The Digital Single Market is one of the European Union’s main priorities. Lots of efforts and financial resources are devoted to stay fit for the digital age. It is estimated that making the 'once only' approach a reality at the EU level could result in annual net savings reaching €5 billion per year. The once-only principle is a common ground for two EU projects – “Stakeholder Community Once-Only Principle for Citizens - SCOOP4C” and “The Once-Only Principle Project – TOOP”. While the first one puts its efforts on a citizen dimension, the second focuses on data exchange between public administrations and European businesses.
SCOOP4C investigates, discusses and disseminates how the once-only principle for citizens can be implemented at European level. So far, few examples of OOP good practices taken from the health, social and education sector have been collected. One of the main goals is to build up and sustain an OOP related stakeholder community. Multiple workshops, interviews and online discussions were organised. Reports and analysis concerning the vision of the OOP for citizens and best practices were created and are available at www.scoop4c.eu.
The SCOOP4C Steering Board consists of public administration representatives, citizens and experts from academia and the private sector. Its aim is to provide guidance, recommendations and feedback on the direction and the achievements of the SCOOP4C project. The stakeholder community has been built up from the beginning of the project. One of its expected results is to develop and sustain concepts for the future implementation of OOP solutions for citizens.
While SCOOP4C examines citizen-centric aspects of the OOP and draws conclusions, TOOP aims to enable better exchange of business related data between public administrations in different EU Member States. Therefore, TOOP develops a concrete solution in form of a federated generic IT architecture. The plan is to interconnect 60 e-government systems from at least 21 EU Member States and Associated Countries. The IT architecture will be examined in the three pilot areas: Cross-border e-Services for Business Mobility, Updating Connected Company Data and Online Ship and Crew Certificates. At present, the system is still in the stage of research and development. First tests will be carried out this year. The results of TOOP pilots’ implementation will identify drivers and barriers for future and wider use of the once-only principle. So far, TOOP’s aims and purposes have been presented during numerous conferences, workshops, webinars and F2F meetings. Documentation concerning project’s work and achievements is available at www.toop.eu.
Strengthening of cooperation due to the implementation of the once only principle in Europe is in common interest. Therefore, the Memorandum of Understanding between those projects was signed. The first Joint Once-Only Conference took place on 28th – 29th Nov 2017 in Berlin, which paved the way for a mutual cooperation. The implementation of the OOP on pan-European scale is a common matter. SCOOP4C builds a stakeholders community and develops plans for future actions to implement, diffuse and sustain the OOP solutions for citizens. TOOP, in turn, develops innovative IT solutions, which will reduce administrative burden, save time and facilitate the provision of digital public services in the cross-border dimension. All this together to create a better functioning digital single market in the EU.
Each step brings us closer to make the OOP a daily reality. Keep up with us. Visit www.toop.eu and www.scoop4c.eu.