EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 2.5.2017 SWD(2017) 211 final Compliance Package COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Implementation plan Accompanying the document Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing a single digital gateway to provide information, procedures, assistance and problem solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 {COM(2017) 256 final}

{SWD(2017) 212 final}

{SWD(2017) 213 final}

{SWD(2017) 214 final}



This Implementation Plan is provided for information purposes only. It does not legally bind the Commission on whether the identified actions will be pursued or on the form in which they will be pursued. Implementation Plan for the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing a single digital gateway to provide information, procedures, assistance and problem solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 1. Contact point: European Commission, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SME Directorate E, Modernisation of the Single Market Unit E3, Digitalisation of the Single Market Email: GROW-SINGLE-DIGITAL-GATEWAY@ec.europa.eu Marian Grubben, Head of Unit: Marian.Grubben@ec.europa.eu Ute Wein: Ute.Wein@ec.europa.eu 2. Context The single digital gateway aims to address the current fragmentation and information gaps by completing, improving and linking up relevant EU and national-level online information, assistance services and procedures in a user-friendly way. The vision is to provide businesses and citizens with high quality, comprehensive information, effective assistance and problem solving services and efficient compliance procedures regarding EU and national rules applicable to citizens and businesses when they want to do business and/or to travel to, buy from, work, study or reside in another Member State. 3. Main deliverables 3.1 Broad information coverage To achieve our aim of providing businesses and citizens with "all they need to know" to benefit from their Single Market rights. We are focusing on 17 areas (9 for citizens and 8 for businesses). Member States and the Commission are responsible for providing information on their respective websites on national and EU rules and requirements, applicable to citizens and businesses, in these areas. 3.2 Key procedures fully online Member States would have to make sure that for a defined list of key procedures, the entire procedure can be completed online, also by non-residents and companies established in other Member States. Further roll-out of online procedures would be based on an annual work programme. 3.3 Quality requirements Clear, operational quality criteria for information, assistance services and online procedures will be defined. Monitoring mechanisms would be set up to ensure that each website in the single digital gateway network provides sufficient, user-friendly and clear information/procedures/assistance services. As part of this process, a quality label based on precise quality criteria would be developed, and users' feedback would be requested systemically. 3.4 Findability

The single digital gateway is about making existing information and assistance services not only much better, but also much easier for citizens and businesses to find. A user interface should allow the search for the best service package in response to any query a user may have. 3.5 Governance The effective implementation of the single digital gateway requires a solid governance structure with an annual work programme as a backbone for the implementation actions and future development of the single digital gateway. The Coordination Group will be a forum for co-operation between Member States and the Commission replacing several structures created for the specific service or tool. 3.6 Language A shared objective of the Commission and Member States is the need to make the gateway and its functionalities as accessible as possible for the widest range of users. For this purpose the proposed Regulation foresees that information would be provided on national websites in at least one other official EU language in addition to the national language(s). 3.7 Single Market user feedback The proposed Regulation foresees the collection of feedback from users of the gateway on the problems encountered by them in the Single Market. This feedback, combined with input from the different assistance services will feed into a regular report about the state of the Single Market. This report will provide a substantial input for the priority settings regarding infringement procedures and policy decisions on further development of Single Market rules. 4. Implementation challenges 4.1 Technical challenges The gateway will be based on a user interface that would search the best service package for any query a user may have. To make this work, substantial effort is required from the Commission and Member States relating to the IT applications and technical functionalities: The Commission’s tasks: Investigate the technical solutions for the user interface and how to link with national portals; Create or adjust existing tools which could serve as a repository for links that Member States will need to provide; Devise technical functionality which could be used by the users of the gateway to provide evidence in electronic format to authorities requesting such evidence in an administrative procedure; Develop a specific IT tool which would allow citizens and businesses to signal any difficulty or obstacle they meet in navigating the Single Market. Member States’ tasks: Depending on the functionalities of the interface, Member States will need to structure or tag the information published on their websites so that the search facility can easily find and present the information or service the user is looking for; Adjust their online procedures to make sure that users can effectively use the technical functionality for the re-use of evidence;