Brussels, 27/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 21 March, the European Parliament committee on industry, research and energy (ITRE) adopted the report of Silvia-Adriana Ticau (S&D, Romania) on online public services, drivers of growth in the digital market. Ioannis Tsoukalas, the EPP Group shadow rapporteur stated: “Advanced digital services, such as eGovernment, provide tremendous opportunities for improving and modernising public services for citizens and businesses and for enhancing the efficiency and transparency of government operations.” The MEP added that in this period of austerity, member states' public services are facing significant challenges and eGovernment is an obvious way to help make the public sector become a driver of growth for the economy and society. The digital agenda, one of the key initiatives in the EUROPE 2020 strategy, stipulates that we need to seize the development and growth opportunities provided by digital technologies. In this context, the report acknowledges the many benefits of eGovernment for individuals and business, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, and calls for procedures to be introduced that speed up wider use in order to complete a genuine single market in digital services. Tsoukalas pointed out: “One of the key objectives of the Digital Agenda is that by 2015, 50% of EU citizens and 80% of enterprises will have used eGovernment services. We need, therefore, to speed up the deployment of these services by tackling existing e-barriers and digital illiteracy, especially amongst the disadvantaged groups of the population.” (IL/transl.fl)