Brussels, 17/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - How can social media like Facebook be used to get important information out to the general public more effectively? How can computers be used to make it easier to send medical prescriptions to other countries? This is the type of question to be raised at a ministerial meeting and a European conference on e-government in Malmö in Sweden over the next few days. The meeting of EU e-movement ministers will start on 18 November 2009, chaired by Sweden's local government and financial markets minister Mats Odell. The fifth ministerial e-government conference will take place on 19 and 20 November. The aim of the ministerial meeting is to make Europe more open and take advantage of new technology to improve e-government and make it easier for people and companies to contact the authorities. At their meeting, the ministers will be adopting a statement on the various types of e-government and how they will operate in tomorrow's world, listing common targets to be met by 2015. Entitled “Teaming up for union”, the conference on 19 and 20 November will be attended by politicians, state officials, representatives of the business world and other organisations. Some two dozen workshops will be held on a wide range of subjects, like how to create innovative new online services in the EU; how member states can provide and take advantage of the potential profits to be made from public information; developing public tender and online bidding; and the role of healthy government within the EU. (I.L./transl.fl)