Brussels, 28/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to the eGovernment Benchmark 2012 report published on 28 May, almost half of EU citizens (46%) now go online to use eGovernment services but the survey also pointed out that improvements still need to be made. 80% of those questioned say online public services save them time, 76% like the flexibility and 62% say they save money. But these users are more satisfied with online banking (8.5 satisfaction rating on a scale of 0 to 10), and online shopping (7.6) than with public services online (6.5). Although the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, welcomed “these promising trends” for eGovernment, she did say that “public administrations must do better at designing eGovernment services around users' needs” and that they do more to make eGovernment work across borders. The survey also indicated that: 1) the most popular services were declaring income taxes (73% of users declare taxes online), moving or changing address (57%) and enrolling in higher education and/or applying for student grants (56%); 2) 30% of those surveyed indicated they could also become regular eGovernment users if more relevant services were provided; 3) 47% of eGovernment users got all they wanted from online services. (IL/transl.fl)