95% of public services in Spain are available on Internet

SPAIN (Agencies) Almost all public services, such as car registration, tax returns, company registrations, etc. are available in the Web. This percentage is well above the European median of 82%, putting Spain eighth among the EU's 27 nations, according to the European Commission. At the top of the list are Austria, Eire, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Sweden; at the bottom are Greece, Cyprus and Romania.This country is also ahead of the average in electronic tenders.>Although some 70% of the EU's public entities work with electronic (i.e. online) tendering, the average usage represents a mere 5% of public contracting. If tendering and contracting were carried out electronically and became general practice, it could mean up to a 30% savings for public contractors, says Brussels. The same report says that services available to companies via the Internet are more advanced than those offered to the general public. The EC points out that 55% of the services needed for starting a business are availale through specific portals in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Eire, Sweden and the UK. On the other hand, only 46% of services useful to the unemployed are presented on the Web.