A two-year eGOV initiative (IST PROJECT 2000-28471) has been funded through the European Commission to "specify, develop, deploy and evaluate an integrated platform for realising online one-stop government." One aspect of the eGOV project is development of the Governmental Markup Language (GovML), to be introduced as an XML vocabulary that "will support the delivery of content and services to citizens (businesses) in terms of life-events, or business episodes." The eGOV project will specify and develop a "next generation of governmental portals and the supporting network architecture, a service repository with corresponding service creation environment, and the Governmental Markup Language. The technical aspects will be coupled with a study of social aspects and process re-engineering methods. The ultimate project goal is to promote the eGOV developments as the next generation platforms for online one-stop government... GovML itself will support the interoperability and the data flow between the portal and the distributed services repositories; it will provide a basis for the exchange of documents with a common format within the domain of public sector."

GovML description from the Services and Process Models Functional Specifications document: "In terms of the eGOV project, the Governmental Markup Language (GovML ) will be specified as a recommendation for a new XML vocabulary that will define and support particular data structures, which are necessary to support the life-event approach towards the delivery of online public services. Moreover, GovML will support the interoperability and the data flow between the portal and the distributed services repositories. Hopefully, it will be a basis for the exchange of documents with a common format within the domain of public sector. GovML will be utilised within Service Directory and Content Directory. The necessity for the utilisation of GovML within Service Repository will be further investigated during the implementation phase [of the project]..."