To better support people who struggle with digital tools, Belgium’s Public Action and Modernisation Minister Vanessa Matz said that she is and is preparing new measures on Friday.
According to the King Baudouin Foundation’s Digital Inclusion Barometer, 39% of people aged 16 to 74 were still digitally vulnerable in 2025. Among people aged 75 to 89, that figure rises to 81%.
Concerned by the latest Digital Inclusion Barometer, Matz said the government wanted to strengthen initiatives to help support and guide people who are less comfortable using digital services, alongside measures already being taken at different levels of government.
“At a time when digital-first has become the norm, it must not impose a double penalty on people who are already vulnerable by forcing on them technologies they do not master and which further exclude them from social and professional life,” she said.
“This barometer calls on us to keep up our efforts so that everyone can fully find their place,” she added.
A Digital Inclusion Plan is being finalised to simplify online public services, improve their accessibility and strengthen staff training.
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The Connectoo programme is already contributing to that effort, the minister said, with 3,000 public sector workers trained to better assist people with online administrative procedures.
Against that backdrop, Matz said the law adopted in July, which guarantees access to every federal administration through three non-digital alternatives — telephone, counter service and post — or through equivalent measures, was “an absolute necessity”.
