European Commission praises strides towards ‘Once-Only’ in Austria and France
29 November 2022 | 4 minutes read
In Q3 2022, representatives from the European Commission presented updates on the current progress in the implementation of the Once-Only Technical System in Europe.
Mr Hubert Gambs, deputy Director-General and SME coordinator, and Mr David Blanchard, deputy Head of Unit for the digital transformation of industry in the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) presented in Austria and France respectively.
On Friday 18 November 2022, Mr Gambs noted the significant strides forward in terms of implementing the Once-Only Technical System given the complexities involved. Mr Gambs opened “The Implementation of the Once-Only Principle – in Austria and in Europe” event.
Specifically, he praised the engagement of the Austrian implementation teams with teams from other Member States in finding solutions to the technical challenges faced in building this infrastructure.
The Once-Only Technical system will connect EU public authorities, so they can exchange official documents and data at the citizen’s request. It will put into practice the Once-Only Principle, which states that citizens should not be forced to provide information to authorities if another authority already holds that information in electronic format.
When completing an online procedure, citizens will be able to give their explicit request to retrieve evidence from a competent authority in another Member State. The explicit request shall trigger the retrieval of evidence from competent authorities across many different sectors (education, transport, population or business registers etc.) through the Once-Only Technical System.
On 28 October 2022, Mr David Blanchard provided motivational remarks during the kick-off meeting for the Inter-ministerial Directorate for Digital (DINUM). The event included a presentation of the European and national context of the Once-Only Technical System and the French implementation calendar 2022-2023.
Mr Blanchard noted that the Once-Only Technical System presents an opportunity for synergies other national (and European-level) initiatives, such as "tell us only once” and generally facilitating exchanges between administrations. He concluded that the overall goal is to build a scalable and reusable system.
The European Commission has recently launched the Once-Only Hub a space for national Implementers implementing this technical system.