Brussels, 24/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the Digital4EU forum, the European Commission published an index, the digital economy and society index, on Tuesday 24 February that assesses “how digital” member states are. That is to say, the extent to which people can buy or study online, pay their bills online or use public services on the internet.
The data reveals that digital experience varies from one member state to another and that borders indeed remain a barrier to the enlargement of a fully-fledged digital single market. “Citizens want to access online content, we need to make it easier for them”, stated Commission Vice-President with responsibility for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip. Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: “We need to adapt to citizens' needs and we have to think about adapting our policy”.
The Commission draws the following conclusions: 1) digital experience depends on the country you are in. Performance varies from digital top players such as Denmark (0.68 digital performance score out of 1) to lower-performance countries such as Romania (0.31 digital performance score); 2) a majority of Europeans use the internet on a regular basis: 75% in 2014 (72% in 2013), ranging from 93% in Luxembourg to 48% in Romania; 3) Europeans are eager to access audiovisual content online: 49% of Europeans who go online have played or downloaded games, images, films or music. 39% of households that have a TV watch video on demand; 4) small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) face barriers with e-commerce: only 15% of SMEs sell online - and of those 15%, fewer than half do so across borders; 5) digital public services are an everyday reality in some countries but almost non-existent in others: Denmark comes top with 69% of its internet users using online forms to send information to public authorities, compared with 6% in Romania. For further information, go to: http://digital-agenda-data.eu/datasets/desi/visualizations (Isabelle Lamberty)