The European Commission’s eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report, a comprehensive study conducted by Capgemini, Sogeti, IDC, and Politecnico di Milano, that provides an in-depth analysis of the digital transformation of public services in Europe, is out. The report evaluates the performance of digital governments across 27 EU Member States and additional European countries, using a methodology that includes mystery shopping and automated tools. It highlights significant findings, trends, and recommendations that are essential for understanding the progress and challenges in this domain.
The report underscores the importance of interoperability, a key focal point in Europe’s digital policy landscape. The latest benchmarking exercise reveals that vital IT building blocks, known as key enablers, have made the biggest improvement in the past 12 months compared to the other dimensions measured. This progress is a testament to the concerted efforts of the European nations to prioritize the development of resilient and sovereign digital infrastructures, as laid out in the European Commission’s Digital Decade targets.
5 Key Takeaways
- Overall Performance: The overall eGovernment performance in the EU27 averages 76 points out of 100, with Malta and Estonia leading the way. The User Centricity dimension is the top performer, indicating high accessibility, ease of use, and support on government portals.
- Key Trends: Interoperability remains a critical area, with national eID availability increasing to 76%, but cross-border eID usage remains low at 37%. Cybersecurity remains a significant challenge, with less than 1% of government portals meeting all 13 security criteria tested.
- Addressing Challenges: The report highlights the need to reduce disparities in public digital service delivery. It suggests enhancing transparency in service delivery, investing in implementing interoperability enablers at the local and regional government levels, and strengthening cybersecurity measures.
- Focus on South-East Europe: Turkey is leading the way among Southeast European countries in digital government services. However, Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia have room for improvement, particularly in enhancing their Cross-Border Services and Key Enablers.
- AI in Public Services: The report sheds light on the growing prominence of AI-induced activities in public services. It finds that 29% of portals in the EU now offer a live support function that includes AI capability. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning AI models with EU values and establishing clear guidelines and standards to ensure ethical and responsible AI deployment.
The eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report: General Overview
The overall eGovernment performance in the EU27 averages 76 points out of 100, with Malta and Estonia leading the way with 97 and 92 points, respectively. The User Centricity dimension continues to be the top performer, with an average score of 93 points, indicating high accessibility, ease of use, and support on government portals. However, the Transparency dimension, despite steady improvement, still ranks second-lowest at 67 points. The Key Enablers dimension has seen a notable increase, now averaging 78 points, while the Cross-Border Services dimension remains the lowest-scoring at 66 points, highlighting a significant gap between services available for national users (88%) and cross-border users (56%).
The eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report identifies several key trends in digital public service delivery. Interoperability remains a critical area, with national eID availability increasing to 76%, but cross-border eID usage remains low at 37%. Local and regional governments lag behind central governments in implementing interoperability enablers like eID and pre-filled forms. The Single Digital Gateway Regulation mandates the implementation of the Once-Only Technical System to facilitate cross-border data exchange. Digital sovereignty and resilience are also emphasized, with 86% of portals granting access to personal data and allowing users to report inaccuracies. However, cybersecurity remains a significant challenge, with less than 1% of government portals meeting all 13 security criteria tested. The availability of AI-powered chatbots on government portals is still limited, with only 29% of portals offering this functionality.
Addressing Challenges
The report also highlights the need to reduce disparities in public digital service delivery. The gap between the top 10 and bottom 10 performing countries has decreased from 28 to 23 points over the past four years. Services for entrepreneurs continue to outperform those for citizens, but the gap has reduced by 3 points. Central government services outperform regional and local government services in online availability and key enablers like eID and pre-filled forms. The availability of services for national users is significantly higher than for cross-border users, although this gap has decreased slightly.
To address these challenges, the document provides several recommendations. It suggests continuing to address the disparities between top-performing and bottom-performing countries to achieve a more widespread digital performance across the EU. Enhancing transparency in service delivery, including clear process descriptions and timelines, is crucial for improving the overall Transparency dimension. Investing in implementing interoperability enablers at the local and regional government levels can help reduce the gap with central governments.
Strengthening cybersecurity measures and increasing awareness of cybersecurity best practices across all government entities is essential. Exploring opportunities to expand the integration of AI-powered chatbots on government portals can improve user support and experience. Finally, efforts to reduce the gap between services available for national and cross-border users should continue, addressing barriers such as language, document recognition, and eID requirements.
By addressing these key areas, the EU can continue to progress towards its Digital Decade goals and promote a more resilient, sovereign, and user-centric digital public service landscape across Europe.
eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report: Focus on South-East Europe
Turkey is leading the way among Southeast European countries in digital government services. With an impressive overall score of 83, Turkey shines in all dimensions, especially User Centricity and Transparency. Not far behind are Slovenia and Serbia, both with a commendable overall score of 78. These countries demonstrate robust performance across all dimensions, showing that they are on the right track.
However, it’s not all rosy. Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia have room for improvement, with each country scoring 72 overall. The focus for these countries should be on enhancing their Cross-Border Services and Key Enablers to boost their digital government services.
Digging deeper into the analysis, we find that most countries in the region score high in User Centricity. This suggests that digital services are generally user-friendly and accessible. Turkey tops the list with a score of 95, while Montenegro and North Macedonia have the lowest score of 87. Transparency scores, on the other hand, show significant variation. Some countries need to work on improving the openness of their government operations. Again, Turkey leads with a score of 82, while Montenegro and North Macedonia lag behind with a score of 64.
Cross-Border Services present a challenge for many countries, with several scoring below 60. Turkey again leads with a score of 70, while Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia trail with a score of 57.
Finally, in terms of Key Enablers, scores are relatively consistent, but there’s still room for improvement in infrastructure and legal frameworks. Turkey leads with a score of 83, and Montenegro has the lowest score of 68.
Prominence of AI-induced Activities in Public Services
The report also sheds light on the growing prominence of AI-induced activities in public services. It finds that 29% of portals in the EU across the life events evaluated now offer a live support function that includes AI capability. Regular Business Operations portals emerged as having the highest percentage of AI capability, showcasing the prevalence of AI technology in facilitating common government procedures. This is a clear indication of the EU’s ongoing efforts to enhance digital service delivery for citizens and businesses.
One key point highlighted in the eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report is the emphasis on aligning AI models with EU values. In context of regulatory focus on monitoring and regulating AI use within public services. This includes ensuring that AI design choices reflect the principles of digital sovereignty and respect for data protection regulations. As AI technology becomes increasingly integrated into government operations, it is essential to establish clear guidelines and standards to ensure ethical and responsible AI deployment. The EU’s proactive approach to regulating AI underscores the importance of safeguarding data privacy and ensuring fairness in decision-making processes.
eGovernment Benchmark 2024 Insight Report: Addressing Service Gaps
However, the report also draws attention to the need to address service gaps in three areas. First, for cross-border users in comparison to national users; second, for citizens who face more digital barriers than entrepreneurs; and third, in the discrepancy that sees central services outperforming their regional and local counterparts.
Cross-border Users vs. National Users:
The document highlights a significant disparity in the availability of online services for national users (88%) compared to cross-border users (56%). This gap has seen a slight decrease over the past four years, from 35% to 32%.
The main barriers for cross-border users include lack of translated information (44% of websites), missing information specifically for international users (27% of websites), requirement of national eID (21% of websites), necessity of face-to-face contact (15% of websites), and inability to submit or obtain documents digitally (12% of websites).
The report recommends that governments should focus on tailoring existing national services to the requirements of cross-border users to address this gap.
Citizens Facing Digital Barriers vs. Entrepreneurs
The document points out that the average overall score for services for entrepreneurs is 83 points, compared to 74 points for citizen-related services. The largest gap is in the Key Enablers dimension, where the difference is nearly 16 points.
However, the gap between citizen-related and business-related services has decreased by 3 points over the past four years, as citizen-related services have been catching up. The document notes that the percentage of online services available for national citizens (84%) is still notably lower than for businesses (97%).
Central Services vs. Regional and Local Services
The document reveals that the online availability of services is 91% for central government, 82% for regional government, and 71% for local government. The gap between central and regional governments has decreased by 5 points, and the gap between central and local governments has decreased by 4 points over the past four years.
Central governments excel in promoting interoperable public service enablers, such as eID and pre-filled forms, compared to regional and local governments. The report recommends that smaller government entities (regional and local) should give further priority to tailoring their services to cross-border users.
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