Croatia has been an EU member since July 1, 2013, but despite the positives of membership, digital Croatia has seen its government lag behind other EU members and is underperforming in many areas.
The Croatian government has identified this as an issue and must find solutions to accelerate the country’s growth over the next few years.
Learn more about what’s holding Croatia back from potential success on this side of the Adriatic Sea and what can be done to ensure Croatia lives up to its expectations of being Europe’s newest technological leader.
Digital Croatia: an overview
The Croatian Parliament first adopted the Law on the State Information Infrastructure in 2014.
This act designated a central government portal system as the single point of contact in the online world.
It introduced the communication of public institutions with citizens via a State-issued mailbox — a national identification and authentication, creating the preconditions for the “paperless government” project. In 2017, the new Decree on Organisational and Technical Standards for Connecting to the National Information Infrastructure was adopted.
The decree laid down the conditions necessary for the launch, development and implementation of projects related to the State information infrastructure.
Then, in June 2019, the Decree on The Provision and Use of Trust Services was published, laying down the measures and the forms of protection of electronic trust services.
The Croatian ICT market has been growing steadily in the last few years due to solid government modernisation efforts, healthy enterprise investments, and a strong consumer outlook.
The size of this market in terms of percentage contribution to GDP is around 4%, according to the World Bank report, which is comparable to the overwhelming majority of EU countries fall.
The Covid pandemic has really helped advance Croatia’s digital transition.
During that time, companies immediately introduced cloud technology to enable remote working, while the government introduced many online services for its citizens.
Croatia’s 2021-2030 Development Strategy recognises the digital transition of society and the economy as a strategic objective.
It has taken several steps to provide more digital access to the public administration, especially through the eID notification platform.
Now, Croatian citizens can log into public e-services in the other EU Member States using their Croatian Electronic Identity Card (eOI).
Weak digital performance?
Although the Croatian regulatory framework is fully aligned with the EU frameworks, it fails to harmonise different and specific laws.
Moreover, according to the five categories compiled by DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index), digital Croatia underperforms compared to both EU and peer group averages in terms of connectivity and digital public services.
It ranks 21st of 27 EU Member States in the 2022 edition of the DESI Index. (This is even lower compared to the 2021 edition when Croatia ranked 19th!)
When it comes to ultrafast broadband, many peer group members have leapfrogged the EU average, but digital Croatia is not among them.
Moreover, according to the same report, only 52% of internet users interacted with public authorities in 2020. For comparison, the EU average was 64%.
The country only displays a better performance in terms of internet use, human capital, and integration of digital technology.
However, Croatia is one of those countries that is arguably improving more rapidly despite a weak digital performance.
In other words, it belongs to a set of countries known as “lagging fast movers”.
This means that while its DESIs parameters are below the EU average, its improvement rate is above it.
What’s more, according to the EDGI (E-Government Development Index) index, digital Croatia improved its ranking in 2022 by seven places compared to 2020.
The best performance within digital government in Croatia is using eHealth services.
22% of citizens use these services, compared to the EU average of 18%.
The National Healthcare Information System (CEZIH) offers eBooking, ePrescription, eRefferal, Electronic Health Record, eSickLeave, and many other similar services for employers.
Currently, less than 2% of all prescriptions are issued on paper.
Croatia was among the first EU countries to start the implementation of cross-border services and access to patient data by physicians in other EU countries.
By 2022, it is expected that the interoperability of the Patient Summary exchange will be established with 15 EU countries.
Key takeaways
Simply put, digital Croatia is underperforming in terms of what should be expected from a country with such promising resources.
This can largely be explained by its lack of formal digital infrastructure.
The recent development of connectivity is particularly important for rural areas, as it not only reduces their digital divide but also offers untapped opportunities to use public funds more efficiently and economically.
While large-scale projects like e-Health are a positive step in the right direction, they only cover a small portion of Croatian territory.
The government could see even more improvements if it were to make e-services for the public and businesses more user-friendly and easier to access.
Necessary complementary actions to promote and strengthen the digitalisation of public administration include further simplification efforts and measures to ensure interoperability between governmental services and data.
Sources:
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi-croatia
https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Data/Country-Information/id/42-Croatia
