EuroCrest Contest 2006

Best of the web sites: European competition of towns and communities

Organizers of the Conference Internet in Public Administration (ISSS), the biggest event of this kind in Central and Eastern Europe, launched the annual competition EuroCrest on 7^th November 2005. This competition is based on experience gained from the Czech contest Golden Crest during last five years and on consultation with European Union experts.

The aims is to reward excellence and promote the exchange of best practice, to highlight the efforts made by European local administrations in using Information Society Technologies to improve the quality and accessibility of their public services and to speed up the development of on-line administrative services in Europe.

EuroCrest Award 2006 Winners

Announcement of the results of the EuroCrest competition for the best internet pages of towns, villages and regions in Europe was part of the programme of the gala social evening of the 9^th year of the conference Internet in Public Administration and Self-government in Hradec Kralove.

The enunciator of the fourth year of the EuroCrest competition is the Association Golden Crest. Year 2006 of the competition was held under the auspices of Premysl Sobotka, President of the Senate of Parliament of the Czech Republic and was part of the V4DIS conference. The EuroCrest competition draws on the experience made at organizing the Golden Crest competition held in the Czech Republic with taking into account consultations with experts from European Union.

To this year winners of EuroCrest competition belong official web pages of the towns: Poznan (Poland), Constanta (Rumania) and Bratislava (Slovakia) and official web pages of the town district Prague 12.

History

First winners--towns Jihlava (Czechia), Bernolakovo (Slovakia) and Lodz (Poland)--were awarded during Conference Internet in Public Administration ISSS 2001.

Official declaration of results of the EuroCrest 2002 Competition for the best web presentation of European towns and communities was a part of the Conference ISSS 2002. European Commission representatives Gerald Santucci and Giangaleazzo Cairoli gave the prizes at a ceremony to 6 winners: towns Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), Most (Czechia), Tapa (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Szczecin (Poland) and Nove Zamky (Slovakia). A special prize was given to the city of Vienna (Austria), whose web pages can be used as a reference as far as quality is concerned.

Winners of the EuroCrest Contest 2003: Praha (Czech Republic), Vranov nad Toplou (Slovakia), Tartu (Estonia), Jurbarkas (Lithuania), Ventspils (Latvia), Sopoty (Poland), Rousse (Bulgaria).

Winners of the EuroCrest Contest 2004: Riga (Latvia), Panevezys (Lithuania), Zielona Gora (Poland), Lucenec (Slovakia), Nyiregyhaza (Hungary), Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Timisoara (Romania). Placed among the main prize-winning projects was also the official website of the Vysocina Region (Czech Republic).

Winners of the EuroCrest Contest 2005: Aizkraukle (Latvia), Siauliai (Lithuania), Gdansk (Poland), Dacice (Czech Republic), Nitra (Slovakia), Constanta (Romania) and Dobrich (Bulgaria).

1. Subject of the contest

The focus of the contest EuroCrest is on

• Exploitation of information and communication technologies as a tool of intensification of democratic mechanism especially in these areas:
  1. Transparency in decision making by elected authorities
  2. Degree of opening to the public
  3. Extent of public participation in preparation of decision making influencing everyday life of the municipality
• Level of the delivery of information and services to citizens and businesses (the four-stage model adopted for eEurope's benchmarking of eGovernment services to citizens and enterprises: Information–Interaction–Transaction–Integration).

2. Participants of the contest

The contest is open to all European towns and communities; it is under consideration to create two categories according to population there.

3. Organizers of the contest

Announcer of the contest is the Golden Crest Association in the cooperation with the European Commission and with European IT networks, e. g. TeleCities. The same team preparing the ISSS Conference arranges the contest. Results and winners will be published during the Conference ISSS (March, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic).

4. Nomination

Based on the call for proposals associations of towns and communities of the candidates countries will nominate competitors--winners of national contest, if this national contest is held, or if not, than on the bases of their own evaluation.

It is in the competence of jury to nominate web sites of the towns and communities from non-candidates countries.

Directions explaining how to organize this competition