Monheim Am Rhein steps up to the challenge of delivering fully digital trusted public services
The German city of Monheim Am Rhein is putting the Once Only Principle at the heart of its digital transformation strategy.
The concept paper "The Once and Only Principle implementation in the City of Monheim Am Rhein" suggests how the use the Once Only Principle is a way to boost efforts towards the digitalisation of public services in the city. Most importantly, reuse of the Once Only Principle aims to assure the city's residents that privacy and trust are not only key considerations in public service digitalisation, but are actively built into its technical and conceptual framework.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme is currently funding the implementation of key trans-European digital infrastructure, known as the CEF Building Blocks. Currently, the Once Only Principle is undergoing a preparatory action within CEF to define if this should be considered as a Building Block itself or a service within an existing Building Block.
The Monheim Am Rhein city authorities want to support their citizens through digitalising document management (such as birth certificates); the use of the city library, access to public facilities, such as the city swimming pool or e-bike rental, etc., by using smartphone apps, a smart card, and a citizen’s web portal.
Concretely, the project participants aim to implement a model in which the security risks related to replicating the storage of privacy information in more agencies’ databases, are reduced by building a single, secure and centralised storage system for citizens’ information. Put simply, the less databases used, the more secure the citizens' data. The project seeks to create a scenario in which the completion of a process between citizens and public agencies is digitally validated by the different branches of the public administration, without the need for the citizen to provide the same data on multiple occasions.
The concept paper further suggests that these efforts could be combined with the project 'MonLightGrid: The "Once & Only Principle" Implementation'. MonLightGrid is a Smart City initiative, building a Smart City-Platform based on the CEF Context Broker Building Block.
“The main pillar of this project is the experimentation of how the Once-and-only principle could be integrated in this privacy and security by design concept, possibly together with other innovative solutions, like the ones based on distributed ledger technologies, (e.g. “smart contracts”, etc.) and the Connecting Europe Facility’s “Building blocks” supporting the management of electronic identification, electronic deliveries of data and documents and context information management.” - The Once Only Principle Implementation Concept paper.
The city has elaborated an architecture based on CEF NGSI LD (FIWARE) standards, in collaboration with its research partners to build a “carbon free administration”. The concept paper explains that "tangible benefits for citizens do not only derive from the improved quality of the environment, but also from the fact that residents could be granted the right to charge their electric vehicle “cost effective” (via their “citizens” pass application or smart card), further promoting the use of non-polluting mobility across the city. The city is currently testing an autonomous driving bus service in the city center.”
The city's efforts to ensure that the security and integrity of citizen's data does not stop there. By using electronic identification means (eID) conformant to the eIDAS Regulation, allowing seamless cross-border authentication, the project increases the added value for citizens requesting and receiving services locally, removing the need to apply or present themselves in person. The project also adopts to the principle of data sovereignty, which provides usage control of data from all domains.
While the project team note the complexity of the task at hand, an adherence to principles such as the Once Only Principle and use of such European technical and legal frameworks and standards, means that Monheim Am Rhein can seek to realise very ambitious digital goals.
The Once Only Principle also enables digitalisation at a European-level. The EU Single Digital Gateway will facilitate online access to the information, administrative procedures and assistance services that citizens and businesses need to get active in another EU country. The Once Only Principle 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 member states.