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More action needed to unlock Europe's digital potential: EU study

Xinhua, February 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

A new study released Thursday showed the EU pace of progress in moving towards a digital society was slowing down, and more action was needed both at the EU and national levels to remove the obstacles preventing EU member states from fully benefitting from digital opportunities.

The European Commission published the results of the 2016 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which revealed that EU member states had made progress in areas such as connectivity and digital skills, as well as in public services since the publication of the Commission's digital single market strategy was launched last year.

The EU as a whole attains a score of 0.52 out of 1, an improvement from 0.5 last year. All EU countries but Sweden improved their score. Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland continued to lead the DESI rankings.

The Netherlands, Estonia, Germany, Malta, Austria and Portugal had the fastest growing scores and were running ahead of the EU average, according to the figures.

But the study pointed out that more action was needed to reach the global top.

The Commission compared the EU to some of the most digitalized countries in the world (Japan, the United States and South Korea) for the first time, with the preliminary results showing that top EU countries were also top worldwide digital performers, while the EU as a whole needed to significantly improve in order to lead on the global stage.

"More and more people, businesses, and public services are going digital. But too many of them still face problems such as a lack of high-speed Internet coverage or cross-border e-government, as well as difficulties in shopping and selling across borders. We need to fix this. This is what our digital single market strategy aims to do," said Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the digital single market.

The DESI is an online tool to measure the progress of EU member states towards a digital economy and society. As such, it brings together a set of relevant indicators on Europe's current digital policy mix. Endit