The single digital gateway

Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services

The single digital gateway will facilitate online access to the information, administrative procedures and assistance services that citizens and businesses need to live in, or carry on their business in, another EU country.

KEY POINTS

A single point of access to information, procedures and assistance services online

The single digital gateway will guide citizens and companies to information on national and EU rules, rights and procedures, and the websites where they can carry out these procedures online, and users looking for assistance will be guided towards problem-solving services.

In practical terms, a search function on the ‘Your Europe’ portal will give access to:

information — citizens will be able to easily find reliable, qualitative information on EU and national rules that apply to them when they want to exercise their internal market rights;
procedures — citizens will find out exactly how to carry out administrative procedures and what steps they need to follow;
assistance services — if users are still confused about which rules apply or have trouble with a procedure, they will be guided to the most suitable EU or national assistance service to solve their problem.

The quality, user-friendliness and adequacy of the information provided by the European Commission and by authorities in EU countries will be monitored on the basis of user feedback.

Digitised administration

The regulation establishing the gateway also requires that more administrative procedures will be available online than at present, to both users in their own country and cross-border users.

By December 2023 at the latest, a list of 21 important administrative procedures will be available fully online in all EU countries. These cover situations which are relevant for doing business, working or studying, or moving from one location to another. Examples include:

requesting a proof of residence;
applying for study grants;
asking for recognition of academic titles;
registering a vehicle;
getting a European Health Card;
claiming pension benefits; and
registering employees for pension and insurance schemes.

All national online procedures will have to be made fully accessible to cross-border users.

The ‘once-only principle’ (i.e. users should not have to submit to authorities documents or data already held by other authorities) will be applied to cross-border exchanges of evidence for a range of procedures. For these procedures, users will be given the option to request the direct exchange of evidence between authorities in different EU countries.

In addition, starting in December 2020, users will be able to provide feedback on problems they may come across in the single market, with a view to improving policymaking.

Implementation

The functioning of the gateway will be supported by technical tools developed by the Commission in cooperation with national administrations. A coordination group with representation from EU countries will support the regulation’s implementation, which will be reviewed every 2 years.

Background

The regulation is part of a compliance package launched in 2017, which also included a proposal for a single market information tool and improvements to SOLVIT, the free assistance service for the internal market.

It has applied since 11 December 2018.

DOCUMENTS

Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 October 2018 establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, pp. 1-38)

Commission Recommendation 2013/461/EU of 17 September 2013 on the principles governing SOLVIT (OJ L 249, 19.9.2013, pp. 10-15)

Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 2008/49/EC (‘the IMI Regulation’) (OJ L 316, 14.11.2012, pp. 1-11)

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

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, pp. 36-68)

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