Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2017)256 - Establishing a single digital gateway to provide information, procedures, assistance and problem solving services - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2017)256 - Establishing a single digital gateway to provide information, procedures, assistance and problem solving services. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2017)256  |
| date | 02-05-2017 |
1. CONTEXTOFTHEPROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
The Single Market is one of Europe’s key achievements and it plays a central role for the economy of the European Union. The Single Market makes it possible for people, goods, services and capital to move more freely, thereby creating new opportunities for citizens, workers, consumers and businesses that in turn translate into new jobs and sustainable growth for Europe. The need to complete the Single Market has repeatedly been reaffirmed by the
European Council1.
Achieving a deeper and fairer internal market is one of the 10 key priorities of the Juncker Commission, together with the development of the Digital Single Market. The present initiative, which delivers a key action set out in the Single Market Strategy adopted by the Commission in November 2016, is at the crossroads of these priority areas. The objective is to take full advantage of the advantages offered by new digital tools to help businesses seize the opportunities of a market of 500 million citizens to travel, work and study in any EU country.
Significant obstacles exist for both citizens and businesses interested in moving to, selling products or providing services in another EU country. Finding relevant, accurate and understandable information online as well as being able to access and carry out administrative procedures online is crucial for those willing to use the advantages of the Single Market, but often remains complicated, time-consuming and expensive, if at all possible.
Citizens and businesses need to comply with national rules whenever they travel, work, live or do business across borders. It is therefore essential that they are informed about applicable rules, that they can find the appropriate assistance services and that they do not encounter any unnecessary obstacles when dealing with national administrations to ensure that they comply with the relevant rules.
Even if online procedures are available for citizens in their home country, it is very often the case that these procedures are not readily available to EU citizens from others Member States.
More generally, significant benefits to all Europeans can result from an open, efficient and inclusive public administration oriented towards ambitious e-government approaches, providing borderless, personalised, user-friendly, end-to-end digital public services. This has considerable impact for citizens' lives and businesses' activities both in their country and across borders. However, citizens and businesses are not yet getting the full benefit from digital services that should be available seamlessly across the EU. Digital technologies as an integrated part of the modernisation of the public administration can deliver significant economic and social benefits for European citizens and for society as a whole.
The digital transformation of government is a key element to the success of the Single Market.
The single digital gateway will address these needs. It ensures centralised access for EU citizens and businesses to all the information necessary when using their rights to mobility in the EU. It also ensures full access to online procedures in a non-discriminatory way (if a procedure is available for a national of a specific Member States, it should also be accessible
1 See for example Conclusions of 9 March 2017.
to users from other Member States). It also imposes on Member States an obligation to create full online access to the most important and most often used procedures. It includes a strong incentive to Member States to adopt ambitious cross-border and national e-government strategies, so EU citizens and business can benefit fully from the available technological developments.
Digitisation has indeed radically increased the potential to shorten the time and lower the cost of obtaining information and carrying out administrative procedures. Today's citizens and businesses expect public administrations to offer as user-friendly and intuitive online solutions as those existing for transactions with the private sector.
Faster, cheaper, more user-oriented digital public services contribute to competitiveness and make the EU a more attractive place to live, work and invest in. Finding relevant, accurate and understandable information online as well as the possibility to access and carry out administrative procedures online is crucial, both for individual citizens and for businesses.
Firms commonly spend a sizable part of their human resources on familiarising themselves with applicable rules and procedures required to exercise their activity. Large firms may employ dedicated staff to gather information and fulfil the relevant procedures. For SMEs and start-ups this may constitute a significant barrier. A recent study has quantified that businesses would save EUR 170 million annually if eight key procedures were available fully online, also for cross-border users. A recent study2 has quantified that, if high-quality and very accessible information was available online, businesses could save between EUR 11 and 55 billion annually when researching nine business topics before engaging in cross-border activities. In a Single Market of 28 Member States, the costs of gathering information rise rapidly and disproportionately affect smaller businesses, often discouraging them from exploring opportunities outside of their home market.
Likewise, for citizens the difficulty to obtain accurate and timely information increases in a cross-border context on basic practical issues, such as how to register as a resident, have qualifications recognised, enrol children at school, register a car, receive pensions, etc.
Furthermore, businesses and citizens expect and are entitled to obtain information which is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Responses have to be timely and operational to be really useful. In addition, accessibility of information in different languages is particularly important for cross border activities.
Finding clear and comprehensive information about the applicable requirements is only a first step. Administrative procedures have to be completed in order to comply with them. Digitising key procedures reduces compliance costs and increases the rate of compliance with the applicable regulations.
Specific practical obstacles reported by European citizens and businesses need to be addressed regarding access to online procedures and information from another Member State, Some notable examples are the unavailability of information and forms in more languages, use of form fields only accepting national data, acceptance of national means of identification only, and accepting payment of fees or reimbursements only by national payment systems.
Study on information and assistance needs of businesses operating cross-border within the EU, Final Report, April 2017.
2
Another significant and frequently reported stumbling block concerns the cross-border transmission of supporting evidence as part of a procedure. Member States often require certified (translated) and authenticated documents or data, notably from non-domestic applicants. Some Member States have already implemented their own national once-only solutions, whereby data is exchanged internally between national base registries but the digitisation process is not yet complete. Moreover these exchanges are not possible cross-border at present.
Lastly, 92% of consumers and businesses are unaware of any online services at European level that they could turn to in case of problems. The level of take-up of these services is low at present. Services are fragmented, of uneven quality and often lack user feedback mechanisms.
The EU has already taken a number of steps to address all these matters in the past, although mostly from a sectorial perspective, such as the establishment of one-stop shops in the services area (Points of Single Contact), in the goods area (Product Contact Points and Construction Products Contact Points), for professional qualifications (Professional Qualifications Assistance Centres), consumer concerns (Consumer Centres), etc. These services are usually not inter-linked and their narrow focus means that users are mostly not aware of them and may not find them in case of need. The current offer of online information, assistance services and online procedures for citizens and businesses lacks a clear focus on
users’ needs.
The need to address the above mentioned issues in a systematic and effective way has been frequently raised and has a strong support with citizens, businesses and Member States:
• The 2014 Report of the High Level Group on Business Services3, European Parliament resolutions and various Commission communications called for a more comprehensive, user friendly package of information and assistance to help businesses navigate the Single Market. They have suggested improved versions of existing platforms and contact points, or proposed more radical mergers of all of these into a single one-stop shop.
• The March 2015 Competitiveness Council conclusions on Single Market policy
called for a political commitment ‘to strengthen and streamline Single Market tools (…) in order to better meet the needs of businesses and citizens in their cross-border activities’. This call was reiterated by the Competitiveness Council of February 2016,
which, in addition, welcomed the concept of a single digital gateway, which would in particular address the needs of start-ups .
• The Commission's Digital Single Market Strategy and Single Market Strategy of 2015 announced the intention to address the above mentioned issues through a single digital gateway, which features prominently also in the eGovernment Action Plan , setting out actions to accelerate the digital transformation of public services.
• In January 2016, the European Parliament called for the development of a comprehensive single digital gateway as a single end-to-end digital process for
‘EU eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 Accelerating the digital transformation of government’ Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM(2016)0179 final.
businesses to set up and operate across the EU, from the online set up of the business, domain names, the exchange of compliance information, recognition of e-invoices, filing taxes, a simplified online VA T scheme, online information on product compliance, posting of workers, consumer rights, access to consumer and business networks, notification procedures and dispute settlement mechanisms.
• In June 2016, the REFIT Platform (consisting of representatives of businesses, social partners, civil society and Member States) issued an opinion recommending the establishment of a single entry point with clear information and coordinated services for businesses in each Member State to assist companies operating in the Single Market, and the definition of minimum common quality criteria for the content, functioning and level of integration of each portal with the single digital gateway.
• Finally, the EU Citizenship report 2017, published in January 2017, considers the single digital gateway as a priority for EU Citizenship.
This initiative responds to these calls for action with a high degree of ambition. It aims at significantly improving the online availability, quality and accessibility of information, assistance services and procedures which are relevant for citizens and businesses in the EU, all to more so when they want to operate and move within the Single Market. It is based on close cooperation between the Commission and Member States for an effective, step by step implementation of the various requirements of the project.
The Commission and the Member States will be in charge of providing information relating to the rules, rights and obligations in the key areas identified in this regulation.
In addition, Member States will be required to offer a number of key procedures fully on-line and to make them fully accessible for cross-border EU users according to an agreed timetable. This will significantly reduce administrative burden and eliminate the disproportionate hurdles faced by EU citizens and businesses from a different Member State to comply with the rules applicable in other Member States.
In turn, facilitating compliance will benefit public authorities by generating efficiencies. A comprehensive move to online procedures will contribute to the modernisation of the public administration and generate major cost savings, as reported by several Member States following their national digi tali satio n projects . This requirement does not affect in any way existing substantive rules and requirements but increases their transparency and facilitates compliance with national and EU rules and procedures.
Information, assistance services and online procedures will be subject to clear and operational quality criteria. In particular, information in at least one official language of the Union in addition to the national language or where applicable, national languages, will be made available to citizens and businesses. Specific mechanisms will be put into place to ensure that the design of the single digital gateway is user centric, including the collection of the feedback from users.
The effective implementation of the single digital gateway will be ensured by the creation of a coordination group which will be a forum for cooperation between the Commission and the Member States. By significantly improving the user experience, the initiative will greatly improve citizens and businesses confidence in the Single Market. Digitisation of procedures
5 See Chapter 6.2.3 of the Impact Assessment.
and provision of accurate and reliable information as well as easier access to assistance services will smoothen cross-border exchanges, generate efficiencies and reduce red tape, thereby contributing to the creation of new job opportunities and growth.
Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
(a) Access to online information
The Services Directive6
already created a right to obtain information for both providers and recipients of services: information e.g. on the requirements applicable to service providers in every Member State has to be made accessible online through the points of single contact. The Charter for the electronic Points of Single Contacts under the Services Directive, endorsed by the Council in 2013, encouraged Member States to take a user centric approach to providing information through the PSCs, so that all areas of importance for businesses also regarding VAT, income taxes, social security or labour law requirements are covered.
Your Europe, the e-Justice Portal, the VAT Information Portal and the European network of employment services (EURES) already provide extensive information related to citizens’, businesses', workers' and consumers’ rights and obligations in the Single Market and in the area of justice.
This proposal builds on these existing services: Member States will have to provide reliable, clear and comprehensible online information on rules and requirements existing in their jurisdiction to citizens and businesses who want to make use of their Single Market rights. It does not affect in any way the substantive provisions of the policy areas for which information needs to be provided, but only requires Member States to create full transparency about applicable rules.
(b) Access to assistance and problem solving services
Different contact points and problem solving mechanisms have been established on the basis of EU acts to help citizens and businesses to exercise their rights in the Single Market. This initiative will address the current fragmentation and lack of awareness by making assistance and problem solving services more findable, accessible, and by ensuring that any services available through the gateway respect certain minimum quality standards.
(c) Access to online procedures
Under the Services Directive, Member States have to ensure that all procedures and formalities relating to access and the exercise of a service activity may be completed online through the relevant Points of Single Contact or with the relevant competent authorities (Article 8). The Professional Qualifications Directive7 (Article 57a) lays down the same obligation in relation to the completion of requirements, procedures and formalities relating to matters covered by this Directive.
This proposal enhances the Single Market dimension of online procedures already established by Member States on the basis of these Directives or any other relevant national or EU law, by requiring Member States to make it possible to access such procedures fully also by
Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 36).
Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications (OJ L 255, 30.9.2005, p. 22–142).
6
citizens and businesses users from other Member States and by laying down the main conditions to ensure such cross border accessibility.
Furthermore, this initiative requires Member States to ensure that key procedures of general relevance for citizens and businesses identified by this regulation are accessible fully online, also by cross border users. It also ensures that on the request of users, evidence can be exchanged electronically between the concerned authorities in different Member States.
Among these procedures, the registration of business activity is one of particular relevance for businesses. It should not, however, cover the procedures leading to the constitution of companies or firms as legal entities. As announced in the Single Market Strategy8 and the eGovernment Action Plan, the Commission has included in its Work Programme for 20179 an initiative to address in a comprehensive manner the facilitation of digital solutions throughout a company's lifecycle, including procedures for online registration of business activity. The Commission is currently undertaking its preparatory work on this company law initiative and it is envisaged that the relevant online procedures will be linked to the gateway upon being established on the basis of the company law initiative.
This Regulation will require, in relation to certain key procedures, full digitisation of the “front office” (the interface between citizens or businesses on the one hand and national administrations on the other, can be just an online form to fill in). It will not affect the functioning of the “back office" (the further steps of the relevant procedure within and between national administrations) nor the substance of any procedure established at national level, i.e. the different steps or the competences of relevant national or sub-national authorities. The necessary adjustments which will have to be made, as a result of this initiative, will only relate to the process of the digitisation of the procedures and to the elimination of the obstacles to their access by cross-border users.
The access to online procedures and the digitisation of procedures will be supported by the eIDAs Regulation10 which requires Member States to recognise, by September 2018, eIDs notified by other Member States. This will take away one of the current obstacles for users to access e-procedures in other Member States.
• Consistency with other Union policies
This initiative contributes to the Digital Single Market strategic objective of modernising the public administration, achieving cross-border interoperability and facilitating easy interaction with citizens, also reflected in the e-Government Action Plan It is in line with the Commission’s digital transformation objective of creating a streamlined web presence and avoiding further fragmentation caused by new portals and contact points. It is in line with the recommendations of the European Interoperability Framework.
The proposal contributes to the implementation of the start-up and scale-up initiative, which promotes the growth of firms by improving the business environment and cutting red tape.
8
“Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business” Communication from the
and the Committee of the Regions, 28.10.2015, COM(2015) 550 final.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/work-programme-2017_en
electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and
repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73–114).
SMEs, in particular, those trading across borders will benefit from lower costs relating to information searches — relatively more so than large firms. They will also benefit from the more uniform quality of available online information, assistance and procedures. Those trading across borders will benefit from online access to procedures that are important for them. In addition, SMEs will find it easier to identify procedures about the Single Market and thus enter new EU markets. Thanks to easier access to assistance and problem solving services and a special user feedback tool they will be able to signal problems with rules and public authorities in an easy and intuitive way in all EU languages.
The following ongoing or planned initiatives at the EU level are of im portance for the single digi tal gateway as they will help to achieve either the information coverage or the digitisation of procedures:
• European Interoperability Framework (EI F): by supporting enhanced interoperability between public administrations across Europe, it will increase the level of interconnection of public services.
• Core Public Services Vocabulary (CPSV), a common data model for describing key business events and public services. Its use by Member States when designing or updating their websites could facilitate translation of content as well as the development of the Single Digital Gateway search tool, thereby improving findability of information, procedures and assistance services.
• Business Registers Interconnection Syste m (B R IS) 11 - will ensure access at EU level to information on companies registered in the Member States and the exchange of information between different registers (operational by June 2017);
• Electronic Interconnection of EU Insolvency Registers - will enhance (as of 2019) the effective administration of cross-border insolvency proceedings;
• European Services e-Card - Commission Proposal adopted in January 201712. It foresees a simplified electronic procedure for providers of certain business and construction services who intend to provide their services in another Member State; core elements of this procedure is the communication between home and host authorities;
• European Single Procurement Document (ESPD)13 is a self-declaration of compliance with requirements related to public procurement procedures. Its electronic version has the potential to become a key building block of the implementation of the once-only-principle in public procurement;
• The planned company law initiative to facilitate digital solutions throughout a company's li fecycle as referre d to in the 2017 Com missi on Work Programme;
• The planned extension of the Mini one-stop shop for VAT;
Directive 2012/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 amending
Council Directive 89/666/EEC and Directives 2005/56/EC and 2009/101/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council as regards the interconnection of central, commercial and companies
registers (OJ L 156, 16.6.2012, p. 1–9).
ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/20813
for the European Single Procurement Document (OJ L 3, 6.1.2016, p. 16–34).
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• Actions concerning the once-only principle as part of the e-Governm ent Acti on Plan
will facilitate the sharing of information and data between Member States administrations. A first step in this direction will be a large-scale pilot project on business cases and an assessment of its feasibility for citizens.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
Legal basis
Articles 21(2), 48 and 114 (1) TFEU are relevant for this proposal on approximation of laws. Pursuant to Article 26(2), the internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties. Article 21(2) TFEU introduces a legal basis for the adoption of rules to facilitate the exercise by citizens of the Union of the rights referred to in Article 21(1). Article 48 provides for a legal basis for the adoption of measures in the field of social security which are necessary to provide freedom of movement for workers. Article 114 provides for a legal basis, save where otherwise provided in the Treaties for the adoption of measures for the purpose of achieving the objectives set out in article 26 TFEU.
This proposal aims at enabling citizens and businesses easy access to the information, procedures and assistance and problem solving services they need for the exercise of their rights in the internal market. To that aim, this proposal establishes a single digital gateway in which the Commission and the competent authorities would play an important role in achieving the above objectives. The initiative only aims at eliminating discrimination and reducing additional administrative burden on citizens and businesses that operate or want to operate in other Member States in full compliance with national rules and procedures, as well as eliminating discrimination in full compliance with national rules and procedures. It does not affect the substa nce of or com petence regarding any such rules or procedures.
Since the initiative pursues a threefold purpose and the components concerning free movement of citizens, social security and the aim of achieving the internal market and ensure its functioning in regard to provision of information, procedures and assistance and problem solving services cannot be considered merely incidental, the initiative should be based on Articles 21(2), 48 and 114 (1) TFEU.
Subsidiarity
The main objective of this proposal is to improve the functioning of the Single Market for all EU citizens and businesses. The Single Market is not an area with fully harmonised rules. Beyond the basic principles and the areas in which fully harmonised rules were agreed, citizens and businesses will still need to comply with national rules whenever they travel, work, live or do business across borders. Therefore it is essential for the functioning of the Single Market that citizens and businesses can easily find out what these rules are in any of the Member States other than their own. It is equally essential that the procedures for compliance with such rules should not entail a significant additional regulatory burden for foreign users as compared with domestic users.
These objectives cannot be achieved sufficiently without action at EU level. The current system of information and assistance services lacks coherence since the instruments, which were created by EU level action, are not sufficiently linked up nor sufficiently user-friendly. A common approach to ensuring quality through minimum quality standards is missing. Whilst the legal framework promotes synergies, these have not been sufficiently exploited by the Member States (in the absence of binding obligations).
Given the transnational nature of the Single Market and the necessity to address the current situation in a cross-border context, EU action will be most effective in reducing the costs that EU citizens and businesses need to incur when they engage in cross-border activities.
• Proportionality
This proposal strikes a careful balance between, on the one hand, the need to leave ownership and responsibility for supplying national information, national procedures and assistance and problem solving services with the Member States, and on the other hand the need to address the obstacles that have occurred over time for citizens and businesses trying to exercise their Single Market rights.
The measures foreseen in this Regulation do not extend beyond what is necessary to solve the identified problems and to achieve the identified objectives. The initial investment costs related to the extension of information coverage, translations or establishing online procedures can be mitigated through the use of EU funds. Furthermore, these initial costs will be compensated by savings incurred by business and the national administration alike, in the longer term.
This Regulation does not entail any additional obligations for citizens and businesses, as the use of the single digital gateway is entirely voluntary.
• Choice of the instrument
This Regulation is based on Articles 21(2) in view of the provisions relating to the free movement of citizens, Article 48 for the provisions on digitalising certain procedures relating to social security and 114 (1) TFEU for all other provisions aimed at improving the functioning of the Single Market by giving better, cross-border access to information, assistance, problem solving services and e-procedures. Building on these Treaty provisions, the Proposal also approximates legislation of Member States regarding the quality of these services offered to citizens and business operating cross-border.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER
Contents
- CONSULTATIONS
- Final Report of the High Level Group on Business Services, April 2014
- 9 10
- Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee
- Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on
- 12 13
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/7 of 5 January 2016 establishing the standard form
- Article 10 establishes general quality
- Article 13 specifies quality criteria related to the
ANDIMPACTASSESSMENTS
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
The ex-post evaluation of the existing (regulatory and non-regulatory) framework relevant to the single digital gateway has pointed to a number of problems that concern the individual services, as well as their lack of effectiveness, efficiency and coherence as a package of Single Market services for citizens and businesses.
The effectiveness of existing services is undermined by their lack of visibility and findability online, a generalised lack of quality and their consequent under-use. A majority of consumers and businesses are unaware of the existence of any online assistance services at European level.
Cross-border accessibility remains limited, as national-level information is often patchy or only available in the national language and procedures that are online for national users, can often not be carried out online by foreign users. Moreover, the level of quality and user-centricity is quite divergent across services.
For services created through binding EU law, quality criteria have proven to be too general (Points of Single Contact) or hardly exist (Products Contact Points). Additional voluntary quality criteria (Charter for PSCs) have had limited success. For services created through non-binding EU law and managed by the Commission (SOLVIT, Your Europe) quality criteria have been agreed, but due to their voluntary nature some Member States are fully on board, others are not. As a consequence, access to these services for foreign users is still limited and patchy.
EU-level assistance services are considered cost efficient when taking into account the savings and other benefits these services provide to businesses and citizens as compared to much more costly private alternative services. However, national-level assistance services (PSCs, PCPs and PCPCs) are under-performing for businesses as far as their effectiveness is concerned. Moreover, the low quality of their websites represents a missed opportunity to reduce the number of requests through better online up-front information, and thus to be even more cost-efficient. There is scope for more efficiency and easier 'findability' online if the individual services promoted their services under a common brand name. This can be better achieved at EU level.
All of the instruments that were evaluated in this context were created by EU level action, but do not operate as a whole. Whilst the legal framework promotes synergies, these have not been sufficiently exploited by the Member States, notably because of the absence of binding obligations and of an overall EU-Member States governance structure that would assess and ensure consistency of all the instruments.
The underlying reasons for the under-performance of the existing services are: silo based, administration-centred approaches leading to fragmentation; EU and national level administration have designed public services to suit their own needs more than those of their users; technical solutions designed many years ago no longer reflect technical progress and best practice of today and national administrations' neglect of the non-national user.
• Stakeholder consultations
The overall consultation process on the single digital gateway started in November 2015 and closed in December 2016. It included a dedicated stakeholders' workshop, an online public consultation as well as numerous bilateral discussions with stakeholders and Member States.
(a) Workshop on the Single Digital Gateway, March 2016
Participants included representatives of the PSCs, Chambers of Commerce and national authorities. In the participants' views, many problems exist in terms of access to information, availability of e-procedures and access to assistance services. Such issues appear to be due to gaps in legislation, a lack of information or assistance as well as poor implementation by national and local authorities.
During the discussion on e-procedures participants pointed out that it is very difficult to use e-procedures across borders. Even if some Member States have made impressive progress in e-government for their own nationals, the recognition of foreign eSignature and eIDs is still very limited, making access to e-procedures for foreign users impossible.
(b) Online public consultation
In the online public consultation 367 replies were received of which 45% from businesses, 45% from citizens and 10% from public authorities.
It highlighted a strong consensus among business and citizens around the importance of the main pillars to be covered by this initiative, notably:
• the need for online information about rules and procedures in other EU countries: 93% of businesses and 92% of citizens consider it very important or important;
• access to e- proc edures: 94% of businesses and 92 % of citizens consider it very important or important;
• access to services providing assistance upon request: 88% of businesses and 87% of citizens consider it very im portant or im portant.
(c) Exchanges with stakeholders and Member States
The views of sta keholders were collected during numerous meetings and events, including the hearing 'EU Citizenship in practice' in March 2016, the Annual SME Assembly in Luxembourg in November 2015, discussion with the SME Envoys in June and October 2016 as well as discussions with several organisations representing businesses and consumers on a bilateral basis throughout 2016, such as Eu rocham bres, Eurocomm e rc e, Busin essEur ope, national chambers of commerce, CEA-PME, Startup City Alliance Europe, etc.
Various business organisations have confirmed that businesses would find it very useful if all online information tools were brought together under a single umbrella. Moreover, some encourage the development of a common architecture for information across Member States. Business stakeholders point out that the information provided needs to be sufficient to engage in cross-border activities legally, including not only detailed technical information, but also regulatory requirements applying to testing and reporting, among others. Concerning procedures, most business stakeholders argue that all procedures should be fully available online, avoiding a waste of resources in terms of time and money.
Member States have been consulted through the Expert Group on the Services Directive (including its sub-group EUGO Network), the Mutual Recognition Committee, as well as through bilateral meetings with national author ities.1 7 Member States have issued a position paper calling for a network of Digital Single Gateways (fully functioning e-government portals) to help businesses to start up, scale up and trade across borders by providing all the information needed to operate in a Member State. They also support the idea that businesses should only have to go through one digi tal process to set up and operate anywhere in the EU.
A majority of Member States stresses the importance of the quality and user-friendliness of the websites that will be part of the single digital gateway and support the proposal to use a quality label. They also support the idea that the information should be available for users in at least another commonly used EU language. Member States observed that putting procedures online requires substantial investments, which sometimes slows down their adoption. Most Member States would like to have a clear distribution of responsibilities between the national and the EU level and they would favour that content ownership and management should be a national responsibility. Most Member States would like the Commission to take a strong coordination role, aiming at the definition of objectives in terms of updates, content, usefulness, etc.
• Collection and use of expertise
A broad range of studies and surveys carried out by the EU institutions or stakeholders from 2008 to 2017, extensive consultations with experts, Member States and other stakeholders, including a dedicated workshop, offered a solid basis of expertise.
• Im pact assessment
An impact assessment was carried out in preparation of this initiative. The resubm itted report takes into account the recommendations made by the Regulatory Scrutiny Board in its initial negative opinion of 20 January 2017, as well as the additional points raised by the Board in its final positive opinion of 7 March 201 7.
Three policy options were considered in the impact assessment:
• Option 1: nationally centralised business and citizens portals, prescribing a central information structure via single portals on national and EU level, but taking a soft law approach with regard to the rollout of online procedures. No EU solution is foreseen for accepting documents and data from other Member States. Each Member State should merge the three main business contact points (for services and goods).
• Option 2: EU-coordinated approach, leaving Member States free as to where they provide the required information online. They would only need to provide the links of the relevant websites to a central Commission repository, from which a common search facility would pick them up and present them to the user in reply to a search. As part of this, an assistance service finder would be developed to guide users to the right assistance service. The search facility would be limited to the gateway content, and could be integrated into EU and national information portals and webpages. This option would oblige Member States to make certain key procedures for businesses and citizens fully online, according to an agreed tim etable.
• Option 3: EU-wide fully centralised approach: providing all EU and n ational -le ve l information through a central database on the EU level. This option would prescribe putting online the same twenty core procedures as under option 2, but would foresee the establishment of a special IT tool to allow the back office cooperation of home and host country authorities to accommodate the needs (mainly in terms of submission of evidence) of the foreign user. Findability of information and procedures would be easy on the central database. A common ass istance finder (same as option 2) would help find assistance services.
Option 1 was considered an efficient solution, but not very effective due to the significant drawback of leaving the rol l -out of online procedures voluntary for the Member States, and of the lack of a common solution for the problem of cross-border use of evidence for procedures. Furthermore, the lack of findability would not be addressed sufficiently since the search facilities on the national business portals would, in principle, not cater for searches in all EU languages. Finally, the lack of a common monitoring tool for quality would make enforcement of the quality criteria more cumbersome. For these reasons, it was concluded that this option would be unlikely to sufficiently address the needs of the users.
Option 3 had by far the best scores for meeting the needs of the users. Its fully centralised approach would guarantee a harmonised way of presenting information ensuring that users can easily find the information they are looking for. Harmonised EU wide procedures would be fully accessible for cross-border users by design. However, serious drawbacks of this option are the lack of feasibility due to little support from the Member States for such a
centralised approach. In addition, the overall efficiency of this option was considered not very high since it combines very high costs with significant duplication.
Option 2 was the chosen option because it provides sufficient guarantees for enforceability thanks to the use of a common user feedback tool for coverage and quality monitoring. The chosen option is considered to be most likely to achieve the objectives efficiently and in a proportionate way, while maximising the benefits for stakeholders. The Commission and Member States will need to work very closely together for an effective, step-by-step implementation of all the different requirements of this option.
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
The Regulation will facilitate the access of firms, including SMEs to the Single Market by significantly reducing the transaction costs for providing services or selling goods in other Member States. Better access to the Single Market will lead to greater economies of scale and scope and thus enhanced firm-level competitiveness and cost efficiencies. The proposal also responds to a recent request from the REFIT platform for the establishment of a single entry point with clear information and coordinated services for businesses in each Member State, and the definition of minimum common quality criteria for the content, functioning and level of integration of each portal with the single digital gateway.
• Fundamental rights
This proposal complies with and promotes the rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States (Article 45); to study (Article 14), to seek employment, work, exercise the right of establishment and to provide services in any Member State (Article 15). The Regulation also addresses discrimination, even indirect, of nationals of other Member States in comparison with own nationals since it takes measures so that the information available through the gateway could be accessible in a language other than the national language and the online procedures should be made available for users from other Member States (Article 21(2) of the Charter and Article 18 TFEU).
4. BUDGETARYIMPLICATIONS
The costs of implementing this Regulation would be EUR 109 million of initial investment costs and around EUR 8 million of annual running costs for all Member States and the Commission together. The initial investment costs would be partially offset in one year by savings of cross-border businesses in additional translation and certification fees and consultancy costs of an estimated EUR 86 million. For the countries that have the fewest procedures online, digitalising the remaining procedures would cost EUR 6.6 million. To put this expense in context, this is about 2 to 4% of the 2014-2020 ESIF funding they have allocated to e-government.
5. OTHERELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
An implementation plan will be proposed to Member States with the detailed indication of actions which need to be carried out to ensure the timely launch of the single digital gateway. The Regulation states that an assessment report on the functioning of the single digital gateway and of identified Single Market obstacles, will be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council two years after the adoption of the Regulation and every two years thereafter. An evaluation is also planned to take place five years after the entry into force of
the Regulation. The single digital gateway coordination group, a central co-ordination body in the single digital gateway governance structure will assist the Commission in monitoring the performance of the gateway and the state of application of the Regulation.
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
Article 1 specifies the subject matter of the proposed Regulation..
Article 2 establishes the single digital gateway and defines its scope. It clarifies that the gateway provides information on internal market related rights, obligations and rules which apply to users of the gateway in the areas listed in the Annex I of the Regulation, that it provides users with information and links to procedures established in areas listed in Annex I and finally, information and access to assistance and problem solving services which help users to understand the information or complete relevant procedures, as the ones listed in Annex III and referred to in Article 6 of this Regulation.
Article 3 contains the relevant definitions for the Regulation.
Article 4 establishes obligations on Member States and the Commission in relation to the provision of information.
Article 5 reaffirms the principle on non-discrimination in relation to online procedures by requiring Member States to make existing online procedures accessible to users from other Member States. It also requires Member States to ensure that 13 procedures listed in Annex II to the Regulation can be completed fully online and clarifies the meaning of “fully online procedure”.
Article 6 allows Member States to extend the offer of assistance and problem solving services by including in the gateway services offered by private or semi-private entities, although exclusively under certain conditions.
Articles 7 to 9 specify quality criteria related to the provision of information and explanations of procedures and assistance services to which the gateway will link.
requirements related to online procedures.
Article 11 clarifies the conditions which the online procedures should meet in order to be accessible by non-national users, such as the availability of instructions in another language than the national language, the non-use of national data formats, recognition of e-ID, e-signatures and e-seals, as well as the availability of evidence in electronic format. This article provides for the use of the Internal Market Information system (IMI) to verify the authenticity of evidence.
Article 12 provides for a mechanism for the electronic exchange of evidence upon explicit request by the user. It confers power on the Commission to specify technical functionalities of such mechanism.
assistance and problem solving services.
Article 14 establishes the mechanism for the monitoring of the quality of the information, procedures and assistance services to which the gateway links. It also specifies the measures the Commission may take in order to address the quality issues.
Articles 15 to 18 specify the technical solutions which enable the gateway to serve its purpose and explain the relevant Commission and Member States responsibilities.
Articles 19 and 20 deal with the name of the gateway and establish the framework for coordinated promotion.
Articles 21 to 23 regulate the collection of statistical data, user feedback and require the Commission to create a user-friendly tool allowing users of the gateway to signal obstacles to their internal market rights.
Article 24 requires Member States to appoint national coordinators and entrusts them with specific responsibilities related to the gateway.
Article 25 establishes the gateway coordination group.
Article 26 clarifies the tasks of the gateway coordination group.
Article 27 provides for an annual work programme as a supportive tool in the implementation of this Regulation.
Article 28 deals with the costs related to the development, maintenance, promotion of the gateway and the translation of information on national websites.
Article 29 specifies the requirements in relation to the processing of personal data within the framework of this Regulation.
Article 30 lays down modalities for the cooperation between the gateway and information and assistance networks established by Union law.
Article 31 explains the relationship between this Regulation and other Union acts.
Article 32 allows the use of IMI for the purpose of this Regulation.
Article 33 requests the Commission to periodically report to the European Parliament and the Council on the functioning of the gateway and the internal market.
Article 34 regulates the exercise of delegated powers granted to the Commission by Article 21.
Article 35 establishes the comitology committee and relates to the implementing powers this Regulation confers on the Commission.
Article 36 provides for the amendment to Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 on IMI.
Article 37 deals with the entry into force and application of this Regulation.
Annex I lists the areas of information which are relevant for citizens and businesses exercising their internal market rights referred to in Article 2(2)(a).
Annex II provides for a list of procedures which users should be able to complete fully online, as provided for in Article 5(2).
Annex III lists the assistance and problem solving services which should be accessible through the gateway as laid down in Article 2(2)(c).