Digital Greece remains behind the EU average despite its initiatives

Greece was one of the first countries in Europe to initiate large-scale digital transformation efforts and has been doing so for several years.?

However, according to recent data by the European Commission, Greece remains ranked behind other EU countries regarding connectivity infrastructures as well as digital skills.

According to the EGDI Index, Greece has dropped in ranking among the 193 countries from its 35th place rank in 2018 to the 45th place rank in 2020.?

This doesn't mean that there have not been any achievements. On the digitalisation of public services, in 2020, Greece scored above the EU average in the number of e-government users, while it far exceeds the EU average in open data readiness.

Why? Because it had already implemented relevant legislation and policies. Moreover, Greece scores 99% in the 5G readiness indicator.

The lockdown helped digital Greece.

Greece consistently ranked low on the DESI index (Economic and Society Index). The country has been significantly slower than the rest of Europe in making fast broadband available to its citizens and digital government services.

However, the digitalisation of public services is high on the country's political agenda. In 2020, Greece acted swiftly amid the COVID-19 crisis to make public services available online in time for its citizens.?

During the pandemic and lockdowns, digital initiatives were part of the overall government programme. It introduced new measures that led to a transformation of the digital landscape.?

A unified government portal (gov.gr) is currently providing more than 6000 different government services, which is widely used by the general public.?

Through the platform, citizens can get a certificate of genuine signature, registration documents, municipal certificates, complete transactions with Citizen's Service Centers and Tax Offices via video conference and much more.

The Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2025

Recently, in June 2021, Greece adopted the 2020-2025 'Digital Transformation Bible'1, a new holistic digital strategy.

The Greek Bible outlines the guiding principles that aim to enhance and support the digital transformation of Greek society and economy. It sets priorities for the digital transformation of the country and goals to develop the digital skills of Greek society at all levels and ages.?

The Ministry of Digital Governance has designed the strategy in close cooperation with stakeholders from the public and private sectors and with the research, the academic community, and civil society organisations.?

The Greek strategy underlines seven primary objectives and supports activities across specific areas. It describes 455 specific projects (of which 145 are ongoing) for implementing a 'Digital Greece' strategy.?

It includes the following strategic axes for the digital transformation of the Greek society and economy:?

1. Safe, fast, reliable access to the Internet for all.
2. Offering better digital services to the public.
3. Developing digital skills for all citizens.
4. Facilitating and supporting the transformation of companies into digital enterprises.
5. Supporting and enhancing digital innovation.
6. Better and safer use of public administration data.
7. Integrating digital technologies within all economic sectors.

Greece has also accelerated legislative reforms to create the right supporting framework conditions for implementing the new digital strategy. An example is the Code of Digital Governance adoption on 22 September 2020.

Looking forward, digital tools will be leveraged to expand access to public information and make it easier for citizens to engage with public agencies online.?

Digital skills

As for digital skills, Greece has made slight progress in 2021, but it still remains below the EU average.?

The Greek government has taken steps to change this phenomenon. It realised that the lack of digital skills is a major obstacle in its digital transformation plans.?

For this reason, it has placed the development of digital skills for all at the core of its new digital transformation strategy to facilitate the use of public services and ensure the reskilling and upskilling of the workforce.?

The new National Strategy also sets goals to provide digital skills training programmes for entrepreneurs to facilitate the digital transformation of different sectors and businesses.?

It also plans to organise and co-found several projects to educate the public and train them in the digital space.?

However, only 51% of the citizens have basic digital skills, and according to the European Commission, the progress has been slow. The share of employed ICT specialists remains low in 2020 (2%) compared to the EU average (4.3%).?

Source:

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/countries-digitisation-performance

https://www.eitdigital.eu/fileadmin/files/2020/publications/EIT-Digital_Digital-Transformation-in-Greece-2020-2021.pdf?

https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/actions/national-initiatives/national-strategies/greece-digital-transformation-strategy-2020-2025

https://www.ey.com/en_gr/tax/tax-alerts/electronic-communications-law-4727-2020?