eGovernment Benchmark 2017 : taking stock of user-centric design and delivery of digital public services in Europe : final background report; Volume 2

The digital transformation of governments across Europe is one of the cornerstones of achieving the Digital Single Market vision, as well as the broader EU2020 goals. The recent Ministerial Declaration emphasises the need to strive towards 'open, efficient and inclusive, providing borderless, interoperable, personalised, user-friendly, end-to end digital public services to all citizens and businesses - at all levels of public administration'. The Declaration also includes 'User-centricity principles for design and delivery of digital public services'. The 2017 EU eGovernment benchmark sheds light onto the state-of-play of the digital transformation of European public administrations and the extent to which they are 'on track' with regard to achieving these objectives. This year's measurement gains further relevance when assessed against the background of the publication of the new eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 in April last year. The 2017 measurement not only provides an in-depth analysis of the progress made by European public administrations in their modernisation of service provision; it also delivers the 'baseline' against which the progress made by the actions under the new eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 can be benchmarked. In doing so, the benchmark aims at providing - like every year-an assessment of the extent to which European public administrations are on track to achieving the 2020 vision of a Digital Single Market. This Background Report presents a detailed overview of the updated measurement, the four life events, and provides the reader with a thorough analysis of the results on the top-level benchmarks, in each of the 2016 life events. The current report is accompanied by an Insight Report which highlights the main findings of the benchmarking exercise.