This paper seeks to measure the degree of accrual implementation in EU local government accounting systems and also tries to give an answer to the question of why accrual accounting has overcome the resistance to other New Public Management (NPM) reforms in countries relatively suspicious of them. We carry out our analysis through the comparison of the accrual accounting legal requirements in force in each country, and the published financial statements, taking the IPSASs of the IFAC as a benchmark. The results show different degrees of accrual accounting implementation and legal compliance. The reason of accrual accounting dissemination lies partially in that the dual systems implemented in European Continental countries do not require the introduction of deep organizational changes and answer the democratic demands of citizens for higher responsiveness, transparency and accountability, while traditional budgetary statements are maintained for monitoring compliance with legality and for administrative decision-making purposes.

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This paper conducts an empirical study about the effect of e-government on transparency, openness and, hence, accountability in 15 countries of the EU. Thus the effects examined cover over 84 per cent of EU population. The population also represents the different types of public administration styles that exist in Western developed countries. The paper compares the development and sophistication of 318 government web sites at sub-national level and tests the impact of contextual and organizational factors. The study refers to regional and local governments since they play a key role both in the national pattern of government and in administering welfare policies.Benchmarking studies of e-government are undertaken regularly by consultancy fi rms. Most of this literature focuses on central and federal governments in terms of examining trends in digital government. However, little research has been conducted from a comparative perspective on analysing the movement of EU countries to digital government at a sub-national level.

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At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the challenge to governments is to improve citizens' trust in governments. The Internet aids good governance by increasing transparency and customer-oriented service delivery. During the last few years, European Union local governments have expanded their presence on the Internet. This article presents empirical evidence on the nature of e-governance initiatives in cities across Europe. The findings could be of interest to cities interested in determining how their online presence compares with that of other cities. There are opportunities for information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance governance in local governments, but the focus of the ICT applications concentrates technologies on the management and delivery of services rather than on other areas. The Internet is not yet running as an effective medium facilitating democratic inputs into the policymaking process. Our study shows that technology is behaving as an enabler within preexisting social and political structures.