Brussels, 07/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The top 3 prize-winners for the e-Europe awards for e-government applications were announced on Monday by the European Commissioner for the Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, at a ceremony attended by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and his Minister for Innovation and Technology, Silvio Stanca. It was also attended by some 30 ministers who were taking part in the conference on e-administration held at Villa Erba, Cernobbio (see EUROPE of 3 July, p.16). With "Bremen Online Services", an integrated secure portal for administrative transactions on-line, the German Finance Ministry (department for new media and e-government) took the prize for the role of e-government for European competitiveness. The Austrian Federal Chancellery's "Help", an on-line guide to authorities and institutions for the citizens, took the prize for an initiative to make life easier for the citizens of Europe. With "Tax administration e-services", the Spanish central tax agency (Agencia Tributaria) took the prize for European, central and local government on-line co-operation. Five other initiatives were also awarded an honourable mention (from Sweden, the UK, Italy, Ireland, and Estonia). At the prize-giving ceremony, Erkki Liikanen congratulated the prize-winners "for their excellent applications, which will be a source of inspiration to all of us. By clearly illustrating what it is already possible to achieve, these applications reinforce our political willingness radically to modernise the entire European state sector. Everybody has the right to more effective, more personalised services than administrations can offer". The prizes and the winning candidates were chosen by an independent jury. The 65 best practices retained by for the exhibition by a group of independent exports out of the 360 application put forward all received a "finalist" certificate.