Digital single gateway: easier access to online information and procedures

Coreper today endorsed an agreement between the Bulgarian presidency and European Parliament representatives to set up a single digital gateway which will provide access to online information and procedures, assistance and problem solving services to citizens and companies.

The digital single gateway will be a user-friendly single entry point to assist citizens and businesses to find the information they need on the EU internal market. It will provide full access to a wide range of online procedures to help them when they want to move, work, retire, study or when they want to establish or carry out businesses in another country. This is a major achievement within the digital single market.

Emil Karanikolov, Minister for the economy of Bulgaria

The single digital gateway will use the already established name “Your Europe” and will include a common user interface integrated into the existing Your Europe portal.

The interface will be user-friendly and available in all official EU languages.

The new gateway will integrate several networks and services that have been established at national and EU level to assist citizens and businesses in their cross-border activities. These include: European Consumer Centres, Your Europe Advice, SOLVIT, Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk, Europe Direct and Enterprise Europe Network.

The interface will ensure centralised access by EU citizens and businesses to information they need to exercise their rights to mobility in the EU, as well as to full access to online procedures in a non-discriminatory way.

A basic principle of the gateway is that if a procedure is available for a citizen of one member state it should also be equally accessible to users from other member states.

Key administrative procedures will be available online to both national and cross-border users.

These procedures cover situations which are relevant for doing business, working or studying or moving from one location to another, for example: requesting a proof of residence, applying for study loans and grants, recognition of academic titles, getting a European Health Card, registering a motor vehicle, claiming pension benefits and registering employees for pension and insurance schemes.

The new internet gateway will help reduce administrative burdens on citizens and businesses. As a general rule, the single digital gateway will apply the “once-only” principle, which means that individuals and businesses will have to supply the same information only once to public administrations.

The functioning of the gateway will be supported by technical tools developed by the Commission in cooperation with national administrations.

Next steps

The European Parliament and the Council will have to confirm the agreement formally after the summer break. The new regulation will then be published in the Official Journal of the EU.

In order to give all national, regional and local administrations more time to adapt, the target date for placing all relevant procedures online will be five years after the entry into force. However, many procedures are already available online now or will be available before that date. 

Background

On 2 May 2017, the Commission presented its proposal to develop the single digital gateway.

This initiative responds to calls by citizens and businesses for easier access to information, procedures and assistance and problem solving services.

The digital single market strategy acknowledged that the needs of citizens and businesses in their own country and across borders could be better met by extending and integrating existing European portals, networks, services and systems and by linking them to a single digital gateway.

The regulation is part of the “Compliance Package”, comprising also a proposal on the Single Market Information Tool and measures to improve SOLVIT, the free of charge assistance website for the internal market.

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