Digital administration: Germany still lagging behind in EU comparison
Despite investing billions in e-government, Germany is only ranked 21st out of 27 countries. But things look better in other sectors.
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The digitalization of administration was one of the priorities of the traffic light government, but Germany is still lagging behind in an EU comparison: in a current ranking, Germany is only ranked 21st out of 27 – in terms of e-government, ahead of Bulgaria, France, Cyprus, Slovakia, Italy and Romania.
The ranking was compiled by the digital association Bitkom based on EU data. "Germany has fallen behind digitally under the traffic light government," commented Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst on the figures. He added that it is not enough for the federal government to do its homework when it comes to the digitalization of administration. "Around 90 percent of all administrative activities are carried out by the federal states and, above all, the cities and municipalities." The federal government must therefore provide more support and better services.
Hardly any pre-filled forms
Several indicators from the European Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) are included in the e-government ranking. These include the proportion of e-government users, the range of digital administrative services on offer and the proportion of pre-filled forms (with Germany coming second to last and performing particularly poorly).
The data is collected and published by the EU Commission. As the Commission has no longer been compiling overarching rankings from the indicators since 2023, the digital association Bitkom is now doing so. "This index was internationally recognized as the most important benchmark for the digital progress of EU countries, even if not everyone liked its results", said Wintergerst.
Companies further ahead in EU comparison
In the other areas of the ranking, Germany is significantly further ahead: in the area of "Digital transformation of companies" in 8th place, in "Digital skills" in 15th place and in the quality of digital infrastructure in 9th place, but only in 19th place in terms of its use. "Around 78% have the option of a gigabit connection with at least 1000 Mbit/s. However, only 6% of households have booked such a connection, which is 16 percentage points less than the EU average," commented Wintergerst.
(cwo)
