OECD recommends streamlining and improving services through Once-Only
27 November 2024 | 2 minutes read
In September 2024, the OECD Council on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services has recommended the adoption of the Once-Only Principle(opens in a new tab). Specifically, the OECD recommends using Once-Only to prevent unnecessary administrative burden and complexity while maintaining administrative obligations and compliance requirements which are simple by default.
The OECD Council on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services defines the Once-Only Principle as referring to the “precept of not requesting users to supply the same information more than once to any service provider at any level or branch of government, enabled by interoperable data-sharing systems and other arrangements (e.g. user’s consent to the re-use of data)”.
The European Commission promotes the adoption of Once-Only as a way of helping to automate cross-border services, reduce the administrative burden facing EU businesses and citizens and promoting a strategic move from a document-centric to a data-centric digital ecosystem.
EU Member States have endorsed the adoption of the Once-Only Principle at various occasions, including the Tallinn(opens in a new tab) and Berlin(opens in a new tab) declarations on eGovernment and digital society. Notably, in the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (EU2018/1724(opens in a new tab)) EU Member States committed to implement “a technical system for the cross-border automated exchange of evidence and application of the ‘once-only’ principle” – the Once-Only Technical System.
The Once-Only Technical System lets EU public authorities securely exchange official documents and data at the request of citizens and businesses as part of cross-border administrative procedures, e.g., when registering an address or vehicle when moving abroad. This innovative system eliminates the complicated manual search, mapping, and fetching of data between Member State authorities, improving efficiency, making people's lives easier, and reducing the costs of mobility in the Single Market.
The Once-Only Technical System is a clear example of the commitment of EU Member States and the European Commission build an innovative Single Market that is accessible to all EU citizens, either as private citizens or as businesses.
You can learn more about the OECD recommendation here(opens in a new tab) and the Once-Only Technical System here(opens in a new tab).