Dhe federal government has undertaken a lot in digital policy, but has so far delivered little. A year ago, specifically on August 31, the red-green-yellow coalition gave itself a digital strategy: Together with the projects from the coalition agreement, this totaled 334 measures that almost all ministries must implement by 2025. So far, digital experts have had little to complain about the strategy itself: “The federal government has given itself an ambitious program,” said Ralf Wintergerst, the new president of the digital association Bitkom, appreciatively on Monday. However, a first interim assessment on the occasion of the upcoming anniversary is sobering: “However, she cannot keep up with the implementation.”
In concrete terms, this means that only 11 percent of the projects mentioned in the digital strategy and in the coalition agreement have been completed, i.e. 38 of the 334 projects in total – half of the legislative period is already over. This is the result of the Bitkom analysis tool “Monitor Digitalpolitik”, which the association presented on Monday. It is available on the Bitkom website.
The lack of passion in the implementation does not go unnoticed by the population either, as a representative survey by the internet association eco among 2500 citizens showed: According to this, the vast majority (70.1 percent) of those surveyed see no progress in important areas of digital transformation, according to in the survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey. 86 percent of Germans are of the opinion that the current digital policy does not fit in with the intention of the traffic light coalition formulated in the coalition agreement to make Germany a pioneer in matters of digitization. “Poor coordination and a diffusion of responsibility in the federal government are the causes of the sluggish digitization in Germany,” criticizes eco Managing Director Alexander Rabe.
Hardly used digital ID card
Another, very concrete figure, which the digital association Initiative D21 has determined, shows just how disconnected desire and reality are from one another. With the electronic identity card, there is already a way to identify yourself to authorities or banks on the Internet, to submit applications or to conclude contracts. However, only 14 percent have used this option so far, according to the previously unpublished survey in D21’s “eGovernment Monitor 2023”. In principle, it is open to every citizen: since 2010, every ID card has had the digital function.
Compared to 2021, the 14 percent is a significant jump – two years ago only 9 percent took advantage of this opportunity. But measured against the claim to become a digital pioneer, this is even further below what other EU countries can show. Unsurprisingly, the largest increase was recorded among younger people, because digital identification was required for students to access the flat-rate energy price. For this reason alone, many should have been concerned with it.
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