Major success as Member States and Competent Authorities gather in Vilnius, Lithuania
18 April 2025 | 3 minutes read
On 3-4 April 2025, representatives of 22 EU Member States gathered to accelerate the onboarding of national competent authorities to the Once-Only Technical System. The event brought together over 200 professionals, with over 80 of them representing national authorities connecting to the System, notably authorities providing services in the population, education, and business domains. The overwhelming majority of these were from the Nordic/Baltic region.
The Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) is essential to simplifying the Single Market as it creates a seamless cross-border experience for citizens and businesses by removing the burden of manually searching for, identifying, and submitting official data to complete administrative procedures. Instead of searching for their data and navigating several complex websites to get it, or needing to install yet another app, individuals and businesses can simply give their explicit request for the secure exchange of data between public authorities via an existing public service website in question (no new website or app required).
The onboarding of competent authorities to the Once-Only Technical System continues to be a major strategic focus in 2025. This is a fundamental step in delivering an effective technical system that will reduce the cross-border administrative burden for European citizens and businesses and help optimise cross-border procedures.
‘Europe goes Once-Only - Lithuania edition’ was essential to engage with competent authorities and help them connect to the Once-Only Technical System.
Two-day workshops in the population, education and business domains explored in depth the challenges facing competent authorities connecting to the system and explored ways forward. A ‘newcomers’ track offered an introduction to Once-Only and a ‘Go-Live’ track charted the next-steps towards the first transactions utilising the System. A panel discussion looked specifically at national onboarding strategies and best-practices.
The event concluded that understanding the requirements for Once-Only procedures at the mapping of the respective evidence remains the main challenge. The successful onboarding of competent authorities requires a focus on people and processes, rather than technology or legal issues, and that high-level political support is essential to a successful roll-out of the System. In this spirit, Lukas Savickas, Minister, Ministry of Economy and Innovation (Lithuania), Mark Beamish, Deputy Head of Unit for Digital Transformation of Industry and Caroline Corneau, IT Project Officer for Building Blocks & Innovative Solutions (European Commission) gave keynote speeches.
You can see the event agenda and photos on the event page(opens in a new tab).
You can learn more about the Once-Only Technical System and how it will make the Single Market simpler and more efficient via the Once-Only hub(opens in a new tab).