Financing Digital Transformation and Bridging Digital Divide: The Case of the European Union

The paper analyzes the issues of digital transformation in the European Union in such key dimensions as financing digitalization and implementing public policy to bridge the digital divide in the EU member countries. The author approaches the problem using public policy analysis and comparative statistical analysis in retrospective and prospective aspects. The findings prove that the conventional European cleavages “North–South” and “East–West” are relevant to assessing the digital transformation of the EU member countries. However, the primary beneficiaries of financing the digitalization of the EU are the countries that show poorer digital transformation progress. The author also demonstrates that there is a shift from fighting digital divides to improving the overall competitiveness as the EU’s top priority. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.