Open Data and Digitalization in the Western Balkans: The State of Play

Digitalization of government services, or e-governance, enables institutions to deliver services more promptly and responsively and tailor them to the public’s needs. E-governance refers to the use of information and communication technologies to deliver services, exchange of information and transactions between governments, citizens and businesses. Primary e-governance tools include web portals and mobile applications that enable two-way communication and service delivery. 

In the Western Balkans, the six countries covered by this report, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, have all taken steps to engage with these two areas in attempts to ensure better governance.

BIRN’s research shows that several thousand e-government services were delivered to citizens and businesses across these six Western Balkan countries over the last year alone. More than 3,000 data sets are available to re-use on official government open data websites.  

However, BIRN’s research also highlights some of the challenges and limitations. In nearly all countries, a lack of political will, as well as modest technical infrastructure, institutional capacity and resources, were noted. There is a lack of proper oversight and systemic evaluation of the processes, and civil society organisations (CSOs) and media rarely engage in the issues of open data and digitalisation. 

The research also registered issues of personal data protection and cybersecurity as a risk.  

BIRN’s research provides a snap overview of the current state of play in the areas of open data and digitalization. We aimed to assess how these initiatives have contributed to government transparency, efficiency and inclusivity. We also aimed to assess the quality of the legal framework as well as the level of readiness of various stakeholder groups (institutions, CSOs, academia, media, businesses) to actively engage in these issues. 

BIRN’s approach was to analyze the benefits and challenges from a regional perspective and involve various stakeholder and beneficiary groups in discussions over the issues. The research combined several methods: desktop research (existing policy papers on the subject, laws, development plans and strategies, etc.); focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with representatives of key stakeholder groups (practitioners, CSO representatives, media, experts and decision-makers); testing proactive transparency and access to data using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests; and stakeholder mapping. All interviews were anonymised upon request. Six teams in BIRN local offices used the same, tailor-made methodology and conducted research in their respective countries. Results are combined together and presented here as a comparative study.     

The level and pace of open data and digitalization adoption across countries depends on various contextual, societal factors: the overall state of democracies and good governance, political support, readiness and motivation in society, the level of economic development and resources to be invested, etc. On top of this, although Balkan countries share many similarities, they are not monolithic and each country comes with its own characteristics.

EU integration processes, harmonisation with European regulations and other international initiatives such as Open Government Partnership (OGP) are pushing Balkan governments to commit to issues of good governance and transparency.

The harmonisation of current country legislation with the EU’s Digital Market Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) as part of the potential accession process provides an additional incentive to entrench best practices when it comes to digital services.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) which acts in synergy with open data, is a new factor. Open data needs to provide the vast, diverse and high-quality datasets that AI systems require for training and improving their algorithms.

The requirements of the modern digital economy, which is primarily based on robust digital technologies, are a motivating force. In order to thrive, digital economies require cooperation between various stakeholders (e.g. businesses that provide technological infrastructure, tools and services) but also expect governments to create regulatory frameworks to ensure security, privacy, and fair competition.

Finally, the steady growth of internet use, especially among younger populations (shown in the table below), and decent ICT infrastructure are considered as advantages.

Regional overview of internet usage by ITU Facts and figures for 2022 (Source: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/facts-figures-2022/)

Opposite to the forces driving processes ahead, our research maps the limiting factors. Above all, genuine growth and institutional reforms are hampered by lack of democratic capacities, with the majority of the countries experiencing a decline. Nations in transit 2024 report describes the regimes in all six Balkan countries as “hybrid”, meaning that they have characteristics of both autocracies and democracies and can use new digital technologies as methods to tighten controls on free speech and increase state capture instead of promoting genuine good governance. For example, independent media and CSOs in Serbia gathered evidence of organised trolling attacks, AI-generated deep fake videos targeting opposition politicians and unlawful surveillance.

Interviews conducted during the research show inconsistent political will and lack of institutional capacities to support open data and digitalization of government services. For example, in Kosovo, despite millions of public funds spent, there is no functional digital information for the health system, as the platform was allowed to become dormant. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, disjointed administration effectively slows the centralised implementation of e-government services at country level.   

Low standards in cyber security offer an inadequate response to hacker attacks and data leaks. For example, in Montenegro, an open data service portal suffered a hacking cyber-attack in 2022 and services have not yet been recovered. The same year, Albanian government systems, albeit not on the e-Albania platform itself, were hit in July and September by large-scale cyber-attacks, which led to the temporary disruption of most online public services.

Balkan countries are among the poorest in Europe, meaning that the overall economic situation leaves little room for investment in digitalization. Additionally, the region struggles with corruption and a significant “grey” economy, which hampers many spheres of economic development, including the digital sector.

Despite high levels of usage, there is a lack of digital competencies and media literacy. ITU data for 2022 show modest results in ICT information and data literacy, with scores rarely surpassing 55%. The lowest grades are given in indicators measuring verification of the reliability of information found online, as shown in the table below.

Regional overview of media literacy provided by ITU Facts and figures for 2022 (Source: https://datahub.itu.int/)

Finally, due to past armed conflicts, long lasting, unresolved issues and inter-ethnic tensions, there is a general lack of regional cooperation. Numerous issues, open data and digitalization among them, have the potential to be jointly negotiated before EU or global big tech. This initiative is largely missing on an institutional level, while some modest attempts are being made by civil society (for example, during the Civil Society Berlin Process 2023 where issues of digitalization and connectivity were discussed). An exception is the Open Balkans initiative, which enables persons with an electronic identity in Albania or North Macedonia to request a permit for free access to the labour market in Serbia through this electronic service.

Our report takes into account both the drivers and limiting factors in the development of open data and digitalization. They provide much-needed context from the ground and are lenses through which the research findings should be read.