Building accessible online public services

Governments across the European Union continue in their efforts to ensure online public services can be accessed by everyone, from anywhere. The 2025 eGovernment Benchmark report produced by Capgemini, in partnership with Sogeti, IDC, and the Politecnico di Milano, reveals how well the 27 EU Member States are progressing with this digital ambition. The good news is that the latest benchmark study found 96.1% of all eGovernment services across the EU are provided through a mobile responsive interface.

There is still room for improvement, however, notably in the areas of interoperability, accessibility, and cybersecurity—and in the service gap between central and both regional and local government. Find out what more needs to be done and discover how artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to take off in the provision of automated live support.

Key findings: 2025 eGovernment Benchmark

Ensuring a secure, inclusive and sovereign digital service infrastructure

All 27 EU Member States were included in the scope of the latest eGovernment Benchmark survey, which was conducted over the course of November 2024. During that time over 14,000 websites were evaluated by a team of Mystery Shoppers. They focused on 98 services related to nine life events (key moments in individuals’ lives that rely on public services).

The rigorous assessment also tracked the Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP) key performance indicators (KPIs) specifically for the online provision of public services both for citizens and for businesses. This aspect of the study found that businesses (scoring 86 points out of 100) continue to be better served online than citizens (82 points), although this gap is narrowing.

The annual eGovernment Benchmark findings give governments and online public service providers insights that can be used to assess what they still need to do to ensure a secure, inclusive and sovereign digital service infrastructure. For example, as in previous years, the latest study found that despite national-level progress, cross-border online availability remains significantly lower.

The study also explored the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in government services, finding that it is on the rise. 60% of national portals now have live support functionality, with 43% featuring live support often facilitated through AI-powered chatbots.

Overall, this year’s eGovernment Benchmark evaluated the online public services on three key dimensions:

• Online Service Delivery: To what extent are services provided online nationally, across borders, and on mobile devices? 92% of services for national users can be completed online versus just 58% for cross border users.
• Interoperability Signifiers: How effective is the reuse of eGovernment solutions and the cooperation between government bodies? 81% of services provide secure authentication using eID, while just 45% of cross-border services permit users from other member states to authenticate with their national IDs.
• User Friendly Portals: Are portals easy-to-use and accessible, supporting users in obtaining services, such as online support and feedback mechanisms? 98% of portals have FAQ sections and 95% have demos widely available to help user journeys.

With the report stating that cybersecurity and web accessibility serve as drivers and accelerators for the delivery and uptake of eGovernment services (in addition to AI in live support), it is interesting to note that progress is still needed in both areas. More than half (57%) of all websites analyzed violated at least one of the eight selected Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) criteria, while performance in cybersecurity remained limited—less than 1% of the websites individually passed all 13 criteria, suggesting that most EU government portals fall short of key cybersecurity standards.

With steady progress in the majority of areas analyzed, accelerating improvements in the underperforming aspects of online service delivery will be critical to realizing a truly inclusive and resilient digital public sector by the end of the decade.

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