This article focuses on electronic government. The latter is usually associated to the reforms to render the public administration more efficient during the nineties, and in particular to the programs for reinventing government launched by Clinton Administration. Yet electronic government has changed its meaning and strategies once arrived in Europe, responding to the needs of a supranational entity still in construction. After analyzing is main features, this article will focus on the constitutive value of such policy for the European Union. Previously concentrated on the theme of full digitalization of public services, in the course of the last decade it has focused more attention on the sharing of technical standards, organizational schemes and administrative practices. The development of Pan-European strategies, one-stop government portals and open data projects will be considered significant examples of such trend.