International interest in digital-ready legislation

22-10-2019

Recently, the Agency for Digitisation had the opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by the Austrian Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs. At the workshop, a representative from the agency conducted an inspirational talk for an assembly of government officials and academics specializing in public sector digitization.

Austria is currently undertaking the project “Das Digitale Amt” where among other things legal barriers for digitization are identified. In this context, it was judged useful to invite the Agency for Digitisation to share Danish experiences in this field.

In Denmark, work has been undertaken recently to ensure that legislation presented before Parliament is digital-ready. Since the beginning of 2018 a newly established secretariat in the Agency for Digitisation has been screening all new legislation and produced more than 150 consultation responses to specific legislative proposals. The aim is to ensure that new legislation complies with seven principles that enable the full utilization of the potential for digital service delivery to citizens and companies. Similarly, potential implementation impacts of the legislation and their mitigation should be described in the legislative text.

At the workshop, which took place in Graz on September 11th, the Agency for Digitisation presented a number of specific examples of digital-ready legislation from the Danish context. There was thus ample opportunity to cover fields as diverse as reporting of fertilizer use, soil composition modelling and subsidies to promote adult further education.

Sharing knowledge across borders

The Agency for Digitisation sees it as a priority to take part in knowledge sharing regarding digital ready legislation with other EU member states as much legislation arises from EU-decisions.

Apart from talking about the Danish experience at the workshop in Austria the Agency for Digitisation was able to meet with influential decision makers and practitioners in the Austrian federal administration as well as in academia.

The Agency for Digitisation expects to further pursue relevant opportunities for knowledge sharing and meetings on the subject of digital ready legislation have thus been scheduled during the autumn with other member states as well as with the European Commission.