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News article5 November 2020BrusselsDirectorate-General for Digital Services

The Once Only Principle System: A breakthrough for the EU’s Digital Single Market

once only principle

What is it?

This new OOP system will allow both citizens and businesses to carry out all their administrative procedures across the EU in a faster, simpler and smoother way. By December 2023, all Member States will have to comply with the Once Only Principle as referenced in the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR).

Tired of filling in umpteenth online forms or sending all your documents twice in two different Member States? Setting up your business, moving, registering a vehicle, studying or working abroad will soon become much simpler.

How will this concretely work?

Citizens and businesses will provide their data only once to public administrations, which will store, secure and reuse them following one of the world’s strictest data protection law.

Using this dataspace, competent authorities from a Member State will be able to send your data in real time to their counterparts in other Member States. This proves even more relevant now that we must limit our travels.

What will be the benefits?

This OOP initiative will contribute to making the EU’s digital Single Market more competitive and to expanding it. We can already foresee several positive impacts of reusing data, such as:

  • Facilitating the delivery of digital public services across Europe
  • Fostering mobility of citizens and businesses
  • Lowering the cost of administrative procedures

This, however, raises some regulatory and technical challenges. The EU through the European Court of Justice will therefore make sure that every Member State enforced the EU’s data protection laws in order to secure and ensure each and everyone’s freedoms and rights.

Such an initiative will not only contribute to relaunching our economy but also to building the EU’s digital sovereignty. The EU continues to trigger innovation while remaining a custodian of personal freedoms and citizens' rights.

Click here to get more information on the OOP.

once only principle

Details

Publication date
5 November 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Digital Services
Location
Brussels