eGovernment: Commission report shows digital public services improved across Europe

Today the Commission published the eGovernment benchmark report, which shows that digital delivery of public services has improved during the last two years across Europe. Assessment criteria include the transparency of online public services, mobile friendliness and cross-border mobility. Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager said: “From filing taxes to opening bank accounts or applying to an education abroad, 78 % of public services can now be completed online and make our lives easier. This needs to go together with an electronic identity that works everywhere in Europe, while protecting user’s data.” Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, added: “This crisis has shown how much citizens rely on online public services. While more and more governments are following these trends, we must take it further and work towards a secure European e-identity.” Highlights notably include transparency of online public services (how clear and open is the information about the way services are delivered and how the data is processed) that improved from 59% to 66% over the last two years. Mobile friendliness has also increased and now stands at 76% (up from 62%). This means that more than 3 in 4 online services are designed to be used on a mobile device. However, Cybersecurity remains a major challenge, only 20% of all government websites URLs meet basic security criteria. The take-up of e-identity is also lagging behind expectations with citizens being able to use their national eID for only 9% of the services from other countries. A public consultation is ongoing on the matter until 2 October, and the Commission will soon make a proposal for a secure European e-identity. More information is available here.