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Brussels Governance Monitor

Digital: bridging the digital divide and administrative simplification

Ongoing

This issue is progressing normally within the current framework.

Official source
Recently verified ·

The RPD provides for tackling the digital divide, administrative simplification via Easy Brussels and IRISbox, smart city deployment, and positioning Brussels as an AI capital.

In brief (easy read)

The Region wants to help Brussels residents use the internet better, simplify online services, and make Brussels a smart city.

Key figures

~40%of Brussels households

Population with digital difficulties

RPD commitments

The Regional Policy Declaration addresses the digital transition from several angles:

Digital divide

  • Digital inclusion plan — support for digitally disadvantaged groups (seniors, newcomers, people in precarious situations)
  • Public Digital Spaces — maintaining and strengthening the existing network
  • Digital mediation — training municipal staff and social workers

Administrative simplification

  • Easy Brussels — single digital window for regional administrative procedures
  • IRISbox — online services platform, to be modernised and expanded
  • "Only once" principle — stop asking citizens for data the administration already holds

Smart city

  • Paradigm (CIRB) — regional IT centre, smart city strategy operator
  • Open data — expansion of the regional open data portal
  • Connectivity — wifi and 5G coverage in public spaces

Brussels as AI capital

  • European positioning — attracting technology companies, in partnership with BeCentral and universities
  • AI in government — targeted experiments to improve public services

Key agencies

  • Paradigm (CIRB) — IT centre for the Brussels-Capital Region, technical operator
  • Easy Brussels — administrative simplification agency
  • IRISbox — online services platform

Sources and methodology

The commitments documented above come from the official RPD text and corroborating press sources covering the government agreement of 12 February 2026.

Inherited context (June 2024 – February 2026)

Key bodies (Paradigm/CIRB, Easy Brussels, Hub.Brussels) operated in caretaker mode, without new policy impetus.

Read full context

What this means in practice

The RPD provides for a digital inclusion plan for the ~40% of Brussels households with digital difficulties, modernisation of IRISbox and Easy Brussels, and positioning Brussels as an AI capital.

What BGM does not say

This card does not predict the effectiveness of the digital inclusion plan. It documents the RPD commitments. The digital divide is a multifactorial phenomenon that extends beyond regional policy alone.

Sources

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