eGovernment benchmark 2022: turning the spotlight on inclusivity, cross-border trade, and eHealth

Investing in digital recovery

The EU’s ambition to make key public services in Europe available 100% online by 2030 has been given impetus by the need to respond to the global coronavirus pandemic. As found in the European Commission’s 2022 eGovernment Benchmark report produced by Capgemini, its subsidiary Sogeti, and consortium partners IDC and Politecnico di Milano, EU Member States allocated more than 26% of the spending under the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund to the digital transition.

This is the 19^th edition of the Commission’s internationally recognized annual review. It offers an in-depth view on eGovernment performance in the delivery of 95 services across nine life events. These events are key points in the lives of citizens and businesses, such as the birth of a child, moving home, or starting a business.

How do governments compare across the 35 participating countries, comprising 27 EU Member States and eight further countries? Citizens from each country visited and evaluated 14,252 websites between July and August 2021 and in October 2020 to find out. These included 8,491 websites and 804 portals from their own governments, as well as 4,155 cross-border websites and 802 portals from other European countries.

Measuring four dimensions of eGovernment

The eGovernment Benchmark study extended to the digital performance of central, regional, and local government bodies. It found that public services across Europe are ripe for innovation, while eHealth in particular is a key digital policy area.

While eight out of ten services can be fully completed online (81%), there is a mismatch between strengths and development areas across the four dimensions of eGovernment analyzed:

• User centricity: this is most mature, with strong scores for online availability, user support and mobile friendliness, at an average of 88% — nonetheless, as increasing volumes of services rely on citizens’ digital connectivity, governments have a responsibility to ensure the digital decade does not leave behind those who are not digitally savvy
• Key technological enablers: of those services requiring identification, 67% allow for online identification with an official national electronic ID
• Transparency: 57% of government portals inform users on whether and which of their personal data has been consulted and processed by public administrations
• Cross-border services: less than half (46%) of services are accessible for international users.

While eGovernment services keep citizens and businesses up and running and will contribute to Europe’s societal and economic recovery, the eGovernment Benchmark argues that public administrations cannot succeed in their digital service transformations alone. They need to collaborate with each other and their users, while synchronizing the digitalization of public services.