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In Europe, the digital single market is seen as the ground for the future progress of countries. Having in mind the advantages of digital trade and business which are being pursued in other parts of the world, the digital single market is imposed as a global goal. As a consequence of digital transformations, due to different degrees of information and communication technologies acceptance and implementation, differences between countries, regions, or individuals occur. Reducing the digital divide between all categories, especially in urban and rural populations, contributes transition to a single market. In order to contribute to this goal, the European Commission regularly monitors the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the differences between the levels of the digital economy and society in the countries of Southeast Europe. Seven countries were selected and ranked according to key DESI indicators using the integrated AHP-TOPSIS methodology. The results show that the digital economy and society level in Southeast Europe is generally lower than the European Union average. In addition, the results show that the Republic of Serbia is the best ranked among the analyzed countries, even though it is not a member of the EU, but invests significant efforts in the development and implementation of digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitization is one of the key development priorities for the European Union, which also applies to three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the Baltic States in the fields of connectivity, digital technology use and e-government. Unfortunately, the progress was different in each of the Baltic States, and there were also serious shortcomings in all the states, e.g. concerning human capital. However, unlike Lithuania, the business sectors of Latvia and Estonia still lagged behind the EU average not only in terms of digital technology integration but also in terms of human capital. Almost half of the population still lacked basic digital skills, and the number of trained ICT professionals lagged behind the growing demand in the labor market. Among all the fields, the Baltic States achieved the best performance in e-government. The progress was driven by the increasing number of citizens actively using e-government services and the increasing availability of auto-completed forms and open data. These problems have been analyzed in the paper by employing the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) index. The European Commission has introduced the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) since 2014 to yearly evaluate the evolution of five key dimensions of the Digital Economy in EU member states. Each dimension reflects a relevant policy area: Connectivity, Human Capital, Use of Internet (citizens), Integration of Digital Technology (businesses), and Digital Public Services. European Commission data for the period 2014-2019 were used for the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]