eGovernment Benchmark 2022

Overall maturity of digital health services across Europe is 63%. Luxembourg, Estonia, and Malta lead the pack with scores above 90%.

The report, led by Capgemini and jointly carried out with its subsidiary Sogeti and consortium partners, IDC and Politecnico di Milano, finds that Malta, Estonia, and Luxembourg are leading Europe’s overall digital government transformation, including eHealth, with the most user-centric, transparent, technologically enabled, and cross-border user-orientated eGovernment services. The study also highlights that future eGovernment success relies on delivering inclusive services to different users to meet each person’s individual needs, including those with certain disabilities or with low digital skills.

The report covers the EU27 Member States, the European Free Trade Association countries including Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, as well as the EU candidate countries of Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey. By assessing over 14,000 webpages, the study reveals that more than eight out of ten government services under evaluation (81%) are now available online.

eHealth is a key digital policy priority

While the European Commission acknowledges the relevance of eHealth in the digital transformation of governments, as per the Digital Compass[1], the eHealth domain scores are only mediocre in the report.

Even though citizens’ access to online information has been made easier in a majority of European countries (77%), primary processes within hospitals, such as the scheduling of appointments and e-consultations are still in their infancy. This is pertinent for non-national citizens too, who can only use three out of ten services online (34%), citing a lack of English information on hospital websites as the biggest barrier.

Embracing inclusivity and realigning the user journey

Europe is endeavoring to make digital governments a place for all users. However, online services are not on the same level of maturity, the report shows, when comparing citizen users (77%) versus businesses (91%), nationals (81%) versus cross-border users (46%), and persons with different abilities (only 16% of public sector websites comply with certain web accessibility criterias). Moreover, well-orchestrated government networks are needed to serve users along their entire journey.

User-friendly and sustainable key enablers

According to the report, European countries are prioritizing the user experience: 87% of government websites have a feedback function, and 92% present information in a mobile-friendly way. Several digital building blocks are available too, as two thirds of all services enable users to identify themselves online with the use of an official electronic identification solution (eID) and governments pre-fill 67% of online application forms with information previously provided to them.

The report finds that while countries increasingly continue to provide eIDs and use authentic sources to pre-fill personal information, this isn’t the norm. Although the use of eID is on the rise, currently less than half (46%) of the services allow a single sign-on.

Implementation of interoperable solutions across multiple government entities and tiers will create a more consistent eGovernment experience for different users and services providers across European countries, cites the report.

 

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