DIGITAL INCLUSION

Abstract

In 2023, the European Commission channeled the funding for European Semester 2024 to deal with the challenges facing European countries in ways that would develop their competitiveness potential. The problems pointed out are the insufficient labor market participation of women, of people with low levels of education, of disabled people – all of which are needed on the labor market. Over 20% of the population in an active age of Europe is economically inactive, including 8 million young people who are neither in employment nor in education (NEETs). These challenges face all European countries, including Bulgaria. Bulgaria needs to develop its competitiveness by the development of the skills required for the digital and green transition. Beside the obtainment of digital skills needed for better labour market position, digitalization involves the mediation of human relations in all spheres of life by the new digital technologies. People work increasingly often online, they bank online, communicate online, seek health information and obtain electronic prescriptions online, register their children on lists for kindergartens and schools likewise online. In the euphoria of the new technological transformation is easy to forget that digitalization enhances social differentiation and increases the vulnerability of certain social groups that we may define as the socially vulnerable, while digital vulnerability additionally enhances social inequalities. The reverse process, whereby socially vulnerable groups can obtain new skills and hence better possibilities for employment and for benefiting from digitalization requires the implementation of additional efforts, of policies and programs towards the digital vulnerable groups. The aim of this paper is to reveal the excluded from the digitalization, to investigate their scope and the factors for exclusion in order to give ideas for policy which are focused on the digital inclusion of everyone.