eGovernment Benchmark Report 2024: steady growth in digital government maturity

Europe’s digital governments have made steady progress with their delivery of online public services, according to the latest European Commission eGovernment Benchmark report.

However, there’s still room for improvement, notably for cross-border services and services provided by regional and local governmental bodies.

Striving towards interoperability

Interoperability is a key focal point in Europe’s digital policy landscape, and an aspect of digital government into which the European Commission’s annual eGovernment Benchmark report offers insight. Conducted by Capgemini, Sogeti, IDC, and the Politecnico di Milano, 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.

Find out which countries are ahead of the game and where others should turn their focus on in pursuit of interoperable, human-centered eGovernment services. Or dive into the details of the results via an interactive dashboard here.

Key findings: 2024 eGovernment Benchmark

Achieving resilience and sovereignty

The EC’s 21^st edition of the eGovernment Benchmark report not only assesses the digital transformation of governments in 2022 and 2023 but also reflects on broader trends observed over the past four years. At a time when it is increasingly crucial for European nations to prioritize the development of resilient and sovereign digital infrastructures, as laid out in the European Commission’s Digital Decade targets, the latest report finds that Europe’s governments showed a noteworthy increase in digital maturity.

In total, 37 European countries took part in the benchmarking exercise, including the 27 European Union Member States. Overall, we can see that user centricity continued its upward trajectory as the most mature of the four dimensions measured. On the other hand, although cross-border services have improved, it is not all plain sailing – just 33% of EU Member States provide cross-border users with the ability to authenticate using their national eID, which will be essential for an interoperable Europe.

The report also explores the growing prominence of AI-induced activities, finding that 29% of portals in the EU across the life events evaluated now offer a live support function that includes AI capability.

These and other findings of the benchmarking exercise offer a solid picture of Europe’s government digital transformation progress along the following four dimensions:

• User centricity – To what extent are services provided online? How mobile friendly are they? And what online support and feedback mechanisms are in place? This dimension has an average maturity score of 93 points.
• Transparency – Are public administrations providing clear, openly communicated information about their digital government strategies and how their services are delivered? Are they transparent about policy making and digital service design processes, as well as about the way people’s personal data is being processed? Currently at 67 points, this dimension has improved from last year’s 62 points.
• Key enablers – What technological enablers are in place for the delivery of eGovernment services? With a maturity score of 78 points, this dimension has improved its performance by 4 points since last year.
• Cross-border services – How easily are citizens from abroad able to access and use the online services? And what online support and feedback mechanisms are there for cross-border users? At 66 points overall, this dimension has seen a big jump from 57 points last year, but still has most room for improvement.

Although the lower performing services and countries have been slowly catching up with the frontrunners, the latest eGovernment Benchmark once again 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.