| NOTAS: | This publication is a Technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service.
"Nowhere like in the European Union is digital transformation playing a decisive role in the present and future evolution of our economy and society. 5 years before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the intuition that connecting people, communities, businesses and governments by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) would help create and reinforce a supranational
sociocultural system and therefore strengthen the feeling of European identity was already evident in the European Commission priorities.A digital single market for online transactions would constitute an invaluable opportunity for new and existing enterprises to grow and boost the generation of more numerous quality jobs. Citizens could and should be empowered in their capacity and skills to take full benefit of the Information Society, including by seamless access to news and social media on their mobile and smart devices, irrelevant of the country of residence. Government bodies at all levels (from local to regional and national) in all Member States were and are asked to digitalise existing public services and create new, natively online, facilities to increase their perceived quality, openness, diffusion and acceptance. In addition to interoperability and user centricity, a peculiar metric adopted since long in the EU eGovernment benchmark is “cross-border service delivery”, which again clearly points at a future where location will no longer be determinant for the exercise of citizens’ rights.Indeed, in a well-functioning digitally transformed economy and society, public services at all levels need to be able to ‘follow’ their users’ needs across administrative entities, policy sectors and country borders. More generally, digital transformation of the public sector is as important for renewing its relationship with economic and societal players as it is for the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of internal policy, governance and service delivery processes. However, recent research conducted at the JRC (Misuraca, Ed., 2019) shows that a big gap still exists between expectations and achievements. Not by chance, digitalisation remains a cornerstone of the new European Commission’s 5-year strategy, which the Covid-19 global crisis has only added more reasons to. In this context, further support needs to be given to the widespread adoption and implementation of digital solutions in the local, regional and national Public Administration." |
