been prepared on behalf of the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance. By June 2005, they were placed under the open source license for Apache Software Foundation in version 2.0. The distributions of the modules and the associated source code are thus freely available to all users.
Sample Applications
Several sample applications, like testing the Citizen Card, are open to public and private users. Some of these include: testing the citizen card, generate a toolkit for the generation of user certificates, provision of a citizen capsule (an emulation of a citizen card environment for test purposes and for the development of citizen card applications available) and a test mail message application.
The Federal eGovernment Strategy is based on a number of principles, like its proximity to citizens, trust and security, transparency, accessibility, usability, data security, sustainability and interoperability.
The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) formed a joint Federal Government with the intention of working together during the 25th legislative period in a constructive, efficient and goal-directed manner on the basis of this Government Programme in the Federal Government, in Parliament, and in the institutions of the European Union, and shall implement this programme.
During the period 2013-2018, the two parties will work again in the knowledge that the coalition parties with different views on social, economic and political issues. Decisions taken in the Federal Government and in Parliament will be collectively represented in public.
The new work programme of the Austrian Federal Government (2013-2018) includes strong ICT driven topics, like the support of economic growth and employment, transport and infrastructure through reinforced use of ICT, reduction of bureaucratic burden for citizens and the economy through better e-government services. This aims to improve the access to electronic media at schools, security standards for critical infrastructure and 'cyber security' and foster political participation for a better and transparent decision making process of the state.
Programme of the Austrian Federal Government for the 24th Legislative period (2008-2013)
The Federal Government envisaged a modern and efficient administration at all levels in Austria in the interests of its citizens and economy. For this reason, the two coalition parties – the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) – worked together on the jointly drafted Government Programme (2008-2013) in the Federal Government in order for Austria to continue to move forward during the past five-year period.
ICT-Strategy 2005+ (2005)
The platform 'Digital Austria' coordinated a working programme in the new 'ICT-Strategy 2005+', which aimed at promoting the cooperation of all partners - federal, state, cities, municipalities and business - in the field of eGovernment in order to provide an efficient and coordinated approach overall.
eGovernment Initiative (2003)
The Offensive aimed at the swift and sustainable evolution of eGovernment, in order for Austria to reach a leading position within the EU. Within the scope of the Austrian eGovernment Offensive, the main parts of eGovernment have been developed with interoperable communication in mind. The main objective was to avoid incompatible solutions and divergent parallel developments. The implementation of different interfaces in eGovernment applications would result in enormous effort and not so optimal quality, if subfunctions were integrated.
eGovernment Legal Framework
eGovernment Act (2004)
The eGovernment Act forms the basis of Austrian laws on eGovernment. It was enacted on 1 March 2004 and the first amendment entered into force on 1 January 2008. This law serves as the legal basis for eGovernment services. It enables closer cooperation between all authorities that provide eGovernment services and gives them the opportunity to network jointly. Many mechanisms such as the citizen cards, sector-specific personal identifiers and electronic delivery of documents are also able to be put to use in the private sector.
The most important principles of eGovernment law are:
- Freedom of choice for users in selecting the means of communication when contacting public authorities.
- Security and improved legal protection provided by appropriate technical measures such as the citizen card.
- Unhindered access for people with special needs to public administration information and services.
The amendment of the eGovernment Act in 2008 was complemented by a number of essential regulations, each of which defines in more detail some provisions of the Act and facilitates its implementation.
Since the last amendment (30 December 2010) there is an obligation for public authorities to query directory services to verify the accuracy of the data used in an official procedure. The pre-condition is either the approval of the applicant or a legal authorisation for the official data inquiry (§ 17 Abs. 2). The implementation of all technical and organisational obligations had to be fulfilled by all official authorities and directory services until 31 December 2012.
Accompanying the eIDAS regulation an amendment to the E-Government Act (E-GovG) entered into force on 1 July 2016. (http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/)
This amendment also further developed the mentioned provision of Sec. 17 para 2 which can be regarded as data-protection friendly way of implementing the “data only once”- principle.
Signature and Trust Service Act (SVG)
The new Signature and Trust Service Act (SVG) implements Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC, OJ No L 257/73 of 28 August 2014, with the exception of its Chapter II. Trust services within the meaning of this Federal Act are electronic services normally provided against a fee and consisting of the elements in Article 3(16) of this Regulation, in particular electronic signatures, seals, time stamps, registered delivery services, website authentication and their certificates insofar as these services come within the scope of this Regulation. The Signature and Trust Service Act replaces the Electronic Signature Act. (http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung)
SourcePIN Register Regulation
The sourcePIN Register Regulation specifies the responsibilities of the sourcePIN Register Authority which are necessary for the implementation of the citizen card concept and the cooperation with its service providers.
The main provisions deal with the following:
- The process to create identity links, including setting down the duties of citizen card registration agents, the validation of identity and the identity link dataset. The regulation also lays down that a compliant citizen card environment needs to support an interface that can bind the citizen card to the application. This interface is defined and published by the sourcePIN Register Authority.
- The transformation of sector-specific personal identifiers (ssPIN) into ssPINs of other authorities, the creation of ssPINs for specific authorities and for data applications in the public sector. The ssPIN Register Authority has an interface to create and transform ssPINs, which it makes available to public authorities. This interface is also accessible via the portal network of public authorities. Each request to calculate an ssPIN is recorded by the sourcePIN Register Authority.
- The electronic representation of mandates on citizen card. An achievement of the citizen card concept is the possibility to represent mandates electronically. The sourcePIN Register Authority electronically signs a mandate representation dataset and thus prevents forgery. A service to revoke mandates online over the Internet is provided by the sourcePIN authority.
eGovernment Sectors Delimitation Regulation
For the purpose of generating sector-specific personal identifiers, each public sector data application needs to be assigned to a sector of State activity. The eGovernment Sector Delimitation Regulation defines the designations and the sector-identifiers.
Supplementary Register Regulation
This regulation plays an important role in the implementation of the citizen card concept, enabling natural persons and other affected parties to be registered in the supplementary register, who, due to legal restrictions, are not permitted to be entered into the primary registers.
The supplementary register is comprised of two registers: for natural persons and for other concerned parties. The eGovernment Act allows the sourcePIN Register Authority to take over the duties of service provider for the Ministry of Interior for the supplementary register for natural persons and for the Ministry of Finance for the second supplementary register.
The Electronic Signature Law and Ordinance
The electronic signature law and the accompanying Ordinance lay down the fundamental principles of electronic signatures in accordance with the European signature Directive. The electronic signature law differentiates between three types of signatures: simple, advanced and qualified. The citizen card uses a qualified signature. According to the signature law, a qualified signature is equal to that of a handwritten signature. This means that you can sign electronic contracts with a qualified signature and they will be as legally binding as if the contract was signed by hand. The electronic signature law also specifies requirements for businesses that issue qualified certificates (certificate providers), as well as regulations for the authentication of foreign certificates.
General Administrative Procedures Act
The General Administrative Procedures Act lays down the basic principles of administrative procedures. Article 13 is relevant to eGovernment in that it regulates the ways with which public authorities and citizens can communicate with each other, such as the transmission of applications by email or Web forms. The authority’s website lists the addresses that application forms can be sent to, whether an electronic signature is needed and which formats are recommended or required for the application.
Since 1 January 2011, documents issued by public authorities require a handwritten signature, certification or 'official signature'. All electronic documents of written copies from public authorities are required to have an 'official signature' affixed to them. The 'official signature' is an advanced electronic signature including specific elements to certify that the 'official' origin of the document.
Service of Documents Act
The Service of Documents Act governs the delivery of all documents, such as official notices, which government authorities are required by law to send out. In both electronic and paperbased circumstances, a differentiation is made between deliveries that require proof of delivery, by which the recipient confirms the delivery with a signature, and deliveries where no proof is required.
Proof of delivery is carried out through an electronic delivery service. This service is available from delivery service providers that have been approved by the Federal Chancellor. It allows customers (citizens and businesses) to register with their citizen card to confirm that they want to receive administrative documents electronically. A list of these delivery service providers is published by the Federal Chancellor online. Registering with a delivery service is sufficient notice in order to receive administrative documents.
However, the use of an electronic delivery service is not obligatory. Since 1 January 2009, in accordance with §37 of the Act, before documents can be delivered using an individual 'electronic communication service from the authority', a delivery using an electronic delivery service has to be attempted first. Only afterwards is it allowed for deliveries to be sent out to recipients that are registered on the authority’s system. This includes cases in which an electronic delivery service cannot be used because the recipient is not registered with one.
Delivery Service Regulation
The Delivery Service Regulation further defines the admission standards that are given in §30 of the Service of Documents Act. These standards include criteria for assessing the technical and organisational ability of delivery services and the reliability of data protection aspects in particular. The technical requirements that are to be fulfilled by delivery services are contained in an annex to the Delivery Service Regulation, and are to be published online.
Delivery Forms Regulation
The Delivery Forms Regulation defines the forms for the first and second notifications which are sent electronically, as well as for the third and final notification which is sent by postal delivery to the recipient’s delivery address, if one has been provided.
Constitutional Law on Access to Information (1987)
The Constitutional Law on Access to Information (Auskunftspflichtgesetz) became effective on 1 January 1988. This law contains provisions on access to public information in the federal and regional levels. It stipulates a general right of access and obliges federal authorities to answer questions regarding their areas of responsibility, insofar as this does not conflict with a legal obligation to maintain secrecy. However, it does not permit citizens to access documents, only to receive answers from the government on the content of information. The 9 Austrian Länder (States) have enacted laws that place similar obligations on their authorities.
Data Protection Act (2000)
The Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz 2000; DSG 2000, Federal Law Gazette I No. 165/1999) came into effect on 1 January 2000. In implementation of the Directive on Data Protection 95/46/EC, the act provides for a fundamental right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data which entails the right to information, rectification of incorrect data and removal of unlawfully processed data. It regulates the pre-conditions for the lawful use and transfer of data, including mandatory notification and registration obligations with the Data Protection Commission. Furthermore, it provides for judicial remedy in case of breach of its provisions.
Signature and Trust Service Act (SVG)
See above.
The eGovernment Act regulates the conditions for the use of electronic signatures in the public sector, as well as for the use of Citizen Cards and sector-specific personal identifiers.
eCommerce Act (2001)
The eCommerce Act (eCommerce Gesetz; ECG) which came into force on 1 January 2002 implements Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce. The Act deals with certain aspects of Information Society services. According to the Act, such Information Society services are – inter alia – online-distribution, online-information, online-advertisement, access services and search engines. The Act is therefore applicable to virtually all services provided on the Internet. It sets the principles of freedom of service provision and of country of origin, and provides for certain information obligations of providers of information society services for the benefit of their (potential) customers.
Telecommunications Act (2003)
The Telecommunications Act became effective on 20 August 2003. Hereby, the EU’s regulatory framework on electronic communications was transposed into national law. The Telecommunications Act (Telekommunikationsgesetz 2003, TKG 2003) encompasses all five relevant directives and will be amended in the future by implementing the Data Retention Directive.
Federal Procurement Act (2006)
The Federal Procurement Act 2006 (Bundesvergabegesetz 2006; BVergG), which entered into force on 1 February 2006, replaced the Federal Procurement Act 2002 and repeals the eProcurement Regulation 2004. The new Federal Procurement Act 2006 finally transposed all the EU public procurement directives, including their provisions regarding eProcurement, into national law.
Re-use of Information Act (2005)
The Directive 2003/98/EC on reusing public sector information has been transposed into national law at federal level through the Re-use of Information Act (Informationsweiterverwendungsgesetz; IWG), in November 2005. To achieve the complete transposition of the PSI Directive, pertinent legislation was passed in all 9 Austrian Länder (States). On 7 September 2007, Austria notified the last pending implementation (State Law of Salzburg), thereby completing transposition of the PSI Directive.