Abstract:

The paper presents an overview of European Union policy regarding digital inclusion and digital transformation. It describes the impact of the digital skills to rising digital inclusion level. Special attention is required to analyze different types of digital skills within geographical groups of countries ‒ Western Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe. The dataset covers 2018-2020, obtained from Eurostat and other sources. The results of the analysis reveal that Nordic countries demonstrate the highest level digital skills, followed by the Western and Southern countries, and Eastern European countries have much lower rates. An exception among these countries is Ukraine, which is developing a digital society, focusing on the Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part (2014). The case study, based on Ukrainian experience, meanwhile, identifies a digital divide among citizens and discovers a set of tools for improving present situation, in particularly from Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The paper concludes with the need to provide the targeted government decisions in European Union countries, as well as Ukraine