Chasing the ever-distant frontrunners

The online patient account or the mObywatel app will make Poles’ lives easier, but there is still much to be done in the area of public e-services

„The Polish mObywatel (mCitizen) application has been cited as a model for other countries, and other digital services are being developed in Poland. The problem is that the frontrunners in this race are getting away from us,” says Ignacy Święcicki, head of the Digital Economy Team at the Polish Economic Institute. In his opinion, as an e-state we are at a medium stage of development. “In the latest DESI ranking, as every year, we lag behind where digital services are concerned,” he claims.

A report accompanying the EU Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), published in mid-November, identified last year’s addition of the mPrawo Jazdy (mDrivers Licence) to the mObywatel mobile app, launched by the Ministry of Digital Affairs in 2017 and currently used by around 6 million people, as Poland’s key achievement in terms of e-services. This year, this portfolio of digital documents was enhanced with new functionalities related to the coronavirus pandemic: the EU vaccination certificate, the COVID-19 negative test certificate and the recovery certificate.