Communication of EU public servants in the digital environment during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adaptation processes of digitalization in virtually all spheres of public life. The emergence of new e-government platforms and open data, which are currently being actively implemented in many countries worldwide, undoubtedly need to be improved and adjusted. The aim of the article was to conduct a comparative study of the best practices of the leading "digital" EU countries in the field of regulating digital public services and enhancing the communicative competencies of public servants. The key methodological tools applied in the research were the methods of observation and comparative legal analysis. The study showed that the pandemic identified the essential issues of digitalization within the framework of e-government. It was concluded that the rapid introduction of innovations in the area under analysis is associated in the EU with the emergence of adaptive problems, among which the leading ones are corruption, bureaucracy, low digital competence of public servants and minimal digital literacy of the residents. The research perspective is a comparative analysis of the gradual implementation of the e-government reform updated models by the Member States.