Estonia, a small Baltic country, proudly holds the title of being the world’s first digital nation. Here, 99% of interactions with the State can be done online and all citizen information is online. Mariin Ratnik, Estonia's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra, will talk about her experience with digitalisation.

What is the Estonian e-Residency program?

Estonia started the e-Residency program in 2014 and is the first and only country in the world to establish an electronic home in the world.

The program allows everyone in the world to obtain an e-Residency card to use Estonian digital services in the legal territory of Estonia, the European Single Market, on how to set up a business, and also to make legally binding digital signatures.

With this solution, we solve several problems for people living in different countries:

People from outside the EU who are interested in becoming an EU-based company.
We also have a lot of e-Residents in EU countries, mainly because they want to use digital signatures, as it can be more expensive to set up and run a business, as well as requiring more bureaucracy, which is slower in the country of origin.
E-Residency is perfect for people who want to start a business, both for their freelance work and to create something bigger. However, a digital ID card is not a physical ID card or a travel document, visa or citizenship document, and does not automatically include a photograph or enter your tax residence in Estonia.

Estonia has the merit of being the country with the most advanced e-government in the European Union. What are the keys to your digital administration?

• First of all, digitization is not just a matter of technology. In principle, digital leadership is needed.
•  Internet access (established as a social right in Estonia) and computers / machines are required to access the services.
•  In addition, short, simple laws and online services are essential. Laws must be comprehensible and accessible to the general population, and they must be easy to implement and enforce by government authorities and private sector companies.
• Transparency must be maintained to maintain public confidence. Transparency helps prevent data pitfalls and corruption within state authorities.
• Shared platforms, a secure highway for data exchange, such as X-Road.
• The design of the service should focus on the citizen / user.
•  Finally, the Estonian government has always been open to public-private partnerships. The argument for this is very simple: the government sets some parameters and expectations for the service, but leaves the execution to specialists in different areas, who are generally found in the private sector.
• Ireland and Estonia have their levels of economic recovery ahead of other EU countries.

Is digitization the key?
It is difficult to comment on the reasons for Ireland, but for Estonia digitalisation is certainly an integral part. It has been relatively easy for Estonia to get used to confinement in terms of the way the State works, as we have used a lot of digital services over the last 20 years. Therefore, we did not need to make any major reinforcements or changes during the pandemic and it was easier to continue with our daily life and politics, except for the changes in the HORECA sector, as in all other countries. And now many countries, including Spain, want to use our experiences, which has created new opportunities for the private sector as well.

We also calculated that each employee could earn a 2-week workday because we use a digital signature. Or we use 380 meters less paper a year because we have a paperless government. And other estimates say that digital public services earn us 2% of GDP a year. Yes, for us digitalization is clearly the key.

Is Estonia an example in the promotion of European digital sovereignty?
European sovereignty is an important goal for the EU and all Member States have an important role to play in achieving this. It is important to understand the concept. Digital sovereignty means, on the one hand, being a single true digital marketplace that helps European companies grow with common rules (without division) and, on the other hand, strengthening our global competitiveness, EU standards and values, rights and security (more reliable connectivity), technology to ensure the best use of insurance and to strengthen strong ties with countries of equal thinking. It is also an opportunity to contribute to the green transition and the free market. Estonia has always accepted these sentiments, so we can be an example, but to achieve this, we need strong cooperation inside and outside the EU.

American technology multinationals are mainly in Ireland to operate in the EU market. What strategy does Estonia follow in its relationship with another major technological power, China?
Estonia does not want and cannot compete in terms of technology production with large countries like China or the United States. However, we do have some strengths that make Estonia an attractive place for foreign investment and business.

Fast and convenient digital services are at the core of our strategy. For example, Estonia ranks first in the world in the field of entrepreneurial activity, from creating a company and submitting an annual report to a tax return, because an entrepreneur can do everything digitally. Starting a business takes about half an hour, even though our record is only 18 minutes. An online tax return takes about 3 minutes on average. Estonia is also one of the countries with the highest concentration of start-ups.

In addition, Estonia offers its digital society domain as a testing ground for innovative ideas and products. So innovation and practicality are embedded in the minds of citizens and digital governance is created to provide person-centered solutions.

But security comes first, that is, not all investments are welcome if it can affect the security of our digital lives, critical infrastructure, or technology. We are very vigilant about cybersecurity or security in the broadest sense.

Do you think that Erasmus + offers the opportunity to have the right mobility so that you can get to know the technological and entrepreneurial capacity that Estonia has to offer on the spot?

The Erasmus + program is a great way to exchange ideas and experiences in different sectors, including digitization and technological competence. As the program is very extensive and offers opportunities for people of different ages and interests, it has a great potential to develop collaboration at different levels. However, the most important thing is to provide a support framework for students from major academic disciplines (ICT, technology in the broadest sense, engineering) to strengthen demand and interest, including female students, to bridge the existing digital gender gap, which is still a problem in many countries.

It has come to stay digital, accelerated by the coronavirus crisis. Do you think the time has finally come for the EU to assess the true value of Estonia with its digital model?

The EU has been valuing digitalisation for years, but the need and need to accelerate the digital transition is even better understood around the world. It is a pity that such a major crisis is needed to achieve fast and common results, such as the EU Covid certification, but at least the EU has taken advantage of the crisis and taken many important steps on that path to the digital world. As we have seen with Digital Compass 2030, there are many important goals proposed for the Digital Decade. The most important thing is to ensure interoperability, flexibility and reliability. It doesn’t make much sense to implement 27 different cross-border digital identity solutions that don’t speak for themselves and. We hope that now everyone can better understand (from the pandemic experience) and be able to implement the solutions that are necessary and useful for our citizens more quickly.