Once Only Technical System - key for the creation of the first European data space

What is the Once Only Technical System?  

After the favourable opinion from the Member States, the Commission is set to adopt the Implementing Regulation on the establishment of the Once Only Technical System (OOTS). The OOTS will simplify online administrative procedures for EU citizens, businesses, and public administrations. Established by the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR), the OOTS will connect public authorities across the EU, so they can exchange official documents and data at the citizen's explicit request, thus significantly relieving administrative burden. 

What challenges do citizens and businesses face today? 

Today, an increasing number of Europeans are using the Internet to complete procedures in their home Member State or in another Member State. For example, students are applying to universities abroad, and companies increasingly offer their services across the EU. However, despite working well in a national context, the same does not apply when citizens and businesses from other Member States try accessing online services. This sort of geo-blocking constitutes a barrier to cross-border mobility as it prevents citizens and businesses from making the most of the Single Market.  

The Single Digital Gateway Regulation - a multifaceted EU-wide initiative - strives to create the digital infrastructure required to overcome these challenges. Three specific projects make this concrete: 

• The Your Europe portal provides information about Single Market rights and online public services available in each Member State with the associated administrative procedures required. Furthermore, it gives online access to problem-solving services on how to carry out certain administrative procedures;
• By December 2023, 21 procedures listed in Annex II to the SDGR will have to be made available to users fully online, allowing citizens and businesses to identify themselves by electronic means, fill in the application, provide supporting evidence or request it through the OOTS, sign and submit the application to the competent authorities; 
• The SDGR provides the legal framework for the creation of a European data space for public administrations to share information in a trusted way. By December 2023, this data space, known as the OOTS, will be rolled out across Europe. 

What will change for citizens and businesses in 2024? 

With OOTS, information can be retrieved only if citizens make an explicit request for it to be exchanged and have been given a chance to preview it, except if provided otherwise by Union or national law. For example, when citizens are requested to provide a copy of their birth certificate, they will be able to request this information to be retrieved from the relevant public authority in another Member State.  

Why is OOTS important?

 The OOTS is a regulated interoperability framework for data-sharing between public administrations, governed by the Member States and the European Commission. Its data space is distributed for trusted data-sharing between independent systems in each Member State. To achieve this, OOTS creates an interoperability layer based on common “building blocks”, which comply with EU-wide regulations such as GDPR  and eIDAS.  

For example, the OOTS will use the cross-border electronic identification building block known as eIDAS eID. In addition, the eDelivery access points will create a virtual secure network on top of the public Internet. The OOTS will also be compatible with the European Digital Identity Wallet as a means of authentication to public services offering the ‘once-only’ option. 

The favourable opinion from the Member States on the Implementing Regulation on the OOTS is a key milestone towards building the first ever cross-border citizen-centric data space. The OOTS will provide the architecture and know-how for other data spaces that require data to flow securely within the EU. This means that OOTS will prove crucial in reducing costs and improving interoperability, serving as a keystone in the creation of a common European data space. 

Want to know more about how you can benefit from the Once-Only Technical System? 

Visit:  Once-Only Technical System