Disparities between leading digital countries and those that are not performing as well continue to grow. The Commission is usually rather reluctant to make an example of the poor performers but on Friday 3 March it published a Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) for assessing the performances of the 28 member states. Greece, Bulgaria and Romania are at the bottom of the table.
In a reply to journalists, the Vice President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, explained that this list was not necessarily exhaustive but that it did at least have the merit of asking a number of pertinent questions. "These ratings are useful for politicians and journalists, etc. to understand where we are exactly in all this and when the results are so different, we need to explain. Obviously, the first reaction is denial and to say that this is a mistake and to continue as usual but the following year, people are going to expect action”. He also warned against “a two-speed digital Europe”.
This 2017 DESI is a tool for presenting the performance of the 28 Member States in a wide range of areas, from connectivity and digital skills to the digitisation of businesses and public services. It demonstrates that the EU has progressed and improved its digital performance by 3% compared to last year. It also shows, for example, that European businesses are increasingly adopting digital technologies, such as the use of business software for electronic information sharing (from 26% in 2013 to 36% of businesses in 2015) or sending electronic invoices (from 10% in 2013 to 18% of in 2016). Progress, however varies across member states and in Romania, for example, the country the bottom of the list, these two indexes stand at 22% (for electronic information exchange) and 9% (for electronic invoices) respectively.
The European Commission was, however, delighted that the European leaders – Denmark, Finland and Sweden – are also among the world leaders and ahead of South Korea, Japan and the US. Slovakia and Slovenia have also achieved significant progress compared to last year.
Lisa Fuhr, the Director General of the European Telecommunications Network Operators, explained, “Regulation should strongly incentivise network investment and ensure the freedom to innovate. That’s the recipe for re-gaining global leadership”. The Commission Vice President also adopted a similar point of view in reply to a journalist about the impact of robotisation on jobs and explained, “Progress has always lead to well-being and progress… instead of planning to increase taxes we need to support this progress”. It should be pointed out that this issue was largely addressed as part of the parliamentary report by Mady Delvaux (S&D, Luxembourg) (see EUROPE 11727) (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)