Trust is gained in drops and lost in litres. Jean-Paul Sartre's quote seems to be the backbone of the government's digitisation strategy: since citizens generally have confidence in the state's management of their data, there's no point in moving too fast and risking damaging that impression. The minister for digitalisation, Stéphanie Obertin (DP), therefore called for further small steps on the road to a digitised state on Tuesday morning.

"Plan your holidays with peace of mind", "Prepare your retirement as early as possible", "Pursue your studies as a resident of Luxembourg": ten situations can be accessed from a new "Life events" tab and ten other situations will be added over the next two weeks, which bring together all the steps around a situation.

For example," said the Obertin, "under the heading ‘You're pregnant and working’ you'll find everything you need to know about childbirth, maternity leave, financial aid, dealing with local authorities and parental leave, plus direct links to simplify the various stages". All in French, German and English, to complement what already exists.

The second new feature is the possibility of booking a video appointment from a smartphone, tablet or desktop, in secure mode, so that you can exchange documents and understand the steps to be taken. For the time being, the Government IT Centre (CTIE) has used it for its guichet.lu helpdesk, and the first official user will be the National Health Fund (CNS) in November, a 'client' already announced more than a year ago. The country’s physical service counters, which are often only used by those who want to be reimbursed more quickly, are likely to be used even less than they are at present in the brand new Social Security Complex, but that's another debate.

Slots are currently set at 30 minutes, but their duration can be managed by each administration that wants to offer them as part of its activities. And civil servants who have completed an appointment in less than 30 minutes will be able to switch back to their traditional activities.

One of the really interesting questions is: which administrations are really going to make use of this possibility?

Finally, Obertin has announced a major national campaign, involving both virtual and physical participation, to decide on the location of future local service desks. While the service centre on rue Notre-Dame, a stone's throw from the cathedral, attracted 36,000 people in 2023, the idea expressed in the coalition agreement was to seek to get closer to users of public services by filling in forms, touring the country to promote the idea and running an awareness campaign via Guichetproximite.lu.

The questionnaire already contained two shortcomings: why not include post offices and bank counters, which have already done some preparatory work for the closure of their points of presence, and bring all the services together in the same places? And why limit the slots to office hours? Someone who works will only have the 12-2pm slot to go and get what they need. Residents will then have other options for fulfilling their obligations or finding what they need.

Three small steps ahead of two major projects: the e-wallet, which Luxembourg had to 'interrupt' to take part in the European project, and Once Only, a bill presented in mid-June that is now (impatiently) awaiting the opinion of the Council of State.

Read the original French version of this report here