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Europaudvalget 2025
KOM (2025) 0290
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EUROPEAN

COMMISSION

Brussels, 16.6.2025

SWD(2025) 294 final

PART 10/27

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

Digital Decade 2025 country reports

Accompanying the document

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the

European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions

State of the Digital Decade 2025: Keep building the EU's sovereignty and digital future

{COM(2025) 290 final} - {SWD(2025) 290 final} - {SWD(2025) 291 final} -

{SWD(2025) 292 final} - {SWD(2025) 293 final} - {SWD(2025) 295 final}

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DIGITAL DECADE 2025

COUNTRY REPORTS

France

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France

Contents

Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 1

A competitive, sovereign and resilient EU based on technological leadership ...................................... 5

Building technological leadership: digital infrastructure and technologies ....................................... 6

Connectivity infrastructure ............................................................................................................. 6

Semiconductors .............................................................................................................................. 8

Edge nodes ...................................................................................................................................... 8

Quantum technologies.................................................................................................................... 8

Supporting EU-wide digital ecosystems and scaling up innovative enterprises ................................. 9

SMEs with at least basic digital intensity ........................................................................................ 9

Take up of cloud/AI/data analytics ............................................................................................... 10

Unicorns, scale-ups and start-ups ................................................................................................. 12

Strengthening Cybersecurity & Resilience ........................................................................................ 13

Protecting and empowering EU people and society............................................................................. 15

Empowering people and bringing the digital transformation closer to their needs ........................ 15

Equipping people with digital skills ............................................................................................... 15

Key digital public services and solutions

–

trusted, user-friendly, and accessible to all .............. 18

Building a safe and human centric digital environment and preserving our democracy ................. 20

Leveraging digital transformation for a smart greening ....................................................................... 22

Annex I

–

National roadmap analysis.................................................................................................... 24

Annex II

–

Factsheet on multi-country projects (MCPs) and funding ................................................... 25

Annex III

–

Digital Rights and Principles ................................................................................................ 27

France

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France

Executive summary

France can rely on a very good digital infrastructure but lags behind in the digitalisation of

businesses. The country positions itself as a tech leader in AI and green ICT.

France shows a high level of ambition in its contribution to the Digital Decade having set 9 national

targets, 100% of which aligned with the EU 2030 targets. The country is following its trajectories

moderately well with 50% of them being on track (considering 2024 trajectories defined for 6 KPIs

out of 8 analysed). France addressed 77% of the 13 recommendations issued by the Commission in

2024, either by implementing significant policy changes (54%) or making some changes (23%)

through new measures.

In 2024, fibre and 5G coverage in France is high despite a large territory. The digitalisation of SMEs

and the adoption of advanced digital technologies by businesses remains below average. Recent

activities, such as hosting the AI Action Summit in 2025, confirm that France wants to position itself

as a leader in AI. The country is also developing initiatives and standards to measure and reduce the

environmental

footprint of the ICT sector. France’s digital policies increasingly emphasise sovereignty

by, for example, developing its national production of semiconductors and fostering the adoption of

sovereign EU and French solutions by businesses and the public administration. France has set out a

very broad portfolio of actions to raise awareness of cyberthreats in all sectors (enterprises,

administration, general public) but has also provided support in implementing cybersecurity

strategies, especially in the healthcare sector.

France

National

trajectory

2024 (3)

90.7%

96.6%

5.5%

Digital Decade

target by 2030

Annual

progress

4.9%

8.4%

5.9%

90.5%

2.8%

67.2%

4.4%

4.2%

Digital Decade KPI

(1)

Fixed Very High Capacity Network (VHCN) coverage

Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) coverage

Overall 5G coverage

Edge Nodes (estimate)

SMEs with at least a basic level of digital intensity (2)

Cloud

Artificial Intelligence

Data analytics

AI or Cloud or Data analytics

Unicorns

At least basic digital skills

ICT specialists

e-ID scheme notification

Digital public services for citizens

Digital public services for businesses

Access to e-Health records

DESI

2024

(year

2023)

81.4%

90.9%

272

23.0%

5.9%

33.9%

44.9%

59.7%

4.7%

DESI

2025

(year

2024)

87.5%

94.3%

532

68.5%

9.9%

4.8%

Yes

Annual

progress

7.5%

3.8%

95.6%

3.8%

68.5%

11.6%

2.1%

DESI 2025

82.5%

69.2%

94.3%

2257

72.9%

13.5%

286

5.0%

100.0%

90.0%

65.0%

100

80.0%

10.0%

100%

10000

90%

75%

500

80%

~10%

72.1

79.3

71.2

76.9

84.2

-1.2%

-3.0%

6.2%

76.1

82.3

82.2

82.3

86.2

82.7

3.6%

0.9%

4.5%

100.0

100

(1) See the methodological note for the description of the indicators and other metrics

(2) DESI 2025 reports the version 4 of the Digital Intensity Index, that is comparable with the DII value from DESI 2023 (referring to year 2022) for the

calculation of the annual progress. It is not comparable to the national trajectory that is based on version 3 of the index.

(3) National trajectory value if present in the national roadmap and if the indicator was measured in DESI2025 (year 2024)

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France

According to the special

Eurobarometer on ‘the Digital Decade’ 2025,

65% of French people consider

that the digitalisation of daily public and private services is making their lives easier. On the action of

the public authorities, 89% consider it important to counter and mitigate the issue of fake news and

disinformation online. And on competitiveness, 82% consider it important to ensure that European

companies can grow and become ‘European Champions’ capable of competing globally.

A competitive, sovereign, and resilient EU based on technological

leadership

Digital infrastructure indicators (very high capacity networks (VHCNs), fibre to the premises (FTTP),

5G) are all above the EU average thanks to effective public policies (plan

‘France très haut débit’,

multiple service providers sharing a fibre network). However, the digitalisation of enterprises,

especially SMEs, is still lagging. Nonetheless, France has demonstrated leadership in AI and can count

on a dynamic start-up ecosystem in this sector and in quantum computing. The country has adjusted

its roadmap with additional measures to foster the adoption of generative AI and retrieval-augmented

generation technologies by businesses. However, the take-up of advanced digital technologies by

businesses is below average. France promotes cyber awareness on all fronts: businesses, population,

and administration. The updated roadmap includes a programme for cyber protection of healthcare

facilities. The roadmap also includes massive investments in semiconductors (research and

production).

Protecting and empowering EU people and society

France’s digital skills performance reflects inclusive growth across genders and a small urban-rural

skills gap, but some disparities persist based on people’s education levels. The general population’s

poor performance in mathematics may limit the pursuit of science, technology, engineering and

mathematics (STEM) and ICT specialist training and careers as these skills shortages are persistent.

Public service digitalisation is losing ground compared to the EU average. In this area, the authorities

are focussing on reducing the administrative burden (dematerialisation

–

replacing physical

documents, processes and transactions with digital equivalents, ‘once only’ principle). They are also

promoting the adoption of sovereign solutions, including cloud, open software, and specialised skills

within the administration. On a positive note, the digitalisation of healthcare has made impressive

progress in the past two years.

Leveraging digital transformation for a smart greening

France is a global leader in monitoring and reducing the environmental impact of its ICT sector. It has

developed tools to measure, forecast and monitor the ICT sector’s footprint (such as designing carbon

reduction trajectories) and plays

a key role in green initiatives within the Digital Decade’s Best Practice

Accelerator.

National digital decade strategic roadmap

France submitted a fully revised national Digital Decade roadmap on 3 February 2025, containing six

additional measures and

revised trajectories. The updates are aligned with the Commission’s new

priorities on AI, cybersecurity and green ICT. It includes reporting on the consultation of stakeholders.

It addresses a substantial number of roadmap recommendations issued in 2024. All targets align with

the EU level goals for 2030 (except for the combined indicator on the adoption of AI, cloud, and data

analytics technologies where the country aims at 65%, below the EU target of 75%). The revised

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France

roadmap continues to prioritise semiconductors, connectivity, and e-Health. It contains of 33

measures with a budget of EUR 18.6 billion, including EUR 11.1 billion from the public budget

(equivalent to 0.38% of GDP). It covers all the Digital Decade objectives, such as creating a human-

centred digital space, boosting resilience and security, promoting sovereignty, supporting the green

transition, and protecting society.

Funding & projects for digital

France allocates 22% of its total recovery and resilience plan to digital (EUR 8.1 billion)

. In addition,

under cohesion policy, EUR 1.9 billion, representing 11% of the country’s total cohesion policy funding,

is dedicated to advancing France’s digital transformation

France is the host Member State of the Alliance for Language Technologies EDIC (ALT-EDIC). France is

also a member of the Local Digital Twins towards CitiVERSE EDIC. The country is directly participating

in the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies (IPCEI-ME/CT) and in the IPCEI on

Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS). France is also a participating state of

the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) and of the Chips JU.

France has contributed to the Best Practice Accelerator

by leading the cluster on Green IT related to

public policies on the environmental transition of digital technology. It shared three best practices

within this cluster (the general reference framework for the eco-design of digital services, the Alt

IMPACT Communication Campaign, and the development of product category rules for environmental

evaluation and labelling) and one additional best practice in the Digital Skills cluster (digital advisors).

Digital rights and principles

According to a support study, France has been relatively active in implementing the

European

Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles,

with 53 initiatives overall but no new initiatives launched

in 2024. France is most active in the area of participation in the digital public space. Less activity has

been identified with regards to digital public services online. Measures in the area of putting people

at the centre of the digital transformation appear to have most impact on the ground, in contrast to

those addressing safety, security and empowerment.

Recommendations

SMEs:

Improve digitalisation of SMEs, including by directing existing support schemes to SMEs

that lag in digitalisation, independently of their size.

ICT specialists and advanced skills:

Increase the job market relevance, improve the visibility, and

clarify the offer of digital training and reskilling options.

Advanced technologies take-up:

Support the adoption of advanced digital technologies by

businesses (with a particular attention to AI and cloud) via the creation of local ecosystems to

The share of financial allocations that contribute to digital objectives has been calculated using Annex VII to the Recovery

and Resilience Facility Regulation. Last data update: 16 May 2025.

This amount includes all investment specifically aimed at or substantially contributing to digital transformation in the

2021-2027 Cohesion policy programming period. The source funds are the European Regional Development Fund, the

Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, and the Just Transition Fund.

The Best Practice Accelerator (BPA) is a platform that enables Member States to share successful measures and challenges

encountered in their efforts to meet their Digital Decade targets and objectives. Best practices are made available to Member

States via the BPA Repository and showcased in regular workshops, currently focused on three thematic clusters: Digital

Skills, Green IT, and the Uptake of Digital Technologies.

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France

spread technologies and best practices across all economic sectors. Encourage the adoption of

sovereign European solutions.

Artificial intelligence:

Continue supporting innovation in AI to strengthen France’s leadership in

the sector and create future global leader companies.

Cybersecurity:

Continue efforts in cybersecurity to address evolving threats, particularly for

enterprises and administration.

Digital public services:

Speed up the digitalisation of public services for both citizen and

businesses, in particular by expanding cross-border capabilities.

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France

A competitive, sovereign and resilient EU

based on technological leadership

France’s digital competitiveness has been a key focus for policymakers, aiming to position the

country as a global leader in the tech landscape.

In recent years, significant progress has been made,

with growing investments in start-ups, a vibrant tech ecosystem in hubs like Paris, and advances in AI,

cybersecurity, and cloud computing. The long-term investment plan, France 2030, with a budget of

EUR 54 billion, is pivotal in developing cutting-edge digital technologies such as AI, quantum and

cybersecurity. However, recent political instabilities and budget arbitrage are putting this progress at

risk, potentially undermining the momentum achieved so far. Reduced funding for digital

transformation, infrastructure, and innovation initiatives risks slowing France’s ability to compete with

other countries. Economic and political visibility is paramount for companies to anticipate and plan

their investments.

In France, enterprises’ demographic characteristics may account for some of the challenges in

adopting digital technologies.

SMEs account for approximately 96.8% of the enterprises with more

than 10 employees, while large enterprises made up only 3.2%. The French ICT sector represented

4.36% of the gross value added in 2022

It was then equal to the 2017 value and was lower than the

EU average of 5.46%, pointing to an overall underdevelopment. R&D in the ICT sector represented

16.79% of total R&D expenditure by businesses and 22.42% of total R&D personnel.

French digital infrastructures are a significant asset.

Despite its expansive territory, France is leading

the way in the deployment of Fibre and 5G. The

‘symmetrical

framework’ for the deployment of Fibre

played a major role in achieving extensive coverage. This framework aims to ensure fair competition

between operators while optimising costs and infrastructure works. According to the 2025

Eurobarometer

, 83% of French people think that building efficient and secure digital infrastructures

and data processing facilities should be a priority for the public authorities.

France ambitions to be a leader in the AI race.

In 2024 and 2025, the country multiplied the initiatives

to support and promote its AI ecosystem. Beside a sustained support to investment in all dimensions

of AI (infrastructures, adoption by businesses, innovation, skills,

…) from France 2030, Paris hosted the

AI Action Summit in February 2025. The event brought together heads of state, leaders of

international organisations, CEOs, academics, and civil society representatives to discuss and promote

the responsible development and use of AI. In the new government formations, the post of Minister

of Digital now mentions specifically AI:

‘Minister

Delegate responsible for Artificial Intelligence and

Digital Technology’.

Sovereignty has become a fundamental issue in all digital initiatives.

France is involved in European

workstreams aimed at creating sovereign digital tools, with European partners, such as the work

carried out on data spaces, or the multilateral cooperation initiated around the construction of

sovereign digital suites (Digital Workspaces) based on common open-source technological building

blocks.

Most of the indicators mentioned in the country report are explained in the DESI 2025 Methodological Note accompanying

the State of the Digital Decade report 2025

Special Eurobarometer 566 on ‘the Digital Decade’ 2025:

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news-redirect/883227

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France

Building technological leadership: digital infrastructure and technologies

France is very active in the roll-out of connectivity infrastructures. Both Fibre and 5G networks are

expected to reach 100% coverage well before 2030, narrowing the geographical divides in a large

territory with sizeable rural areas.

Connectivity infrastructure

France is at 87.47% of Very-High-Capacity Networks (VHCN) coverage (2030 national target 100%)

after a progression of +7.5% in 2024, and standings above the EU average of 82.49%.

The country is

on track according to its national trajectory. The growth rate of 7.5% from 2023 outperforms the EU’s

4.9%. For households in rural areas, France’s VHCN coverage was 78.12% in 2024, above the EU’s

61.89%. The growth rate for this category was 20.9%, surpassing again the EU’s rate of 11.3%.

France is at 87.47% of Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) coverage (2030 national target 100%) after a

progression of +7.5% in 2024, far exceeding the EU average of 69.24%.

France also outpaced the EU

in term of FTTP coverage but with a growth rate of 7.5%, falling lower than the EU’s rate of 8.4% that

can be explained by France reaching full coverage. For households in sparsely populated areas,

France’s FTTP coverage was 78.12% in 2024, above the EU’s 58.78%. The growth rate for these areas

was 20.9%, outperforming the EU’s 11.9%. The country did not provide a national trajectory for 2024

but it is assumed to be identical to the VHCN trajectory.

France is at 94.34% of 5G coverage (2030 national target 100%) after a progression of +3.8% in 2024,

standing around the EU average of 94.35%.

The country is on track according to its national trajectory.

France’s growth rate of 3.8% was however lower than the EU’s 6.0%. For households in rural areas,

France’s 5G coverage was 77.86% in 2024, below the EU’s 79.57%. The growth rate for this category

was 6.0%, half of the EU’s 11.9%. France’s 5G coverage in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band was 73.98% in 2024,

higher than the EU’s 67.72%. However, France’s growth rate of 11.7% was significantly lower than the

EU’s 32.6%. Regarding 5G spectrum, France’s assignment of harmonised spectrum in 5G pioneer

bands was 59.17% in 2025 (same value as last year), below the EU’s 74.63%.

In France, fixed broadband take-up indicators are excellent while the mobile ones are below the EU

average.

In 2023, 65.39% of fixed broadband subscriptions in France were at speeds of 100 Mbps or

higher, slightly below the EU’s 65.9%. However, by 2024, France’s share increased to 74.11%,

surpassing the EU’s 71.88%. The growth rate for this indicator in France was 13.3%, outperforming the

EU’s 9.1%. In France, fixed broadband subscriptions at speeds >1 Gbps are the highest in the EU. In

2024, France’s share reached 58.92%, while the EU’s was 22.25%. However, France’s annual growth

rate of 14.3% lagged behind the EU’s 20.5%. The share of the population using 5G SIM cards in France

was 15.28% in 2023, lower than the EU’s 21.7%. By 2024, this share increased to 27.03%, still below

the EU’s 35.56%. But France’s growth rate in this area was 76.9%, outperforming the EU’s 63.9%.

VHCN and FTTP

France’s

VHCN and FTTP targets remain at 100% with a completion date by 2025, as set out in the

2023 roadmap.

Given these solid figures and the pace of roll-out, both targets seem realistic. It is

therefore justified that the current strategy, the plan

‘France

Très Haut Débit’,

remains the main

measure in place and that no new supporting measures were submitted along with the roadmap

adjustment. The last connections, the most difficult to complete, will be incentivised by an on-demand

mechanism.

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France

In 2025, France started to close its copper network.

Incumbent operator Orange started the

shutdown by batches of municipalities and the process will take place across the entire territory until

2030. On 31 January 2025,

the first batch of 162 municipalities

saw its copper network shutdown. The

210 000 people concerned by this shutdown were given support to transition to Fibre. Across the

country, a massive migration to Fibre subscriptions can be observed (more than 60% of population),

made possible by the widespread availability of the service.

The mutualisation of the Fibre networks encourages competition between operators.

By the end of

2024, 90% of the 39.3 million existing Fibre lines were covered by the four main operators. It also

allows quick migration to Fibre subscriptions, which now represents around 73% of the total internet

subscriptions. However, for 2024, although final data are not yet available, analyses suggest a

downward trend in investments, which amounted to 13.7 bn in 2023.

With multiple sea fronts and outermost regions, submarine cables are major digital infrastructures

to ensure security and sovereignty of France and the EU.

Recent developments demonstrated that

submarine cables are pivotal in ensuring digital security and sovereignty. Securing the submarine

network requires deploying alternative routes and laying redundant cables. These projects are

supported by the public sector. In outermost regions, these projects are not often economically viable,

which makes European funding an effective way to fill market gaps. To secure this strategic market of

building and laying submarine cables, the French State became the major shareholder in the cable

making company Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) in 2024. As an example of EU funded project, the

MEDUSA project

involves installing a state-of-the-art, high-capacity fibre-optic submarine cable

connecting five EU Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal) to four

countries in the EU’s southern neighbourhood (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia). The

PISCES

subsea cable system

(funded by the Connecting Europe Facility) links the transatlantic and other

international cable systems landing in Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, and will allow for capacity

interconnection on these systems. The

CELIA project

aims to build a state-of-the-art submarine cable

to improve the connectivity conditions of two French and Dutch Caribbean islands, Martinique and

Aruba respectively.

Following the roadmap adjustment, France’s 5G target

remains at 100% by 2030.

Given the solid

figures and the pace of roll-out, the target seems realistic.

The four operators sustain the deployment of 5G sites.

All operators are present in the 3.5 GHz band

but follow different strategies in the 700-800 MHz and 1.8-2.1 GHz bands. However, only 59.17% of

the 5G pioneer bands are assigned, against 74.63% at the EU level. There is still no commercial demand

for the 26 GHz band.

2024 recommendation on connectivity infrastructure:

Ensure sufficient access of new players to

spectrum for innovative business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications

and encourage operators to speed up the deployment of 5G stand-alone core networks.

France made efforts to address the recommendation through new policy actions in 2024.

The four

main operators activated 5G stand-alone in their core networks in 2024. For innovative applications,

26 GHz frequency were attributed to ‘5G open experimenting platforms’, with examples from port

of Le Havre for logistical applications, Rennes train station for travellers and internal uses at the

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France

technical centre, the St Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome for needs related to events. In addition, the

3.8-4.0 GHz band frequencies have been the subject of more than a hundred requests to experiment

with the technology and use cases for a wide variety of economic and geographic sectors.

Semiconductors

Semiconductors remain a clear priority highlighted in France’s roadmap and the long-term

investment strategy, France 2030.

While no new measures were presented in the roadmap

adjustment this year, the original roadmap already provided for a sizeable support of more than

EUR 12 billion to the sector. The blend of measures aims at encouraging the building of semiconductor

production capacities in France, supporting innovation and first industrialisation projects, and

upscaling the production toward high-end

‘chips for AI’ to compete against big players from the US

and China.

France’s efforts in semiconductor production will strengthen the EU’s sovereignty and ensure a

secure supply.

One key example is the semiconductor mega factory in Crolles, which began operations

in 2023. Once it will reach full capacity by 2028, it could increase the EU’s semiconductor production

by nearly 6%. In addition, as part of the France 2030 investment plan, the French government has

established a

‘Critical

Metals Fund’ with EUR 500 million. This fund aims to support projects across the

entire value chain of essential metals like lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

Edge nodes

According to the Edge Node Observatory, France is estimated to have deployed a total of 532 edge

nodes by 2024, a progression of +95.6% since 2023.

This is almost doubling (+260 edge node) the

amount estimated for 2023 (272, number revised since State of the Digital Decare report (SDDR)

2024).

2024 recommendation on edge nodes:

Consider measures specific to edge nodes deployment,

supplementary to the IPCEI-CIS participation.

In 2024, France continued the implementation of existing measures but did not take any new

measure.

Beyond the IPCEI-CIS, the main national instrument for edge nodes deployment is the

Cloud Acceleration Strategy backed by EUR 550 million, partly funded by the RRF and part of the

2023 roadmap. It supports innovation in cloud and edge services while financing early-stage

research in resource organisation and optimisation.

Quantum technologies

France is a global leader in quantum technologies.

The main public support is the national Quantum

Strategy for 2030 fostering the development of the large-scale fault tolerant quantum computer (LSQ),

of simulators and accelerators of the noisy intermediate scale quantum computer, and of enabling

technologies. The target is to produce a LSQ before 2030. France has all the ammunition to compete

in the quantum field against other superpowers: access to secure infrastructures, high public

investment, leading quantum start-ups (e.g. Quandela, Pasqal, Alice & Bob, C12, Quobly), and a pool

of qualified engineers and mathematicians. No additional public measures were presented in the

adjusted roadmap.

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France

Supporting EU-wide digital ecosystems and scaling up innovative

enterprises

France is home of cutting-edge start-ups in AI but the bulk of enterprises are not digitalised

sufficiently.

By improving the digitalisation of its businesses, France could boost its competitiveness.

Indeed, expanding the spread of ICT knowledge and technologies, especially among SMEs, could

address one of the weaknesses

weighing on total factor productivity

of the country.

SMEs with at least basic digital intensity

In France, 68.45% of SMEs (10 to 259 employees) showed at least a basic level of digital intensity

(2030 national target 90%) after a progression of +3.8% annually between 2022 and 2024, standing

below the EU average of 72.91%.

The digitalisation of French SMEs is showing a positive trend but

still lag behind its EU peers. Looking specifically at top digitalised SMEs, only 21.59% of SMEs in France

reached high or very high digital intensity, falling significantly short of the EU average of 32.66%.

Overall, France has shown progress, but room for improvement continues to exist in the digital

intensity of its SMEs, particularly in terms of advanced digital intensity.

The annual France Num barometer, measuring the perception and usage of digital by SMEs and very

small enterprises showed in 2024 that digitalisation is gaining traction.

Several metrics are on the

rise: 77% of executives surveyed believe that digital technology facilitates communication with

customers (+3pp compared to 2023), 42% believe that digital technology allows them to make money

(+3pp). The main barrier to digitalisation concerns the need for extra capacities and skills for mastering

new technologies. The apparent simplicity of generative AI (spoken language) still appears complex

for small structures to implement.

France still aims at 90% of SMEs with basic digital intensity, in line with the EU target for 2030.

However, given the current levels and growth metrics, it is unlikely that the target will be reached.

Moreover, no new measure targeted specifically to SMEs were presented in the adjusted roadmap.

France Num remains the main tool targeting SMEs. But with a focus on enterprises with less than 10

employees, the results of this instrument are hardly captured by the Digital Decade key performance

indicator (KPI) which focuses on enterprises 10-249 employees. Recently, France Num has undergone

a few improvements such as more targeted actions at the local level, the dissemination of use-case by

peers or the Tour France Num to raise awareness of the potential of digital technology.

2024 recommendation on digitalisation of SMEs:

Set up additional measures and increase

resources for existing schemes to improve the SMEs digitalisation performance and to further

leverage the impact of the European Digital Innovation Hub in regions and its close presence to

regional ecosystems, paying special attention to its outermost regions.

France made some efforts to address the recommendation through new policy actions in 2024.

tackle the low digitalisation level of SMEs, France will leverage the adoption of technologies such as

AI and cloud (see dedicated sections). The scheme France Num (targeted at SMEs and VSEs) is in

place since 2018 but did not recently benefit from major changes in scope or in resources. For EDIHs,

see below.

In 2024, 16 EDIHs started in France, mainly centred around AI.

Already 860 digital maturity

assessment diagnostics were performed by enterprises. Several EDIHs have partnerships with other

Member States. The participants however warn of the need for more communication around these

initiatives.

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France

Take up of cloud/AI/data analytics

According to new data collected in 2024, 9.91% of French enterprises adopted AI after a progression

of +68.5% in a year, but still stands below the EU average.

About 1 out of 10 enterprises in France

were employing AI technology, falling behind the EU average of 13.48%. Nonetheless, France

experienced a similar growth rate from 2023 (+68.5%) as the corresponding EU-level growth rate

(+67.2%). More specifically, SMEs had an AI uptake rate of 9.25%, whereas large enterprises

demonstrated a higher rate of 32.74%. This resulted in a gap of 23.49 pp. between SMEs and large

enterprises, which was lower than the EU gap of 28.53 pp. The country did not provide a national

trajectory point for 2024 as it only submitted a trajectory for the KPI on the three technologies (AI,

cloud, data analytics) combined.

Adoption of cloud, data analytics, and the three technologies together were not measured in 2024.

In 2023, only 22.95% of French enterprises adopted cloud technologies, considerably lower than the

EU average of 38.97%.

Moreover, SMEs exhibited a lower adoption rate of 21.79%, whereas 62.12%

of large enterprises used advanced cloud services. This resulted in a gap of 40.33 pp. in uptake

between SMEs and large enterprises in France, higher than the EU-level gap of 31.68 pp.

Data from 2023 showed that, 33.90% of French enterprises adopted data analytics technologies, in

the EU average of 33.25%.

More specifically, 32.78% of SMEs adopted data analytics, while the uptake

was considerably higher among large enterprises at 71.99%. This led to a difference of 39.21 pp. in

engagement between SMEs and large enterprises, aligning with the EU gap.

When taking the three technologies together in 2023, 44.86% of enterprises in France engaged with

either AI, cloud, or data analytics technologies (2030 national target of 65%), considerably below

the EU average of 54.70%.

More specifically, the uptake among SMEs was slightly lower than the

national average, at 43.73%, while large enterprises had a markedly higher rate of 83.21%. This

indicates a difference of 39.48 pp. in uptake between SMEs and large enterprises in France, which is

higher than the EU-level gap of 32.97 pp.

In conclusion, France displayed lower adoption rates of cloud computing and AI technologies among

enterprises with 10 or more employees compared to EU averages.

On the other hand, adoption of

data analytics was slightly higher. Large enterprises consistently reported significantly higher adoption

levels across all technologies compared to SMEs. Despite SMEs representing most enterprises in

France, their contribution to economic value added remains substantially lower than that of large

enterprises. These findings highlight the need for targeted measures to bridge the digitalisation gap

and enhance the competitiveness of SMEs.

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In its adjusted roadmap, France revised downward its ambition for 2030 with an adoption rate of

technologies by enterprises of 65%, potentially jeopardising the EU-level goal.

The adjustment does

not contain a breakdown per technology anymore but instead presents a single trajectory for the

indicators of the three technologies combined (adoption of either cloud or data analytics or AI). The

new target is 65% by 2030, lower than the EU-level target of 75%. This decision will have considerable

impact on the overall EU performance given the size of the French economy, which hosts almost 12%

of European enterprises. In term of achievability of the national target, France chooses mainly to

leverage the adoption of AI by all enterprises. Past and new measures might boost the take up of AI

by all enterprises, including SMEs which could also influence positively the basic digital intensity of

SMEs.

•

Cloud

The strategy ‘Cloud

de confiance’

(‘Trusted cloud’) should contribute to the deployment of sovereign

cloud solutions.

It aims to strengthen France’s technological independence by supporting national

and European cloud players. This includes initiatives to develop competitive and innovative offers.

Increasing trust in the cloud technologies could foster the adoption of such services by enterprises

and administrations and decrease dependency to foreign solutions.

•

Data Analytics

No new development relevant for the 2025 Digital Decade report.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is

France’s

main priority as far as digital technologies are concerned.

The national AI strategy,

hosting the AI Action Summit, and new measures in the national roadmap adjustment confirm that AI

is of utmost importance in the public policies. In 2024, France developed ecosystems for AI take up,

placing the State as a trusted third party to showcase AI technologies and facilitate their adoption.

Adoption guides (including regulatory topics) will be published to share trusted information on AI

technologies and present profitable business cases. In May 2024, the President announced nine new

awards of the call for expressions of interest

‘AI

clusters’, centres of excellence in research and training

in AI, supported by EUR 360 million from France 2030. Also in 2024, the call for projects

Acceleration

of the uses of generative AI in the economy

was launched and should boost the use of AI by businesses.

The 2025 Eurobarometer shows that 79% of French people think that public authorities should

prioritise shaping the development of Artificial Intelligence and other digital technologies to ensure

that they respect our rights and values. It represents a big increase of 9 percentage points compared

to last year, reflecting the growing interest of the citizens at this respect.

France added two new measures on AI in its adjusted roadmap that should foster the adoption of

AI technologies.

•

Call for projects

‘Accelerating

the uses of generative AI in the economy’ of the France 2030

plan. The call for projects aims to support the development of specialised generative AI

solutions for specific use cases, by bringing together technological players and end users for

quick adoption. This mechanism is the follow-up of the Digital Commons of Generative AI

programme, which aimed to create fundamental technological bricks in open source and to

demonstrate the profitability and replicability of generative AI technologies in various

economic sectors. Successful bidders should be decided in 2025.

Guide for the adoption of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology for businesses.

RAG is a generative AI technology that allows models to be specialised with enterprise data

•

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without retraining, offering simplicity and accessibility for various applications. The

Directorate-General for Enterprises published a practical guide in November 2024 to

encourage the adoption of RAG, detailing relevant use cases, prerequisites, costs and

technological choices, in order to help companies and regional administrations integrate this

technology.

2024 recommendation on AI:

(i) Review the mix of measures to support the adoption of advanced

digital technologies (with a particular attention to AI and cloud). (ii) Foster the creation of local

ecosystems to allow technologies (AI, cloud, data analytics) and best practices to diffuse across the

broader business sector. Build on the recent national AI Commission report to design new measures

to develop the AI ecosystem and foster related technologies adoption by enterprises.

France addressed fully the recommendation by putting significant policy actions into place in

2024.

France has added two new measures in its adjusted roadmap to support the adoption of AI

by enterprises. The country also follows an approach of local ecosystems for adoption and

dissemination of AI technologies. France also hosted the AI Action Summit in 2025.

Paris hosted the

AI Action Summit

in February 2025 and will host an EU AI factory.

The EU announced

investing EUR 200 billion for the development of AI gigafactories and data centres, including

one site

in France

(AI Factory France, AI2F). The funding will come mainly from the private sector:

EUR 150 billion will be financed by the European AI Champions Initiative alliance, and the remaining

EUR 50 billion by the EU. Also, at the end of the summit, around 60 countries have signed an

agreement for an open, inclusive and ethical AI. The text also provides for a global dialogue,

coordination for the governance of AI, and the signatories call for avoiding a market concentration

and make these tools more accessible. Another axis cited as one of the priorities of this agreement is

making AI sustainable for the people and the planet. The Summit was also the occasion for the French

company Mistral AI to release its Generative AI application (Le Chat), as a direct contender to non-EU

solutions such as ChatGPT or DeepSeek.

Prior to the summit, the French President announced

EUR 109 billion of private investment

in France

to develop AI.

Most of the funds should be earmarked for the construction of data centres. Among

the investors, the United Arab Emirates plans to finance a giant data centre in France, with a

computing capacity of up to 1GW, as part of the largest AI-focused campus in Europe. The Canadian

fund Brookfield has also announced an investment of EUR 20 billion in France by 2030, including

EUR 15 billion for new data centres.

Unicorns, scale-ups and start-ups

At the beginning of 2025, France had 48 unicorns (2030 national target of 100), which is 5 more than

last year (+11.6%).

In its adjusted roadmap, France confirms its ambitious goal of 100 unicorns by

2030. This will contribute greatly to achieving the EU-level target of 500 unicorns. The current

trajectory will need to be sustained to reach that goal.

Thanks to a range of reforms, France has improved its business environment in recent years but lack

of visibility weighs on investment decisions.

Several reforms related to the business environment

took place since 2017 (e.g. ‘État

au service d’une société

de confiance’ ESSOC, ‘loi relative à la

croissance et la transformation des entreprises’

PACTE,

‘loi d’accélération

et de simplification de

l’action publique’

ASAP) and are yielding positive results.

In 2024, fewer enterprises than in the rest of

the EU found that regulations were a major obstacle to attracting investment (18% vs 22%). However,

recent difficulties in establishing a stable government and passing the national budget has brought

about uncertainty for businesses. The

EY attractiveness barometer

showed that half of business

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managers consider that France’s

appeal has

declined since June 2024 and, as a consequence, 49% of

foreign investors have cut back on their investment plans in France.

Despite economic uncertainties, start-ups employment remained dynamic in 2024.

After a

slowdown in job growth between April and September 2024, the dynamic has been on the rise again.

The slight recovery observed in October was confirmed in November. Overall, for 2024, French start-

ups have generated

more than 18 000 jobs,

an increase of nearly 6% year-on-year. The AI sector had

nearly 1 900 start-ups employing more than 50 000 people. These companies have benefited from

nearly 90 fundraising rounds, representing EUR 1.7 billion.

France is active in identifying legislative or regulatory obstacles encountered by the French tech

ecosystem.

In 2017, a consultation called

‘Tour

des Start-ups’

brought out nearly 100 measures and

led to the adoption of a series of simplification measures. Also, since 2022, the French Tech Mission

has been providing legal support to Next40 companies (40 most promising young companies), by

putting them in touch with the right contacts in public administrations and by assessing proposals that

have positive consequences for the ecosystem. Start-ups are consulted when drafting legislation.

Strengthening Cybersecurity & Resilience

In France, about 3 out of 4 people have basic digital safety skills.

72.69% of individuals reported

taking at least one action

(see the 6 types of digital safety actions in the graph’s legend)

to protect

their personal data online in 2023, slightly above the EU average of 69.55%. More specifically, 1 out

of 2 (49.69%) individuals are considered as having above basic digital safety skills (i.e. engaging in 3

actions). The most common action taken by individuals was refusing the use of personal data for

advertising purposes, with 55.82% of individuals taking this step, while reading privacy policy

statements was the least frequent action, reported by only 20.45%.

French enterprises tend to experience less incidents related

to cyberattacks but employees are less aware of their ICT

security related obligations compared to the EU.

The number

of enterprises that experienced ICT security incidents leading

to unavailability of ICT services due to attack from outside (e.g.

Ransomware attacks, Denial of Service attacks) slightly

increased in France, from 2.36% in 2022 to 2.73% in 2024. It

remains below the EU average (3.43%). However, French

enterprises are more prone to incidents related to hardware or

software failures (21.40%) than their EU peers (17.97%). In

terms of measures, 93.20% of enterprises deployed some ICT

security measures (around the EU average of 92.76%) but only

48.13% of enterprises made their employees aware of their

obligations in ICT security related issues, significantly below the

EU average (59.97%).

France leads the EU in the roll-out of the secure Internet

Protocol version 6 (IPv6) protocol for end users.

Concerning

the deployment of

secure internet standards,

France leads the EU in the roll-out of IPv6 for the end

users (65%, EU average: 36%) and is slightly above the EU average on the server side (23% vs 17% for

the EU). IPv6 is an important protocol as it ensures the scalability, stability, and security of the Internet.

The deployment of this new version is increasingly urgent, as traditional IPv4 addresses have been

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long depleted. Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is also an important standard to

be rolled-out as it introduces security features to the Domain Name System. In France, the DNSSEC

validation rate (i.e. verification of the authenticity of responses sent by name servers to clients, using

a digital signature technology) is 34% (Q3-2024), below the EU average of 47%.

With increasing threats, France develops cyber awareness on all fronts.

On the enterprises side, a

recent programme

called ‘cyber

PME’

proposes solutions for SMEs and mid-cap

companies wishing to

strengthen their level of security and protect themselves from risks. Up to now, 300 enterprises were

accompanied. For administrations and organisations, the National Agency for Information Systems

Security (Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information, ANSSI) proposes cybersecurity

courses (‘parcours

de cybersécurité’)

which enable beneficiaries to protect themselves against

cybercriminal threats by achieving a cybersecurity objective in a progressive, measurable and adapted

way for each beneficiary, in line with the level of threat and maturity. Already 950 companies

benefited from these courses. More generally, ANSSI launched a

website

for the assistance and

prevention of digital risk for the general public and also

another one

to raise awareness on phishing.

According to the Digital Decade Eurobarometer 2025, 82% of French citizens think that an improved

cybersecurity, better protection of online data and safety of digital technologies would facilitate their

daily use of digital technologies.

In its adjusted roadmap, France presents the CaRE programme, aimed at the cyber protection of

healthcare establishments.

This action programme on cybersecurity acceleration and resilience of

healthcare facilities aims to improve the cybersecurity of hospital information systems and to

strengthen the resilience of healthcare structures against cyber threats. It pursues two main objectives

(i) to prevent attacks; and (ii) to enable fast recovery in the event of an incident. The programme is

structured around four axes (i) governance and resilience; (ii) resources and pooling; (iii) awareness;

and (iv) operational security. It is funded by EUR 250 million for 2023-2025 but will reach

EUR 750 million in total by 2027.

2024 recommendation on cybersecurity:

(i) Continue efforts in cybersecurity to address evolving

threats and restore the confidence of enterprises and general public.

France addressed fully the recommendation by putting significant policy actions into place in

2024.

France has recently deployed a very broad range of actions to raise awareness about cyber

threats in all sectors (enterprises, administration, general public). It has also provided support in

implementing cybersecurity strategies with actions, including Cyber PME. The new measure added

in the adjusted roadmap (CaRE programme) targets the cybersecurity of the healthcare sector,

which is a

top priority

of the Commission.

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Protecting and empowering EU people

and society

Empowering people and bringing the digital transformation closer to their

needs

France’s

administration aims at making digitalisation inclusive with actions targeting known divides

and improving the public services.

In term of digital skills of the population, France performs well with

only few gaps identified toward the lower educated and based on socio-economic status. The lack of

ICT specialists could however create tensions on the job market and slow down the development of

the ICT sector. The digitalisation of the public sector benefits from many actions being implemented,

including for relieving administrative burden. France is also very active in protecting children online

and fighting disinformation with services, including VIGINUM. However, the French population could

be seen as less digital savvy than its EU peers as it participates less in civic life online and is less inclined

to fact-check information found online. According to the 2025 Eurobarometer, 85% of French people

think that accessing public services online will be important for their daily life in 2030. Concerning

human support to help access and use digital technologies and services, 73% consider it would

improve their daily use of digital technologies, and 88% think public authorities should consider it

important to ensure that people receive proper human support to help them adapt to the changes in

their lives brought about by digital technologies and services.

Equipping people with digital skills

Basic Digital Skills

France’s digital skills profile is strong, with evidence of inclusive growth across different dimensions.

According to data from 2023, 59.67% of

France’s

population with at least basic digital skills (2030

national target 80%) after a small decline of -1.9%, standing above the EU average of 55.56%.

While

there is no new data for 2024, a breakdown by demographic factors provides for some of insights.

•

Gender Gap:

France shows an uncommon situation in the gender gap, with 59.14% of men and

60.18% of women having at least basic digital skills, creating a small gap of 1.04 pp. in favour of

women. This goes against the typical EU trend, where the gap averages 2.23 pp. in favour of men.

•

Education Level:

Education is a strong indicator of digital proficiency in France. 82.40% of

individuals with higher education levels have at least basic digital skills, exceeding the EU average

(79.83%). However, those with lower levels of education face challenges, with only 34.59% having

basic skills, a gap with the national average of 25.08 pp., larger than the EU average (21.95pp).

•

Living Areas:

In rural France, 56.17% of people have at least basic digital skills, which is higher than

the EU average for rural areas (47.50%). The gap between rural and urban areas in France is a modest

3.50 pp., showcasing a smaller divide than the EU average (8.06 pp.).

•

Age Groups:

Young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 have good digital skills, with a proficiency

rate of 76.70%, surpassing the EU average (69.98%). The senior age group of between 65 and 74 has

fewer skills at 34.79%. However, this is still above the EU average for that age group (28.19%).

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Digital Skills Index components:

France performs

well in the Digital Skills Index competencies, scoring

above the EU average in all five areas. Their

strongest area is communication and collaboration

skills at 90.11%, slightly above the EU average. The

lowest score is for digital content creation at

71.81%, however, this also stands above the EU

average (68.28%).

In summary, France’s digital skills profile shows

inclusive growth across genders and a small

urban-rural skills gap.

While there’s a significant

disparity based on education level, overall, France’s

performance in essential digital skills is good, with

room for targeted improvements to support lower-

educated individuals and older adults.

France’s target for the basic digital skills of the population remains at 80%.

It is in line with the EU

target by 2030. In the absence of new measures in the roadmap adjustment, the SDDR 2024

conclusions still apply. The current rate of progress would require more effort in order to reach this

target.

2024 recommendation on basic digital skills:

Take measures to boost the digital skills of the

population on the shorter term, with additional efforts in its outermost regions.

In 2024, France continued the implementation of existing measures but did not take any new

measure.

France continued to implement measures from its roadmap such as

‘Territoires

Numériques Educatifs’

‘Compétences métiers d’avenir’,

while working to reinforce basic training

especially in mathematics. However no new measure was proposed in the roadmap adjustment.

The divide in term of digital skills seems to reflect mostly socio-economic disparities.

As seen above,

education level, strongly linked to socio-economic status, reveals some disparities. It is estimated that

16 million people are ‘far from digital’. France’s

education curriculum is one of the densest and it is

not easy to find room to include specific digital training courses. However, public initiatives such as

CLEMI (‘Centre

pour l’éducation aux médias et à l’information’)

are tasked to train the entire

educational system about medias and information. Generative AI could be envisaged as tool to bridge

digital divides as it uses daily language. However, it is possible that social disparities are also

reproduced in the way people express themselves (e.g. low education or foreign origins). The question

of infrastructures and equipment could also help bridging divides. Households could struggle to

purchase or access high quality digital equipment, but strong networks are present in France (see

Connectivity infrastructure section).

ICT specialists

France is at 4.8% of ICT specialists in total employment (2030 national target 10%) after a

progression of +2.1% in 2024 and stands below the EU average of 5.0%.

The country is lagging behind

compared to its national trajectory. It was 4.7% in 2023 and represents half of growth rate observed

at EU level (+4.2% in 2024). This indicates that while France is making progress, it is not keeping pace

with the EU average.

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The share of French women as ICT specialists and ICT training show a concerning trend.

In terms of

women ICT specialists, France had a higher share in 2023 at 20.1%, compared to the EU’s 19.4%.

However, by 2024, this figure dropped to 19.3%, falling below the EU’s 19.5%. The growth rate for

women ICT specialists in France was -4.0%, significantly lower than the EU’s 0.5%. This suggests that

France is not effectively retaining or attracting female talent in the ICT sector. In 2022, 15.09% of

enterprises with 10 or more employees in France provided ICT training, which was lower than the EU’s

22.37%. By 2024, this figure fell further to 13.07%, while the EU’s percentage slightly declined to

22.29%. The decline in the share of women ICT specialists and enterprises providing ICT training,

combined with a poor dynamic for overall ICT specialists in employment are a cause for concern.

In terms of labour market demand, Eurostat experimental statistics based on web scraping show

that in France, the profiles of

‘software

and applications developers and analysts’

are the most

sought after, representing 55.1% of online job advertisements for ICT specialists (58.0% at EU level).

Three types of profile are sought after in France than in the EU on average:

‘information

and

communications technology service managers’

(4.5% of online job advertisements for ICT specialists),

‘information and communications technology operations and user support technicians’ (11.6%), and

‘telecommunications and broadcasting technicians’ (3.5%).

Recent studies still underline weaknesses in the maths skills of French pupils.

The Trends in

Mathematics and Science Study 2023 (TIMSS) reveals that France ranks bottom of EU Member States

and below the OECD average for maths. The trend is getting worse for secondary school students.

While France is implementing a targeted strategy to overcome this problem, it will take time to bear

fruit. The training of ICT specialists is closely linked to performances in maths and more generally

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

France still aims to reach 10% of ICT specialists in employment by 2030.

Given the absence of new

measures in the roadmap adjustment and the intrinsic inertia of the indicator, it seems that the target

will be difficult to reach.

2024 recommendation on ICT specialists:

Increase the attractiveness of STEM disciplines at school

to boost the number of young people, including girls, interested in taking up ICT-related studies or

careers. Increase the visibility and readability of training and reskilling options. Design incentive

schemes to attract and retain ICT specialists.

In 2024, France continued the implementation of existing measures but did not take any new

measure.

Several stakeholders share the opinion that training blocks in digital are somewhat

heterogeneous. The ICT sector suffers from an image deficit (as compared to well identified flagship

sectors such as aeronautics) which can lead to less visible job careers.

Following its ambitious AI strategy, France aims to run a large-scale training to acquire experts in AI.

In May 2024, nine new winners of the call for expressions of interest ‘AI clusters’ were selected. These

centres of excellence in research and training in AI will be supported with EUR 360 million.

A slow down in ICT employment growth has eased the lack of available ICT experts.

The lack of ICT

specialists was declared as one of the main barriers to growth for ICT enterprises. But during summer

2024, growth in employment by the ICT sector

slowed down markedly

which could partly ease these

tensions.

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Key digital public services and solutions

–

trusted, user-friendly, and accessible to all

For digital public services for citizens, France scored at 71.19 (2030 national target of 100) after a

small decline of -1.2%, below the EU average of 82.32.

The country is lagging behind compared to its

national trajectory. In 2023, France’s total digital public services score for citizens was 72.09, below

the EU’s 79.44. In 2024, it dropped to 71.19, still below the EU’s 82.32. France’s growth rate of -1.2%

in this area is lower than the EU’s 3.6%. The slight fall can be explained by weaknesses in cross-border

services (related to the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR) and the translation of municipality

webpages). On cross-border digital public services for citizens, France scored 50.92 in 2024, standing

far below the EU’s 71.28. The share of people using government websites or apps is increasing year-

on-year, from 89.99% in 2022 to 91.60% in 2024. It is far above the EU average of 74.71% in 2024.

For digital public services for business, France scored 76.90 (2030 national target of 100) after a

decline of -3.0%, below the EU average of 86.23.

The country is lagging behind compared to its

national trajectory. France’s total score was 79.31 in 2023 and 76.90 in 2024, both below the EU’s

85.42 and 86.23, respectively. The country’s growth rate of -3.0% is notably lower than the EU’s 0.9%

because of a newly introduced SDGR-related service that was not found online. For cross-border

digital public services for businesses, France’s score was 56.07 in 2024, below the EU’s 73.76.

France’s access to e-Health records tells a different story with a score of 84.23 (2030 national target

of 100) after a growth of 6.2%, above the EU average of 82.7.

The country is on track according to its

national trajectory. In 2023, France’s total score was 79.27, slightly above the EU’s 79.12, and in 2024,

it rose to 84.23, above the EU’s 82.7. France’s growth rate of 6.2% in this area outperforms the EU’s

4.5%, continuing the fast growth that was already observed in 2023.

e-ID

French authorities are aligned with the European framework of the eIDAS Regulation with a view to

offering an EU Digital Wallet by the end of 2026.

The government is working to increase the number

of digital identity use cases, in order to achieve a complete and secure digital identity wallet. For

example, at the beginning of 2024, the digitalised driving licence has joined the

France Identité

application. With the FranceConnect service, users can carry out a very large number of online

procedures with a digital identity that they choose from several providers. FranceConnect+ is available

as a reinforced level of identification to carry out the most sensitive procedures, in particular financial

ones.

France leads the consortium Advanced Project for Trusted Identity Technologies and Unified Digital

Ecosystem (APTITUDE) that will pilot the usage of EU Digital Wallets.

The project involves strong

public and private engagement across 11 Member States and Ukraine, bringing together over 110

participants. This project focuses on advancing the use of wallets for travel and payment purposes

across 4 use cases: payments, mobile vehicle registration certificates, digital travel credentials, and

tickets and travel check-in. Building on the foundational work carried by the Commission and the

experience of ongoing large-scale pilot projects, APTITUDE is planned to start in autumn 2025 and run

for two years.

Digitalisation of public services for citizens and businesses

France still aims at reaching a score of 100 for the digitalisation of public services for citizen and

businesses.

The adjusted roadmap encloses clear intermediary goals such as the availability digitalised

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services, user satisfaction, simplicity, accessibility and authentication processes. Current observed

sluggish progress suggest that France will have to accelerate in order to reach its target.

2024 recommendation on key digital public services:

Make efforts to digitalise public services,

with particular attention to re-use of information available to public administrations and user

support.

France addressed fully the recommendation by putting significant policy actions into place in

2024.

The updated national roadmap clearly identifies the re-use of information as a priority axis.

The ‘once-only’ principle is to be implemented at 100% of online public services (currently at 69%)

by December 2026. For user support, the target is to reach 100% of online services with a user

satisfaction rate of 8/10 (currently 53%).

The simplification of administrative procedures is a priority in the digitalisation of French public

services.

Several dematerialisation principles are being implemented: i) the circulation of data

between administrations (in particular via a reinforced network of application programming interfaces

APIs); ii) the proactivity of the administration to go towards citizens, with a view to reduce the non-

use of public services; and

iii) the ‘once-only’ principle which requires the administration

to no longer

ask the user for data or supporting documents that it already holds. Furthermore, a draft law on

simplification should be presented in 2025, consecutive to the recent public action simplification law

(‘loi

d’accélération

et de simplification de l’action

publique’ ASAP)

Administrative and regulatory burden is being cut in France.

According to the OECD’s iREG indicators

on administrative and regulatory burden, France performs better than the OECD average (1.16 in

France vs 1.68 in the OECD in 2023) and much lower than in 2018 (1.88). However, businesses,

especially the smaller ones, report complexities of administrative services (sometimes related to

increased cybersecurity measures), a high number of regulations, and call for impact assessments of

the cost for businesses to implement those regulations.

On sovereignty of the digital administration, the State’s digital strategy prioritises the control of its

information systems.

It guides choices in terms of investments in infrastructure such as cloud, in

collaborative applications and tools (La Suite) and in AI (Albert). A proactive strategy based on the use

of free software will reinforce sovereignty, while fully controlling costs while aiming for excellence.

Sovereignty also happens on the skills side by re-internalising digital know-how with 345 full-time

equivalents positions created in 2024 in the administrations. On top of the national actions, France

joined forces with Germany and the Netherlands to promote the use of free software to offer public

officials truly sovereign digital workspaces. In December 2024, the three countries signed a declaration

of intent for trilateral cooperation aimed at strengthening digital sovereignty in public administration.

In 2024, France continued its actions to digitalise the public sector.

The ‘Public Digital Campus’,

launched in January 2024, is a training centre centralising and disseminating an interministerial

training offer adapted to the needs identified for digital. This campus has designed and established

mandatory training for senior civil service executives and is initiating the deployment of Pix, a digital

skills diagnostic tool, for all public officials by 2026. In parallel, the administration continued to

promote the circulation and exchange of data, in particular with the launch of experiments in the use

of generative AI based on the

ALLiaNCe incubator.

The digitalisation

of ‘Maprocuration’ and ‘Plainte

En Ligne’

was achieved, two essential high-volume services, which significantly

improved the citizen’s

experience in the run-up to June 2024 elections and that of victims of crimes against their property.

Since March 2025, the Vitale card (health insurance) is also available in electronic form.

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e-Health

France still aims at a score of 100 for the access to medical records, in line with the 2030 EU target.

Recent impressive progress (see State of the 2024 Digital Decade report) hint that this target is

realistic. Moreover, in its roadmap adjustment, France revised the budget of the existing measure

‘digital health acceleration strategy’, from EUR

718 million to 750 million.

2024 recommendation on e-Health:

(i) Make all data types available to citizens through the online

access service; (ii) Enhance the authentication method for logging in to the online access service

by using a (pre)notified e-ID; (iii) Introduce a legal basis and provide the technical functionality for

authorised persons to access electronic health data on behalf of others.

France made some efforts to address the recommendation through new policy actions in 2024.

First, 10 of the 13 data categories are now made available, with the data category of

procedures/operations newly reported to be available. Data on medical devices/implants, medical

images, and eDispensation remains unavailable to citizens. Second, citizens can now authenticate

using an eIDAS-compliant eID when accessing their health records. Third, on access for authorised

persons, there is currently no legal basis nor functions in place to grant others access to your e-

Health data. However, a feature is reportedly underdevelopment.

Building a safe and human centric digital environment and preserving our

democracy

In France, the online participation to political and civic life is declining.

In 2024, 15.02% of people

used the internet to participate to consultations, for voting or sharing opinions online. This share is

below the EU average and trending downward (16.44% in 2022), which is the opposite of the trend

observed at the EU level (17.59% in 2022 and 20.45% in 2024).

Due to its influence, France is a preferred target for disinformation attacks but it set up

countermeasures.

Due to the size of its economy, its diversity, its military and soft power, being the

home of critical industries and host of international events (2024 Summer Olympics), France suffers

regular disinformation and destabilisation campaigns often happening online. More and more,

disinformation takes the form of amplified true but irrelevant information, playing with the freedom

of speech. As a response, France set up VIGINUM, the technical and operational service of the State

responsible for monitoring and protecting against foreign digital interferences. VIGINUM is part of the

General Secretariat for Defence and National Security and monitors inauthentic phenomena

(suspicious accounts, malicious content, abnormal, aberrant or coordinated behaviour) that appear

on digital platforms.

Only 1 out of 4 French internet users declare fact-checking doubtful online information.

In 2023,

53.00% of French people declared having encountered untrue or doubtful information or content on

internet news sites or social media, above the EU average of 49.25%. Of these individuals, 25.42% fact-

checked its truthfulness, representing a modest level of critical evaluation among those who perceived

such content as misleading. Young people (16-24) (74.86%) reported significantly more exposure than

adults (24-64) (53.92%), which may be linked to different trends in internet usage. A notable difference

in verification rates also emerged: 41.44% of young people verified content compared to 25.11% of

adults. Men (54.25%) and women (51.82%) reported similar exposure rates, with men being slightly

more likely to verify content, at 28.7% compared to 22.31% for women.

A high share of the French population, especially young people, is often encountering hostile and

degrading messages online.

Data shows that in 2023, 40.96% of individuals encountered messages

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online that were considered hostile or degrading towards groups based on factors such as political

views, ethnicity, or LGBTIQ identities. This figure was significantly above the EU average of 33.5%.

Young people aged 16-24 (62.95%) reported significantly higher exposure than adults aged 25-64

(40.65%), highlighting a pronounced age disparity. Conversely, men (41.10%) and women (40.83%)

experienced nearly the same exposure.

Since 11

January 2025, ‘double anonymity’ age verification is mandatory for adult sites in France.

The Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (ARCOM) standard provides that the

sites concerned, after a transitional period (until 11 April 2025), offer Internet users at least one

‘double anonymity’ age verification solution. This type of solution

allows to best protect the privacy

of the users. The website accessed receives proof of age but not the identity of the user and the

provider of the age control solution knows the identity of the Internet user but does not know which

sites they consult. This verification process raises several challenges on the social acceptation (need

to be easy to use), on data protection (should be handled by a third party), and on competition

between providers. The latter calls for a

European collaboration

on the matter to provide resources

for a common and robust standard solution for the EU. According to the Digital Decade Eurobarometer

2025, French people strongly think that the action of the public authorities is urgent to protect children

online regarding the negative impact of social media

on children’s mental health

(97% of French

people), cyberbullying and online harassment (96%) and to put in place age assurance mechanisms to

restrict age-inappropriate content (95%).

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Leveraging digital transformation for a

smart greening

France is a world leader in monitoring the environmental impact of its ICT sector and setting up

measures to decrease it.

France designed monitoring tools to measure, anticipate and control the

footprint of the ICT sector. It also contributes as a leader for green initiatives within the Digital Decade

framework.

Half of the carbon footprint of the ICT sector in France is carried by equipment but the impact of

datacentres grows rapidly.

Recent figures show that equipment represents

50% of the ICT sector’s

footprint

and that

datacentres’

greenhouse gas emissions

made up 46% of the total driven by rising

electricity consumption and an extension of the perimeter of the studies, now including the storage

of French data in datacentres abroad. Water consumption of the datacentres also grew by

20% in one

year,

for the second year in a row.

The French population recycles only a small part of its ICT equipment.

French people tend to recycle

more their laptops and desktop devices (12.14% for laptops and tablets, 14.96% for desktops) than

the EU average (11.31% and 14.66%, respectively), but recycle less their mobile phones (7.83%,

10.93% for the EU). Moreover, only 15.56% of people considered the energy efficiency as important

when purchasing ICT devices (EU: 19.35%) but the ecodesign of the device was considered important

by 12.99%, which is above the EU average (12.04%). However, those two eco-friendly criteria take on

less importance for the French consumer than the price, the performance, and the design of the ICT

device. One in five smartphones sold in France is second-hand, contributing to increasing the total

lifespan of mobile phones.

France goes all out on green ICT in its adjusted roadmap.

Three measures were added to the Digital

Decade roadmap and should reinforce even more the leadership of France on the matter.

•

Publication of the General Reference Framework for the Ecodesign of Digital Services.

It is a

technical document intended for digital experts and professions wishing to implement an

ecodesign approach for a service (sites, applications, AI, software, API

…).

The 78 practical

factsheets in the reference document detail the essential criteria to consider reducing the

environmental impact of a service.

•

Publication of the first reference framework on the environmental impact of AI.

France has

produced the first reference framework on the environmental impact of AI, which resulted in

the production of a norm from the French Association for Standardisation (AFNOR). The norm

for frugal AI sets out calculation methodologies and good practices for measuring and

reducing the environmental impact of AI, and for communicating with common, fair, and

verifiable claims.

•

Implementation of bonuses linked to the repairability index.

A bonus of EUR 20 will be paid

for the most repairable laptops, mobile phones and televisions, applicable to the sector of

electrical and electronic equipment falling within the extended producer responsibility

framework.

France is very active in the Digital

Decade’s

Best Practice Accelerator, in the Green and Digital

cluster.

France is piloting, alongside Finland, the working group aimed at promoting the sharing of

information relating to public policies on the environmental transition of digital technology. This

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working group aims to create a forum for inter-administration dialogue, bringing together specialists

in the environmental transition of digital technologies from the EU-27 in order to promote

communication around virtuous public policies and the sharing of common issues. The French

authorities have carried out extensive cooperation work with the French digital ecosystem to identify

instruments to reduce the environmental footprint of the sector, such as the general reference

framework for the ecodesign of digital services. They also shared two additional best practices. First,

the Alt IMPACT Communication Campaign which aims at raising public awareness about the

environmental impact of digital technologies and promote sobriety; and second, the development and

availability of product category rules for environmental evaluation and labelling to ensure the

comparability and robustness of environmental information provided to consumers.

France also participates in the Digital Skills cluster, presenting the measure on digital counsellors who

are professionals that help people develop basic digital skills.

Smart territories and cities and other initiatives use digital for more sobriety.

Based on the

French

model for smart territories,

several actions have been implemented on the ground such as the use of

frugal AI, energy consumption reduction with digital, or the use of low-energy digital solutions (some

application only require minimal technologies and performances). More generally, the deployment of

Fibre in the whole country also participates to the reduction of energy use of the digital sector.

According to the Digital Decade Eurobarometer 2025, 72% of French people consider digital

technologies important to help fight climate change, while 80% of French respondents think that

ensuring that digital technologies serve the green transition should be an important action for public

authorities.

2024 recommendation on green ICT:

(i) Develop a coherent approach to twinning the digital and

green transitions. First, promote improvements in energy and material efficiency of digital

infrastructures, in particular datacentres. Second, support the development and deployment of

digital solutions that reduce the carbon footprint in other sectors, such as energy, transport,

buildings, and agriculture, including the uptake of such solutions by SMEs.

(ii) Demonstrate leadership and continue monitoring and quantifying the emission reductions of

the deployed digital solutions in line with the relevant EU guidance and with the support of the

methodology developed by the European Green Digital Coalition, in view of future policy

development, as well as of attracting relevant financing.

France addressed fully the recommendation by putting significant policy actions into place in

2024.

The three additional measures in the adjusted roadmap contribute to reduce the footprint of the

ICT sector while reinforcing the leadership role of France in this domain. It adds up to three other

measures on green ICT from the original roadmap.

Under the measure ‘2030 acceleration strategy for eco-responsible, competitive and sovereign

digital technology’ (from the original roadmap), the call for projects ‘ECONUM’ aims to bring out

innovative projects to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology. Several awards were

selected in 2024.

To better monitor and quantify emission reductions, France will propose a dedicated reduction

trajectory for the ICT sector in its national low carbon strategy in 2025, associated with coherent

measures and policies.

On reinforcing leadership, France participates to the Digital Decade’s best practice accelerator as a

leader for sharing information on the digital environmental transition. The French national

regulatory authority (ARCEP) also

co-chairs the BEREC’s working group on ‘Sustainability’.

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Annex I

–

National roadmap analysis

France’s national Digital Decade strategic roadmap

France submitted a fully revised national Digital Decade roadmap on 3 February 2025, containing

six additional measures and revised trajectories.

The updates clearly align with the new

Commission’s priorities on AI, cybersecurity and green ICT. It includes reporting on the stakeholder

consultation. However, while the AI measures presented could partly contribute to the digitalisation

of SMEs, it lacks additional targeted measures to support them.

The new roadmap addresses a substantial number of the 2024 roadmap recommendations.

•

Provide a target and trajectory for edge node, design a trajectory for unicorns, and

formalise the trajectory for FTTP.

The new roadmap now includes a trajectory for unicorns

and while not presented in the roadmap, the VHCN trajectory is still considered identical to

the FTTP one. France argues that trajectories for edge nodes (as well as for semiconductor

and quantum) are better placed at EU level and therefore does not present any national

trajectories.

Consider aligning the level of ambition of the targets for the uptake of three technologies

by enterprises (AI, cloud, data analytics) to the EU’s targets.

France has revised downward

the target on adoption by enterprises of either AI, cloud or data analytics to 65%, arguing it

is a more realistic target. While it could be justified by a modest starting point, it has a heavy

impact on reaching the target of 75% at the EU level by 2030. Individual trajectories for the

three technologies were removed.

Strengthen the measures contributing to targets that are the most difficult to achieve,

especially on the skills and digitalisation of enterprises.

Two new measures on AI were

added for adoption by enterprises. None on digital skills.

Review the budget description of all measures presented, highlighting EU funding sources

such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The measure ‘Digital Health Acceleration

Strategy Programme’ saw its budget revised upward from EUR 718 m to 750 m. It is not

clear if the EU funding is reported for each measure since RRF contributes to funding France

2030 strategies or the plan ‘France

très haut débit’

and it does not appear as such in the

roadmap.

Provide more information on the implementation of digital rights and principles (and

Digital Decade general objectives), including what national measures contribute to it.

While a systematic contribution to the digital rights and principles was not carried out, the

roadmap clearly reinforces the contribution of France to the Digital Decade objectives of

green ICT and cybersecurity.

Report on the consultation of stakeholders in the roadmap.

The new roadmap now

includes reporting on the stakeholder consultation.

•

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Measures and budget in the national roadmap

The revised roadmap continues to prioritise semiconductors, connectivity, and e-Health. It is

composed of 33 measures with a budget of EUR 18.6 bn, comprising EUR 11.1 bn from public

budgets (equivalent to 0.38% of GDP). It covers all of the Digital Decade’s objectives such as a

human-centred digital space, resilience and security, sovereignty, green, and protection of society.

Annex II

–

Factsheet on multi-country

projects (MCPs) and funding

Multi-country projects and best practices

France is hosting the Alliance for Language Technologies EDIC (ALT-EDIC) which gathers 26 members

states and is candidate to host two more EDICs in the making, in the area of agri-food and digital

commons. France is also a member of the Local Digital Twins towards the CitiVERSE EDIC. In addition,

France is working towards setting up an EDIC in the area of cancer imaging. France is directly

participating in the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies (IPCEI-ME/CT) and in

the IPCEI on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS). It is also a participating state

in the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) and of the Chips JU.

France has contributed to the Best Practice Accelerator, leading the GreenIT cluster by sharing three

best practices (General Policy Framework for the Ecodesign of Digital Services, Alt IMPACT

Communication Campaign, and Development and availability of Product Category Rules for

environmental evaluation and labelling). France also shared one best practice (Digital advisors) in the

Digital Skills cluster.

When referring to national roadmaps, data used in this report are those declared by the Member States in their national

roadmaps, on the basis of the Commission’s guidance (C(2023) 4025 final). Data might reflect possible variations in reporting

practices and methodological choices across Member States. No systematic assessment of the extent to which Member

States followed the guidance was carried out.

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EU funding for digital policies in France

France allocates 22% of its total recovery and resilience plan to digital (EUR 8.1 billion)

. In addition,

under cohesion policy, EUR 1.9 billion (representing 11% of the country’s total cohesion policy funding),

is dedicated to advancing France’s digital transformation

. According to JRC estimates, EUR 8.95 billion

directly contribute to achieving Digital Decade targets (of which EUR 7.73 billion comes from the RRF

and EUR 1.22 billion from cohesion policy funding)

.The largest digital measure of the recovery and

resilience plan is targeted to the modernisation of the public health sector (EUR 2 billion). The measure

‘Innovating for the resilience of our business models’ (EUR 1.8 billion) supports R&D in key digital

technologies such as 5G, cloud, quantum, cybersecurity and digital skills. The high-speed broadband

plan (‘France

Très Haut Débit’)

receives EUR 240 million from the RRF.

The Digital Decade-relevant budget from cohesion policy funds focuses on enterprises.

The share of financial allocations that contribute to digital objectives has been calculated using Annex VII to the Recovery

and Resilience Facility Regulation. Last data update: 16 May 2025.

This amount includes all investment specifically aimed at or substantially contributing to digital transformation in the 2021-

2027 Cohesion policy programming period. The source funds are the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion

Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, and the Just Transition Fund.

Joint Research Centre, Nepelski, D. and Torrecillas, J. Mapping EU level funding instruments 2021-2027 to Digital Decade

targets

–

2025 update, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2025, JRC141966. Last data update: 10

March 2025.

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Annex III

–

Digital Rights and Principles

Activity on Digital Rights and Principles

(figure 1)

France has been relatively active in implementing digital rights and principles,

with 53 initiatives

overall. No information is available on new initiatives launched in 2024.

France is most active in the

area of Participation in the digital public space

(IV). There is room for improvement, especially with

regards to Digital public services online (II) where less activity has been identified.

Impact of Digital Rights Initiatives

(figure 2)

Quantitative impact indicators, developed by the support study, illustrate the level of implementation

of digital rights initiatives on the ground. Based on available data, they estimate the impact of

measures implemented by key stakeholders in France (mainly national government) and how these

are perceived by citizens.

The indicators suggest that

France is most successful in implementing commitments related to

Putting people at the centre of the digital transformation

(I). France should review and strengthen

efforts in areas where the impact of digital rights initiatives appears to be limited despite relative

activity, notably on Safety, security and empowerment (V).

According to the Special Eurobarometer 'Digital Decade 2025’,

37% of citizens in France think that

the EU protects their digital rights well

(a 2% decrease since 2024). This is below the EU average of

44%. Citizens are particularly confident about getting basic and advanced digital education, training

and skills (63%, above the EU average of 60%). They are most worried that their right to a safe digital

environment and content for children and young people is not well protected (47%, below EU average

of 48%).

Based on a study to support the Monitoring of the Implementation of the Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles,

available

here.

For a more detailed country factsheet accompanying the study, click

here