**6. Conclusions**

The analysis carried out in this chapter aimed to identify good practices on digitalization in terms of job loss and job finding in four European countries. The study provides a description of the legislative, institutional and procedural framework, and analyzes how each of them is digitalized, as well as the way citizens can access information. It is found that there is a high degree of sophistication, materialized by easy access to information, the forms required for public employment services, as well as the degree of computerization of each service.

In general, we can see that the principle of having a single e-point of contact for citizens and companies in the field of job loss and employment has been widely implemented. The information is introduced in the public administration services database via the respective public portal or via a management platform and it helps save time and administrative resources. Beneficiaries no longer need to know how their jurisdiction is organized within the authority in question, compared to the previous situation. Once the citizen has accessed the virtual office, the initiated procedures are automatically distributed to the responsible authorities within the administration.

In Austria, the computerization process began with the E-Government Law, published in the Official Federal Gazette No. BGBl. I 10/2004-part I. The e-government strategy of the Austrian federal government has taken a comprehensive approach to all e-government procedures in electronic form. These include government-to-citizens (G2C) transactions, as well as internal transactions between public authorities (G2G). Public services are also available in the mobile application version, including the electronic signature to access or finish various applications.

For Spain, there is a strong transformation at all administrative levels (national, regional and local), in the transition process from "hard copy" to "e-government". However, the true institutionalization was legitimized by the adoption of the socalled "e-government law", Law no. 11/2007 on *electronic access of citizens to public services*. This law enshrined in the Spanish legal framework the concept of e-government launched by the Commission Communication of 26 September 2003 to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, *The role of e-government in the future of Europe* (COM (2003) 567 final].

*In Spain, the General Access Point (GAP) represents* a platform for all Spanish citizens, business and public administrations. *Among its main advantages it's worth noting* that: a) it guides the citizen in his relationship with the public administration, providing him with the information and services needed; b) it provides assistance to enterprises and entrepreneurial clients in order to facilitate the remote set-up of enterprises in a centralized way; c) it provides access to the *Catalog of administrative procedures* on the platform, as well as of other public administrations; d) it encourages citizens to use electronic processing by simplifying access to electronic services through a citizen-oriented classification.

The review conducted in Estonia leads to the conclusion that e-government is an important issue in the modernization of public administration. However, achieving its true purpose, to provide better services, a more integrated organization and lower costs, is not such a simple approach in practice. However, Estonia has managed to demonstrate that it is possible to digitize almost all public services over a very short period of time. Currently, the majority of Estonian citizens can access public services online. As of 2002, since the introduction of the ID-card, 98% of Estonian citizens have had an electronic identity card, which is the key to using all digital services and obtaining most of them. Estonia's success in providing public e-services is owed to the partnership of central and local visionary governance, with

#### *Comparative Study on Public Electronic Employment Services: Austria, Spain, Estonia, Romania DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97052*

a proactive ICT sector, wide Internet access and a population open to the implementation of new ideas and technologies. Due to e-solutions, communication with the state is fast and convenient for everyone, so public services are much more efficient.

In each country analyzed, the legal framework on employment services is developed at state, national level and aims to ensure equal opportunities in terms of job search/loss, institutional and procedural framework, mechanisms that facilitate access to employment and protection of vulnerable groups. In all countries there are financial instruments to support people in difficulty. The institutional framework usually includes one or more central state institutions (ministry, agency) and their territorial structures. A special situation is present in Estonia, the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund being a quasi-governmental organization.

Job loss and job search activities are mainly carried online, electronic services available for job application, online jobseekers' registration and information services, mediation counseling are available in all countries. Unemployment registration services are not available just electronically, nor are job loss services. Under the current context, all the countries scrutinized are making efforts to provide citizens and companies with services to meet the demand and supply of jobs.

Analyzing the experiences of the four countries studied, it is obvious that the future of the administration is represented by the use of new technologies, by their incorporation in the daily activity of the administration, also in connection with employment services and job loss benefits provision. For Romania, such an approach will have profound effects and it requires both the structural transformation of the legislative framework, of the working procedures, and also the development of a new set of skills on the part of the public administration staff. The target is to reduce the direct interaction administration-citizen, the time to provide public services while increasing administrative transparency.
