RIA for the Right to Digital Services Act (2018)

At the end of 2018, EEIP prepared a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for a draft law on the right to digital services, which is aimed to become the cornerstone of Czech e-government in the coming years. The Act was subsequently adopted by the Parliament and published on 17 January 2020 in the Journal of Laws under number 12/2020 Sb. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Act draws significantly from the RIA report.

The main objective of the Law on the right to digital services is to support the acceleration of development of the Czech Republic in the area of ​​digitization of public administration, which is one of the most effective tools for maintaining competitiveness in international markets. The petitioner considers the current development in this field to be insufficient. Its acceleration, including, among other things, increased utilization of the potential of digitization in public administration, is an important prerequisite for maintaining competitiveness in dynamically developing international markets.

For this reason, the RIA first analyzed the current situation in the field of internet use in the Czech Republic, the supply of connection services, the use of the internet in relation to public administration and performed a cross-country comparison within the EU. Based on the conclusions of the analysis, the main problems were defined together with different scenarios, how to solve these problems. Last but not least, EEIP experts evaluated possible one-off investment and administrative or other operating expenses on the one hand and, on the other hand, benefits from time savings on the part of public service users, increased tax revenues, shifting increased ICT sector demand to other sectors of the economy, decrease in public authorities expenses etc.