ABSTRACT

The transition to the digital era had become imperative in the last decades, with the development of information and communication technologies ICTs, but a special emphasis was given after the COVID pandemic, which accelerated the need for digital transformation and growth of the digital economy. Digital transformation is a conceptual framework that provide innovative solutions to social, economic, operational and technical challenges and making the public sector more efficient and effective. This new approach not only leads to technological achievements, but also enhances economic and social relations, as well as the bond of local governments and their citizens. The European Commission has been monitoring the digital progress of Member States through the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) reports since 2014. From 2023 and in line with the Digital Decade 2030 policy programme, the DESI has now been integrated into the report on state of the digital decade and is used to monitor progress towards the digital goals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Member States advanced their digitization efforts, but are still struggling to fill gaps in digital skills and the digital transformation, to improve the services offered to their citizens and achieve higher levels of quality of life for them. Given the fact that the services provided to citizens by local governments and that their general administrative structure and culture differ between member states due to political traditions and historical, geopolitical as well as socio-economic conditions, five main types of organization can be distinguished: the Napoleonic, the Anglo-Saxon, the Scandinavian, the Federal and the East European.

The scope of this study is to assess the long-term assessment (before and after the Covid period, 2017-2022) of the different types of local authorities of the EU Member States regarding the implementation of the digital transformation of their services by comparing the extent to which the pandemic has pushed each Member State to adopt measures to achieve the transition to the digital era. To achieve this scope, the goals of the study are:

1. the discussion of the concept of digital transformation.
2. the recording of the administration typology of local governments of the member states and finally.
3. the assessment of the readiness of EU countries to proceed with the digital transformation and their comparison at the level of adoption of measures to achieve this transformation, in correlation to their typology.