The electronic identity card just doesn’t move: According to the new “E-Government Monitor” by Initiative D 21 and the Technical University of Munich only six percent of those surveyed have used the online identification function – as many as in the previous year.

You no longer need a special reader for the E-Perso: Since 2017 Android smartphones with NFC chips can also read the ID. Since the end 2019 this has also been true for iPhones. According to the e-government monitor, the smartphone has actually replaced the reader as the most common interface, but there has been no progress in use.

Hope for a breakthrough Now the hopes rest on a further planned simplification: From next year on, thanks to “Project Optimos 2.0”, you should be able to identify yourself in the network with your smartphone alone, without having to read your personal information. For this, the ID data should be transplanted into a security chip in the smartphone. So far, however, only one manufacturer – Samsung – has supported the project.

“The smartphone has huge potential for the breakthrough of the online ID function,” said Helmut Krcmar from the Technical University of Munich on Tuesday at the presentation of the E -Government Monitors. What is also needed are “education and more user-friendly applications”.

Progress in e-government overall The e-perso is treading on the spot, but overall, according to the study, there is still progress with e-government: in the year 2020 for the first time used more than half of the respondents in Germany digital administration offers. With 54 percent, the Federal Republic is still behind Austria (72 percent) and the Switzerland (60 percent), which are traditionally also examined in the e-government monitor.

Also in another discipline the Alpine countries are ahead. In Austria 79 percent are satisfied with the digital government services, in Switzerland 71 percent, in Germany only 62 percent, which is 5 percentage points more than in the previous year. In the three countries