NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT AND ACTION PLAN 50 accessible in an electronic format. Bearing in mind the current situation with the development of the document management systems, and in particular, the use of the non-standard and closed formats of documents and systems for interpersonal communication, it is necessary to stress again the effort made in the interest of the citizens - to have the public data accessible in an open and standardised10 format in order for the users to have unimpeded communication irrespective of the software platform they have. This imposes the necessary definition of minimum standards (technical, as well as in terms of business policy). This is not just an effort, but also a responsibility of the Republic of Macedonia as a future member of the EU11. It is necessary to support the use of the free software and the open code12 software as a public good accessible to all citizens, especially through the freedom of choice of a platform in the formal and informal ICT education. ICT- tools enable even greater and more efficient integration of the will of the citizens in the democratic processes of decision-making and law making. At the moment, there is an absence of coherent policy and practice at all levels for inclusion of the citizens in the two-way communication with the institutions of the state and of the local authority via the Internet (consultation and participation in the decision-making). The current lack of Public Key Infrastructure13, i.e. security certificates, which is recognised in the Government and judiciary systems, does not enable more advanced level of e-services. There are no clear rules for privacy policy and for storing of personal and classified data in electronic form, especially for the private sector, which opens the possibilities for data misuse. There is a high level of public awareness of the citizens' associations (NGO) in respect to the social processes and the public interests. With the transition of the Macedonian society towards a knowledge-based society, the civil sector is one of the key agents for increase of the knowledge of the public and running of the public campaigns addressing the citizens. The overcoming of the digital divide and the inclusion of the community in the decision-making process with the help of ICT, is solely possible through a more intensive partnership with the associations. Currently, in the Republic of Macedonia there is no one-stop-shop system available, however, with the obligations stemming from the integration into the European Union, these reforms shall be conducted in parallel with the implementation of the Strategy for Information Society Development. The current status of the web-sites of the public institutions, with the level of offered information and with the non-unified approach regarding the presentation level of the portals (in general sense, also as it was mentioned, especially in the policy of accessibility, of standardisation of formats and ICT-tools for mutual communication), does not meet the desired standard. There is no publicly stated policy regarding the quality and level of service, there is no publicly accessible Book of Rules on the obligations regarding the deadlines and surveillance of the quality of the responses as well as the level of satisfaction of the users with the responses received from the civil servants on the posed questions and requests. The laws of the Republic of Macedonia are not publicly accessible for the citizens in electronic format, since for the access to these resources a subscription is charged. 10 The definitions and schemes for open standards of documents and e-services that are recommended by the EU are accessible on the web page of the international body for standardisation OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php). The European Commission / IDABC proscribe the standard for the e-services and the types of documents for all members of the Union in the documents that are a part of the Framework for the European Interoperability which and represent a precondition for a successful functioning of the Union at inter-Governmental level, as well as in respect to the inclusion of the citizens. - http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3473/5585. 12 By free software is meant "Free and Open Source Software", in accordance with the standards and policies of the European Union (the above stated footnote) (the definition and information could be found on http://www.slobodensoftver.org.mk, http://www.opensource.org, http://www.fsf.org) 13 PKI - Public Key Infrastructure. 11 NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT AND ACTION PLAN