professionals. A sustainable, transparent and visible economy is the only way to ensure that Romania will bridge the gap with other EU economies and reduce as much as possible disparities in terms of living standards Examples: All investments should be based on establishing or improving at least one of the criteria described in Annex 1 (for example, an investment should improve at least the security of a public service). All initiatives should describe tangible and quantifiable outcomes that can be measured and monitor for fulfilling this principle 2. Put the citizens and businesses at the center of any initiative Each initiative or project should keep in mind that its final purpose is providing high-valued and quality services to their final customers – which are always (even if indirectly) the citizens and businesses in Romania. Examples: Each entity offering a public service should firstly identify their potential target and strive to understand their needs and reasonably meet them. The customers and innovators voices should be included in a collaborative manner, so as to provide them the benefits which they can use in the real world. Entities should make it easy for their customers to find, access and use the public services 3. Use standards and reference models For each initiative, the entity responsible for its implementation will look for industry standards or reference model that can be leveraged to provide best practices, lessons learned and to ensure a smooth transition to a proven model. Examples: The order of decisions for investment in information systems is: Buy, Customize, Build. This means that generally, an entity will first look for already existing solutions that satisfy the needs of their customers, even if that implies a transformational project for that entity. This will drive down the complexity of the environment, the costs for development and the time to deployment. 4. Formulate legislation to support the initiatives This document acknowledges that there may exist some gaps in legislation pertaining to the use, operation or maintenance of information systems. It is of utmost importance to create the correct climate for change in ITC and these needs to start from the legislative framework which should clearly define the boundaries and the cascading effects of this charter to all the underlying functions. Examples: Where gaps are found between the current legislation and what needs to be achieved, the entities are responsible for proposing new legislation and monitoring its implementation in a timely manner 5. Protect security and privacy Ensuring a trusting environment for public services is crucial for a fast adoption of these in an online environment. A small security flaw in one service can have a detrimental effect on the perceived benefits of all others services and special care should be taken so that no data loss or breach is incurred. Examples: All investments will take all the appropriate measures for ensuring security for services, data, and processes. Security should cover all aspects of a service (financial security, operational security, transactional security). Security should not compromise usability of a service (for example entities should not impose a non-standard way for authentication, registration, authorization; entities should not issue a different token / card than the one marked as standard by the Romanian Government) 6. Encourage transparency and openness What, how and where the state provides public services (irrespective of their online form) should be fundamental questions and guidelines for each entity in the Romanian Government. The citizens (private or enterprises) should be able to find the answers quickly, in an accessible manner. Examples: Where not in conflict with any explicit mention in the law, public entities should make their data publicly available. This will ensure better quality for the service quality and also reduce the costs associated with data quality. This action will enable individuals Page 27 of 172