I’m curious to hear opinions on how bureaucracy/inefficiency impacts day to day life. We often hear how Western Europe is horrendous with being able to get things done efficiently- but I’m curious to hear for Europe as a whole, are there any exceptions? Would like to hear about the “less popular” expat locations in Europe.
For activities such as getting internet set up in a new flat; or having the heat break and needing the repair company to come look at it- which countries in Europe would be the most efficient?
The UK is the least bad in Western Europe. gov.uk is a good example. You can file your taxes, look op your tax record, apply for a drivers license or passport. All can be done online.
France, Spain, Germany and Italy are all bad in their own way. France is extremely random. Things are clearly explained and why you show up they will tell you you’re missing XYZ. When you tell them it isn’t said anywhere, they’d shrug and say sorry that’s unfortunate.
German bureaucracy is bad shit crazy. Everything has to be done in paper. Some departments still use fax.
Italy and Spain there’s just this general sense of chaos and inefficiency.
I believe the nordic countries specifically Denmark has the best eGoverment in Europe.
Netherlands has all you say about UK and a bit more (like your education records, property registry, list of vehicles registered to your name etc)
In general any standard procedure in the Netherlands is smooth. But I heard problems start when you want to do something not standard, that’s not covered by existing computer systems
Also Polish e-government is surprisingly good nowadays, albeit sometimes tricky to navigate
I agree about Poland, works much better and quicker than the UK equivalent, in my experience.
Good to know! I am a big fan of Poland.
It is the strength and problem of the Dutch government. There is no human dimension in the government. Computer says yes 99% of the time. But when you need a government official wehn computer says no then shit hits the fan.
Try getting a passport if you are born to a father who served overseas in the forces.
Takes at least 4 months.
Britain is the worst ever.
I’ve got the same for writing numbers in non-German way. I write 1 without left-top strike and 7 without strike in the middle. They were so furious about it.
😂 I believe you. They are insane.
Germany hands down one of the most Assbackwards on the planet
In Italy, you need to take the folder. Government bureaucrats quail before the folder.
Any folder will do, but it should have passport size photos, color copies of all official id documents (CdI, passport, TC, patente, CdS, etc), plus originals and copies of all official documents. The fatter and more paper filled the better. And it needs to have some type of closure to it to make the folder look more fancy.
Just opening the folder and shuffling documents around is usually enough to help things along.
Also, taking a baby with you gets you platinum, front of the line service.
True! I work with Americans and Canadians to have their Italian citizenship by descent recognized in Sicily. I absolutely can agree with the folder 📁. We show up with a big binder filled with documents, photos, photocopies of everything and the comuni employees love it. I’ve never had trouble with the bureaucracy in Italy employing the folder method.
And of course, making sure we are prepared by having everything they could possibly ask for in the folder. It helps to know the process and laws, but I’ve never found the Italians to be that difficult to work with.
I praise them for their accuracy- US on the other hand, what a mess. It’s the only country I know of that will let people pick and choose their name for legal documents, it’s a mess trying to reconcile 100 years of made up names and changes just because someone decided they wanted to be called Jim instead of James on their marriage license.
I’ll take Italian bureaucracy over the U.S. any day. And definitely over Spain - lived there for 2 years and got my driver’s license there, what a pain.
I have a lot of interaction with Germany professionally doing global technology deployments- when it comes time to plan out deployment for germany, everyone groans. The A4 paper story made me laugh. So real and relatable.
+1 point for your edit about the German notary, it’s true