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National Once-Only journeys on show during the #5 OOTS Projectathon

5 December 2024 | 8 minutes read

From 20-22 November 2024, teams from 26 EU Member States met in Brussels for the fifth OOTS Projectathon(opens in a new tab). These large-scale testing events have proved crucial in helping EU countries swiftly progress in implementing the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS).

The Once-Only Technical System allows public authorities in the EU to securely exchange official documents and data as part of cross-border administrative procedures, e.g., when registering an address or vehicle when moving abroad – only ever at the users’ explicit request.

The adoption of Once-Only means the creation of "search-free" administrative procedures, where data comes to individuals and businesses automatically without the need to search for it online. By eliminating the need for searching, Once-Only lays the foundation for shifting from document-centric to data-centric processes, driven by strong collaboration and shared expertise between EU countries.

The #5 Projectathon concluded with 494 completed tests, consisting of higher-quality transactions than before.

Download the event report (PDF)

On 21 November 2024, an evening one-year anniversary celebration included examples of Once-Only implementations from several EU countries.

Recognising the Member States' efforts

During the first part of the evening, representatives of the European Commission’s senior management thanked the Member States for their efforts.

You are making cross-border administration easier for businesses, students, pensioners and everyone else. This brings the Single Market closer to them than ever before. This is really inspiring, and all I can do is say well done!

Veronica Gaffey, Director-General for Digital Services (DIGIT) of the European Commission

I want to acknowledge the herculean effort that has gone into making the Single Digital Gateway and Once-Only Technical System initiatives a reality. Building the OOTS, as you know very well, is no small task. The technical and administrative challenges have been titanic. And it’s all taken a huge collaborative effort.

Hubert Gambs, deputy Director-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission

Richard Sonnenschein, Director for Justice Policies in the Directorate-General for Justice (DG JUST) also spoke on the aspect of civil registries recent breakthroughs in the field of company law as relevant to the Once-Only Technical System and Single Digital Gateway.

OOTS implementation in action

During the second part of the evening, videos explained the journeys undertaken by several EU countries:

Once-Only award ceremony

Finally, during the third part of the evening, the Commission handed out awards to several Member States as tokens to note the successes in their Once-Only implementations.

  • Highest number of evidences live in the system - Austria

  • Outstanding deep dive on population requirements - Estonia

  • Pioneer for hosting a ‘Europe goes Once-Only event - Finland

  • Best in class for preparatory testing - Italy

  • Exceptional contribution to designing the OOTS user experience - Lithuania

To learn more about Once-Only, including the legal background, technical architecture, previous Projectathons and more, visit the Once-Only Hub(opens in a new tab).