REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL First Implementation Report on the Single Digital Gateway
Date: 2023-09-12
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: EU national, access to information, administrative cooperation, administrative formalities, cross-frontier data flow, exchange of information, information system, service, single market, type of business

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 12.9.2023  COM(2023) 534 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL First Implementation Report on the Single Digital Gateway  
 
 
Table of Contents 

I.  NOW ONLINE – Information, Assistance Services & Feedback Tool on Single Market 
Obstacles .................................................................................................................................................3 

A.  Accessing information online on Your Europe .........................................................................3 

B.  Providing quality assistance to businesses and citizens ..........................................................8 

C.  Reporting obstacles to improve the functioning of the Single Market ............................... 10 

II.  FORTHCOMING – Online procedures & the Once-Only Technical System ....................... 13 

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 17 

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The  Single  Digital  Gateway1  (SDG)  is  one  of  the  most  ambitious  EU  eGovernment 
initiatives  to  digitalise  public  administration.  It  massively  helps  reduce  administrative 
burdens, for businesses, citizens and authorities. Through the Your Europe2 web portal, the 
SDG sets up a one-stop shop that provides businesses and citizens with: 

-  Reliable and up-to-date information about rules and procedures in the Single Market, at all 

levels of government; 

-  Direct, centralised, and guided access to assistance and problem-solving services; 
-  Direct access to a wide range of fully digitised administrative procedures, for which the 
Once-Only  Technical  System  (OOTS)  allows  an  automated  exchange  of  evidence 
between authorities across the EU at the request of users; 

-  Feedback tools to report on the quality of services and Single Market obstacles. 

The  SDG3  improves  the  European  business  environment  by  helping  companies,  notably 
SMEs  which  often  have  less  resources  and  expertise  than  larger  organisations,  to  better 
understand and use the rights and opportunities offered by the Single Market. SMEs greatly 
benefit  from  the  administrative  simplification  and  digitalisation  offered  via  the  SDG. 
Businesses, especially those operating cross-border, save a lot of time and money using the 
SDG, in particular when trying to gather information or completing administrative procedures.4  

The  SDG  also  simplifies  the  daily  life  of  citizens  in  many  areas,  like  travelling,  work  and 
retirement, education, family rights and healthcare, which are crucial to make the most of their 
free movement rights, especially in a cross-border context. The SDG thus helps to unlock the 
full  potential  of  the  Single  Market5  and  to  achieve  the  EU  Digital  Decade6  targets  whilst 
offering concrete relief to small businesses.  

The SDG benefits from the efforts made in the context of some sector-specific one stop-shops 
such  as  for  example  the  national  centres  for  qualified  professions  or  the  Points  of  Single 
Contact7,  established  by  the  Services  Directive.  The  SDG  is  however  a  comprehensive  and 
integrated solution, catering for all needs of businesses and citizens during their entire life cycle. 

The  SDG  is  implemented  in  stages  as  a  joint  effort  from  both  the  Member  States  and  the 
Commission.  It  was  launched  in  2020,  making  in  particular  information  on  rights  and 
procedures at EU and national levels available on Your Europe. By the end of 2023, Member 
States  will  have  to  ensure  that  administrative  procedures  in  21  key  areas  are  fully 
accessible online, including for cross-border users, and that the OOTS is established so that the 
relevant documents can be exchanged in the future. 

1 Established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1724. 
2 Your Europe (europa.eu). 
3 Together with other relevant EU initiatives, such as the European e-Justice Portal (europa.eu), the digitalisation 
of  EU  company  law  (Directive  (EU)  2019/1151  and  COM(2023)  177  final),  or  the  Business  Registers 
Interconnection System (BRIS), which connects all Member State business registers. 
4 A study estimated that the costs of cross-border businesses are 50% higher compared to domestic businesses, and 
that the additional costs for cross-border businesses is notably caused by gathering information (mostly advice, 
EUR 30 million), submitting documents (EUR 22 million, mostly travel costs if submission in person is required, 
certification (EUR 11 million) and collecting data and documents (EUR 7 million); these costs can be mitigated 
by further digitalisation; see Register of Commission Documents - SWD(2017)213 (europa.eu). 
5 In line with the European Parliament Resolution of 18 April 2023 (2022/2036(INI)). 
6 Decision (EU) 2022/2481. 
7  The  Points  of  Single  Contact,  established  by  Directive  2006/123/EC,  provide  online  information,  assistance 
services and access to procedures relevant for the provision of services, in the scope of the SDG. National and 
Commission actions have significantly improved the availability and quality of the information. 

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Under the SDG Regulation, the Commission is called upon to regularly assess and review the 
application of this Regulation, based on the statistics and the feedback gathered through the 
gateway. This first report8 is presented as part of the Commission’s SME Relief Package, as the 
SDG contributes to the package’s objectives of regulatory simplification and the reduction of 
administrative burden. It provides an assessment of the SDG implementation and the way the 
SDG functions today, based inter alia on data on usage and users’ feedback. It describes the 
progress achieved towards the next phase, most notably the digitisation of procedures and the 
OOTS. It also points at ways to further improve and expand the SDG, with a view to boosting 
eGovernment  at  the  service  of  a  competitive  Single  Market  and  an  accessible  area  of  free 
movement for citizens.  

Part  I  focuses  on  the  SDG  pillars  already  available  online  on  Your  Europe,  namely  the 
information services, assistance services and the feedback tool on Single Market obstacles. Part 
II covers the forthcoming SDG pillars related to online procedures and the OOTS.  

NOW  ONLINE  –  Information,  Assistance  Services  &  Feedback  Tool  on  Single 

I. 
Market Obstacles 

A.  Accessing information online on Your Europe 

The Your Europe portal is a one-stop-shop connecting EU and national government portals and 
services.  It  offers  online  access  to  high-quality  information  on  rules  and  procedures 
applicable to businesses and citizens at all levels of government (EU, national, regional, and 
local).  

On Your Europe, businesses, especially SMEs, can find all the information they need to start9, 
run or close a business in the EU, such as information about employment, taxes, the provision 
of goods and services or access to funding. For example, a company looking for opportunities 
to  fund  its  digital  or  green  transition  can  find  out  how  to  get  access  to  funding;  or  a  road 
transport company that wants to post drivers abroad, can find the applicable procedures or rules, 
for  example  on  remuneration  in  each  country;  and  a  small  business  wishing  to  expand  its 
tourism activity in the EU can find information on country-specific rules, their responsibility 
vis-à-vis travellers with disabilities as well as opportunities for EU funding. Citizens, for their 
part, can look up how to move, live, travel, study and look for a job in the EU, with information 

8 Article 36 of the SDG Regulation foresees the publication of an implementation report every two years. 
9 According to Directive (EU) 2019/1151, Article 13f the information about setting up companies and branches 
and registering those with business registers is required to be made available on registration portals or websites 
that are accessible by means of the Single Digital Gateway.  

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on topics such as health and safety at work, travel documents, residence formalities, healthcare 
abroad, social security, consumer rights and more.  

Visitors can trust the information on Your Europe, which comes directly from official sources 
and is updated at EU level as EU legislation takes effect. It is made available in an accessible 
and  easy  to  understand  format,  in  the  national  language(s)  and  in  a  commonly  understood 
foreign language.10  

Achievements 

Your Europe is increasingly trusted and visited. In 2022, Your Europe received around 43 
million visits, making it the third most visited Commission website, behind the Commission’s 
corporate  website  and  EUR-Lex.  This  follows  the  record  year  of  2021,  during  which  the 
loosening of Covid-related travel restrictions generated exceptionally high visitor numbers. The 
corresponding national pages – notified to the Commission by Member States and linked to 
Your Europe – received another 63 million visits last year11. The combined SDG contents12 
received more than 100 million yearly visits both in 2021 and in 202213. 

Graph 1. Number of visits to Your Europe and national webpages before and after SDG launch 

2022 statistics showed that users spent more than 120 000 hours just on Your Europe webpages 
for businesses. Even by a conservative estimate of legal advice costs, the SDG is saving these 
users, especially SMEs, some 2.5 million euros per year, and a lot of time14. The average 
Your Europe page can easily be read in less than 4 minutes, whilst it summarises complicated 
EU legal texts that would take more than two and a half hours to read, in a fully accurate manner. 

The introduction of the new search functionality in August 2022 (which replaces the prior free-
text search) has resulted in a significant increase of successfully completed searches15.  In 
2021 Your Europe’s search functionality was used 871 104 times. That number doubled in 2022 
to reach 1 784 566 queries. 

10 A Commission budget helps Member States to translate national rules, usually into English. 
11 Member States notify to the Commission their websites that contain content specified in the SDG regulation.  
12 Including EU and national webpages. 
13 Europa Analytics – what it does and how | European Union. 
14 SMEs get information for free. The Commission’s visitor statistics show how much time visitors spent on each 
page.  In  2022 more  than 120  000 hours  were  spent on  Your  Europe  webpages  for  SMEs  alone.  According  to 
Eurostat legal advice cost on average 23.9 euros per hour in the EU (for Q3 of 2022). 
15 Search results can be filtered by level of competence, language, location and type of content. 

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Graph 2. Evolution of search queries submitted to Your Europe since launch 

Your Europe coverage is increasingly comprehensive. As of January 2023, Member States 
have notified 40 776 web pages under the SDG. Member States’ notifications covered 80% of 
the areas required under Annex I of the SDG Regulation16. Graph 3 shows that coverage by 
Member State17. A similar mapping is currently assessing the coverage of local information, 
which Member States must also notify since December 202218. 

Graph 3. Percentage of information covered on the SDG by country 
A  2023  Your  Europe  survey19  showed  that  92.5%  of  citizen  respondents  and  90.3%  of 
businesses found the portal satisfactory or better. 77% of the businesses and 76% of the citizens 
confirmed they found the information they were looking for. 88.4% of the businesses and 90.6% 
of the citizens would recommend Your Europe to friends, family, or colleagues. 

The gateway has become ever more accessible and visible. For citizens, the most popular 
topics  on  Your  Europe  are  ‘Travel’  and  ‘Work  &  retirement’.  ‘Running  business’  and 
‘Taxation’ are the most searched topics for businesses. Preliminary findings show comparable 

16 Annex I covers information on travelling, work and retirement, vehicles, residence, education and traineeship in 
another Member States, healthcare, citizens’ and family rights, consumer rights, data protection, starting, running 
and closing of businesses, rules on employment, taxes, goods and product requirements, business funding, public 
contracts and health and safety at work. 
17 Despite a high degree of coverage, remaining gaps have prompted the Commission to build a more complete 
dataset  of  information.  Member  States  do  not  always  interpret  the  requirements  of  the  regulation  in  the  same 
manner and significant human and financial resources are required. This may affect coverage rates. 
18 To avoid the duplication of information, SDG national coordinators must notify the relevant webpages, only if 
national rules are altered by the local ones. 
19 A satisfaction survey is carried out on a yearly basis on Your Europe. 

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results for national webpages20, even though the visits to Your Europe national content by topic 
have only been tracked since August 2022 when the guided search was launched.  

To ensure increased visibility, the Commission has carried out digital roadshows in 21 Member 
States and a campaign with 79 influencers has reached over 9.5 million people21. 

Graph 4. Visits by topic for citizen-related (left side) and business-related (right side) topics 

In case of unforeseen events or crisis, the Commission uses the visibility of Your Europe as a 
multiplier to provide businesses and citizens with information either by hosting new content 
(e.g., Brexit) or by linking to other Commission websites (e.g., Ukraine with information for 
refugees, donors, businesses). 

Areas of improvement and next steps 

The Commission and Member States should continue improving Your Europe and its network 
of  national  portals  as  the  primary  go-to  source  for  practical,  understandable,  reliable, 
accessible  information  about  rules,  procedures,  and  business  opportunities  at  every  level  of 
administration.  

The  Commission  will  continue  to  enhance  the  coverage,  findability  and  access  to 
information for businesses, most specially SMEs, and citizens in areas that are critical to help 
them to make the most of the Single Market: 

- 

- 

It  will  improve  the  findability  of  information  on  product  requirements  for 
manufacturers and retailers. This topic is already one of the most popular search topics 
for businesses. Given the number of rules  applicable to  one  specific product, at  EU  and 
national level, both product-specific and cross-cutting, Your Europe will become a single 
point of access for these requirements. In parallel, the Member States have to step up the 
notification of related national rules as required by the SDG Regulation. 

It will also present information on taxation in a user-friendly way. The Member States 
must ensure that the information in, and the technical infrastructure of, the Taxes in Europe 
Database22 are up to date to offer SMEs the right information. 

20 Issues areas A, B, L and M. 
21 90% of respondents who watched the campaign video were able to identify the Your Europe logo correctly. 
Additional Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Ad campaigns generated more than 3 million impressions, 
over 1 million engagements, 14 thousand link clicks, and over 244 000 video views per month. High visibility has 
translated into a growing number of visitors. 
22 The “Taxes in Europe” database is a Commission’s on-line information tool. It contains information on around 
650 taxes, as provided by the EU Member States: Taxes in Europe Database v3 (europa.eu). 

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-  As  the  Member  States  are  adding  more  information,  including  at  municipal  level,  the 
Commission  will  continue  to  present  this  in  an  ever-more  structured  and  user-friendly 
manner.  For  example,  this  includes  information  on  urban  vehicle  access  regulations 
(UVARs) like Low Emission Zones or toll stickers. 

-  The  Commission  and  the  Member  States  should  continue  to  improve  the  findability  of 
information on social security, which are key to mobile citizens, workers and employers 
and an essential condition to the free movement of workers. 

-  The Commission will keep improving and upgrading new guided search engine. Its success 

also depends on the information notified by Member States.  

In addition, the Commission will keep establishing Your Europe as  a key instrument to 
access basic essential information. In that regard, existing features are already widely used. 
For example, a citizen or SME can already use Your Europe to check VAT numbers to know 
if  a  business  is  registered  to  trade  cross-border  within  the  EU,  which  is  needed  for  many 
procedures. This is also true in the case of the European Professional Card. Likewise, national 
traffic rules, currently on a separate EU website, will be published on Your Europe by end 2023. 
The Commission will also explore new methods to monitor the contents, such as automated 
quality probe systems23. 

Finally, the Commission will assess the use of advanced AI-powered large language models, 
including  natural  language  recognition  technologies.  With  these  models,  more  dynamic, 
context-aware,  and  personalised  information  delivery  systems  can  be  created  that  can 
revolutionise how users access and engage with regulatory content. Eventually, these tools may 
be able to parse vast amounts of information from various sources, including EU and national 
rules and procedures, and present it in a format tailored to the user specific needs. 

In  response  to  major  crises,  Your  Europe  will  confirm  its  role  as  a  multiplier  for  official 
information,  like  the  role  it  played  in  response  to  the  pandemic  or  the  war  in  Ukraine.  In 
general, Commission services will ensure that the Your Europe website is referred to more 
systematically when new information requirements are laid down in new EU legislation. 

•  Member  States  are  invited  to  keep  improving  the  coverage  and  the  quality  of 
information  provided  to  the  portal  and  notifying  the  information  required  by  the  SDG 
Regulation.  

•  The Commission will enhance the findability of information putting special emphasis on 
areas that are key for SMEs, including product requirements and taxation. It will confirm 
and  increase  the  role  of  the  website  as  a  timely  multiplier  for  official  information, 
especially in case of major events and crises. Finally, it will assess the use of advanced 
AI-powered large language models to further improve the way regulatory information is 
shared with users, notably SMEs. 

23 This could include a crawler (software indexing the content of websites so that those websites can appear in 
search results) to detect the existence of the required information, translations, the Your Europe logo, etc. 

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B. 

Providing quality assistance to businesses and citizens 

The  SDG  provides  additional  support  through  individualised  assistance  and  problem-
solving  services,  when  SDG  information  pages  prove  insufficient  and/or  where  citizens  or 
businesses encounter problems whilst trying to exercise their rights in the Single Market.24 

Achievements 

The service offer is broadening. In December 2020, seven key assistance services25 became 
available on Your Europe together with an Assistance Service Finder26 that facilitates access 
to these services. These include: (1) Points of Single Contact; (2) Product Contact Points; (3) 
Product  Contact  Points  for  Construction;  (4)  National  assistance  centres  for  professional 
qualifications; (5) National contact points for cross-border healthcare; (6) European network of 
employment services (EURES); (7) Online dispute resolution (ODR).  

The  SDG  Regulation  allows  additional  assistance  services  to  join  if  their  offer  is 
complementary to existing services, if they fulfil the quality criteria and if they charge no or 
only small fees27. On this basis, three services have joined and expanded the SDG’s service 
offer: Your Europe Advice (YEA), the SOLVIT network and the European Consumer Centres 
network28. Close to 100% of these services are now available through the Assistance Service 
Finder.  

The  service  is  widely  used.  In  2021  and  2022  together,  the  assistance  services  have 
provided assistance in 6.5 million cases29, of which 5.3 million were citizens and 1.2 million 
businesses.  The  most  frequently  supported  user  groups  are  employers  and  job  seekers  (6 
million), service providing companies (157 000 cases), consumers with questions about their 
rights  (120  000)  or  in  disputes  with  online  traders  (80  000  cases30)  and  people  seeking 
healthcare in another contry (63 000 cases)31. 

24 This can occur when cross-border activities are too specific for standard explanations on webpages or, due to 
various difficulties in interacting with authorities. 
25 As per Annex III of the SDG Regulation. 
26 Assistance service finder (europa.eu). 
27 Art. 7(3) of the SDG Regulation. Both national and EU level services can opt in to the SDG. 
28 At national level, the German Office for the equal treatment of EU workers (ETO) has also joined. The German 
Conciliation body for public transport has initiated the process. 
29 In 2022 YEA and SOLVIT dealt with over 28.000 cases (out of those 20.000 were eligible) and 2200 cases 
respectively. SOLVIT resolved 86% of cases. 
30 This figure includes 50,000 pre-complaints, which are direct talks between consumer and trader through the 
platform without involving an Alternative Dispute Resolution body. 
31 These figures are based on assistance services in 21 Member States. 

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Graph 5. Number of cases by type of service (top) and by subject matters (bottom) 

Business and citizens can expect a response within two to three calendar days. However, the 
response-time of the two types of contact points for products take on average eight to nine days. 
This might be due to the complexity of product requirements, which often stem from a mix of 
EU and national legislation. Resource  constraints and networks’ workflows may also play a 
role. Yet, they account only for about 1% of all cases. 

The  feedback  from  users  is  positive.  So  far,  over  3 200  feedbacks  have  been  collected, 
through a specific feedback loop32, with an average rating of 4.3 stars out of 5. This is a positive 
appreciation considering that unsatisfied users are overrepresented in this type of systems33. 

32 See Article 25 of the SDG Regulation and the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1121. Service providers 
must invite users to give feedback on availability and quality of the service after using it. 
33 This bias of less satisfied users to be more inclined to use feedback functions is a consistent finding of feedback 
collected over many years on the Your Europe portal. 

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Areas for improvement and next steps 

So far, user feedback and case statistics are not yet used on a systematic basis as a tool to 
improve the overall service offer. The Commission will work together with Member States 
and relevant assistance services to change this. In concrete terms, it means that increases and 
decreases  in  types  of  requests  and  user  feedback  will  be  duly  monitored  to  make  sure  that 
citizens and businesses can be served in an optimal manner. For instance, in case a Point of 
Single Contact is confronted with an increase of requests of construction companies coming 
from  another  Member  State,  and  feedback  indicates  that  such  companies  do  not  find  the 
information they are looking for, this should trigger action from the relevant authorities. They 
could improve information on national SDG pages and/or ask the Commission to improve pages 
on Your Europe and/or take other steps to facilitate doing business in their Member State. 

The  Commission  will  start  tracking  how  the  Assistance  Service  Finder  is  used  to  target 
improvements at the most used services and allow offering better services to SMEs and citizens, 
more accessible for cross-border users.  

To improve the SDG’s service offer, the Europe Direct Centres, National Enforcement Bodies 
in transport and Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk are encouraged to opt in. The SDG would 
become a  true one-stop-shop of EU level  help  services across  all Single Market related 
topics.  

Finally, the Commission will improve the signposting of users on SDG webpages to the most 
appropriate assistance services by developing a unified search function for online information 
and assistance. AI-powered solutions could also be explored to better achieve that goal. 

•  Member  States  are  encouraged  to  improve  the  so  far  incomplete  collection  of  user 
feedback  and  case  statistics,  so  that  such  feedback  can  be  used  to  improve  the  overall 
service to citizens and businesses. 

•  The Commission will encourage the further expansion of the range of problem-solving 

services. It will also improve the signposting towards SDG assistance services.  

C.  Reporting obstacles to improve the functioning of the Single Market 

Businesses  and  citizens  experiencing  obstacles  in  the  Single  Market  can  report  them 
directly through Your Europe, clicking on ‘report an obstacle’ in the top menu. This opens a 
web-form  to  report  an  obstacle  encountered  in  the  Single  Market34,  which  Member  States 
should then address.  The  Single Market Obstacle Tool  (SMOT)  collects  and analyses this 
data. Its key goal is to provide insights into the most pressing challenges of the internal market 
from the perspective of businesses and citizens35, and to contribute to a more data-driven policy. 

Achievements 

Since December 2020, the SMOT already reported 1511 obstacles. The reported obstacles and 
a summary dashboard are available real-time to the Member States and the Commission and 
anonymised data sets are published once a year on the EU Open Data Portal.  

34  Each  case  is  stored  anonymously  in  the  SDG  management  tool.  National  coordinators  and  Commission 
administrators can access visualized statistics in a dashboard. 
35 Article 1(1)(c) and Article 26 of the SDG Regulation. 

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80%  of  the  obstacles  reported  concern  citizens.  As  regards  citizens,  issues  that  are  most 
represented (in number of cases) concern mainly consumer rights (23% of citizens’ cases), work 
and retirement (16%), and citizens and family rights (15%). 

Graph 6. Obstacles reported on Your Europe by topic, citizens 

20% of the obstacles reported concern businesses. With respect to businesses, taxes account for 
the  highest  number  of  obstacles  reported  (25%),  followed  by  provision  of  services  (24%), 
starting,  running,  closing  of  business  operation  (15%),  funding  (10%),  and  employment  of 
workers (10%).  

Graph 7. Obstacles reported on Your Europe by topic, businesses 

Areas for improvement and next steps 

It is not always clear for users of Your Europe that the SMOT is not intended to solve individual 
cases.  For  this  specific  use,  users  are  routed  to  national  assistance  services  or  EU-managed 

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services such as SOLVIT36 and Your Europe Advice (YEA). It is therefore necessary to clarify 
the guidance for users and the sequence of the user journey on this point. 

In the near future, the tool aims to pool the data collected through Your Europe with the 
wealth  of  existing  data  on  obstacles  across  various  sources37,  including  YEA,  SOLVIT, 
Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)38 and European Consumer Centres (ECC). It is also planned 
to include data provided from volunteering business organisations, such as Eurochambres, and 
the SME feedback mechanism, an EU Survey operated by the EEN39. As shown below, this 
requires smart data integration, standardisation and visualisation40.   

Graph 8. Components of the SMOT 

Exploiting the potential of raw data resulting from the integration of various sources requires 
state-of-the-art analytics. To that effect, the Commission will  explore the possibility to use 
technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Natural Language 
Processing to determine the source of the reported obstacles (e.g. lack of information, legal, 
enforcement or procedural issues etc.), relevant patterns and which actions should be taken. 

The Commission, with Member States, will also issue guidance on how all existing tools 
can be used to handle the reported obstacles including responsibilities of the Commission 
and the Member States in dealing with the obstacles and the role of the SMOT.  Available 
tools are, for example, actions at regional or national level, cooperation between the Member 
States  and  the  Commission,  infringement  proceedings,  new  Commission  proposals  etc.  The 
data could also help to identify the most pressing barriers to be discussed and solved within the 
Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET), a high-level forum where the Commission and 
the Member States work together to ensure the proper functioning of the Single Market.  

•  The Commission will complete in 2023 the integration of the obstacles data collected on 
Your Europe with various sources, especially  YEA, SOLVIT, EEN and ECC and on-

36 SOLVIT is a free-of-charge online service that aims to provide solutions to citizens and businesses whose rights 
have been breached by public authorities. 
37 Feedback on obstacles (europa.eu). 
38 Consultations with the EEN resulted in the development of two distinct intake forms and dashboards for citizens 
and businesses, as well as a new module for data intake from external business organisations. These changes will 
become visible in the data at the end of 2023. The Commission will also invest in further developing the dashboard 
and reporting requirements, e.g. in the Annual Single Market Report. 
39 SME support agencies register cases reported to them by SMEs in their daily operation in the system. The SME 
feedback mechanism and the SMOT share a common goal to better exploit the feedback received. 
40 SMOT technological components are composed of a data intake form on Your Europe and national SDG pages, 
a case management system and a statistical dashboard. 

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board  volunteering  business  organisations’  data  (namely  Eurochambres  and  SME 
feedback  mechanism).  The  Commission  will  also  explore  the  possibility  to  use 
technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

•  Member States’ national representatives and the Commission will issue guidance on how 
to  handle  the  reported  obstacles.  Improved  data  could  also  help  to  identify  the  most 
urgent obstacles to be addressed within the SMET. 

II. 

FORTHCOMING – Online procedures & the Once-Only Technical System 

Making  administration  easier  for  businesses  and  citizens  within  the  Single  Market  is  an 
essential objective of the Single Digital Gateway. The aim is to drastically simplify the user 
journey,  to  slash  unnecessary  red  tape  and  administrative  burdens  for  businesses  and 
citizens. The “once only” principle is also expected to generate a positive economic impact on 
Member States’ budgets.41 

By December 2023, Member States shall: 

a.  Ensure  that  when  national  procedures  can  be  accessed  and  completed  online  by 
national users they can also be so by cross-border users in a non-discriminatory way. 

b.  Provide online access to national and cross-border users to 21 types of procedures42 

for businesses and citizens (Table 1). 

All  procedure  types  under  Annex  II  of  the  SDG  Regulation  will  be  offered  fully  online43, 
meaning  that  users  will  be  able  to  identify  and  authenticate,  fill  in  the  application  and  sign 
online, be notified electronically of the completion of the procedure and receive the relevant 
output in digital format.  

FOR BUSINESSES 

FOR CITIZENS 

Notify business activity and subsequent changes 
and termination44 

Register change of address 

Request permission for business activity 

Request proof of residence 

Register as employer for pension and social 
security 

Request birth certificate 

Register employees for pension and social 
security 

Request for determination of social security 
legislation 

Notify end-of-contract of employees for social 
security 

Notify change in personal circumstances for 
social security purposes 

41  See  Study  on  eGovernment  and  the  Reduction  of  Administrative  Burden,  estimating  that  a  Member  State 
(Denmark as use case) could save up to  € 100 million annually  by implementing the once only principle via a 
specific programme. 
42 Annex II of the SDG Regulation list the procedure types covered by the SDG. 
43 In accordance with Article 6(4) of the SDG Regulation, by December 2023 the Commission and the Member 
States shall ensure that Internal Market Information System (IMI) is ready to be used by the  Member States to 
notify, in a common repository, procedures that may require a physical presence. 
44  As  specified  in  Annex  II  of  the  SDG  Regulation,  the  following  procedures  are  excluded:  insolvency  or 
liquidation  procedures,  the  initial  registration  of  a  business  activity  with  the  business  register  and  procedures 
concerning the constitution of or any subsequent filing by companies or firms within the meaning of the second 
paragraph of Article 54 TFEU. 

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Pay social contribution for employees 

Applying for European Health Insurance Card 
(EHIC) 

Declare corporate tax 

Claim a pension 

Request information on acquired pension rights 

Declare income tax 

Register motor vehicles 

Obtain motor vehicle toll or emission stickers 

Enrol in a university 

Apply for study financing 

Request recognition of academic diplomas 

Table 1. The 21 procedure types to be digitised for businesses and citizens 

In addition, by December 2023, the Commission will deploy the OOTS Common Services 
(namely,  the  Data  Service  Directory,  the  Evidence  broker  and  the  Semantic  repository). 
Member States will ensure the technical connection between their procedure portals with 
the Common Services aiming to enable the automated and secure cross-border exchange of 
evidence – in the form of documents or structured data - required to complete these procedures.  

For  a  specific  procedure  under  the  SDG,  a  user  will  no  longer  be  confronted  with  different 
procedures  in  Member  States,  with  issues  related  to  documents  issued  in  different  Member 
States  or  different  websites  to  complete  these  procedures.  Starting  its  journey  from  Your 
Europe, the user will be able to authenticate to any online procedure portal, to identify required 
documents faster and trigger the sharing of documents and data between competent authorities. 
The user will no longer have to search, retrieve and download/upload documents. Thanks to the 
OOTS,  the  SDG  will  reduce  the  cost  of  mobility  in  the  Single  Market,  administrative 
frictions and obstacles while imposing no additional obligations on citizens and businesses. 

The simplification can be illustrated and explained as follows:  

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For example, an Italian SME wants to apply for a permit to operate in Germany. The OOTS 
will enable the completion of procedures via a direct access to the relevant German procedural 
portal through Your Europe. To complete the procedure online, the German portal will ask the 
(legal)  representative  of  the  Italian  SME  to  provide  the  necessary  evidence  (e.g.  certificates 
professional qualification obtained in Italy and Austria), to be retrieved through the OOTS. The 
OOTS  will  be  used  to  automatically  request  and  locate  the  required  evidence,  enabling  the 
automated exchange of official documents between authorities (this is preceded by an explicit 
request and preview of evidence by the User). 

Achievements 

Preliminary  information  collected  in  the  context  of  the  eGovernment  Benchmark  Report45 
indicates the substantial progress in the digitisation of the procedures covered by the SDG 
Regulation: whereas 81% of the EU27+ procedures can be completed online by nationals and 
46%  by  cross-border  users,  the  SDG  related  procedures  average  84%  and  47%.  The 
Commission is working with Member States to address challenges that have occurred during 
the work on the digitisation of the relevant procedures.  

As  for  the  automated  exchange  of  evidence,  the  Commission  adopted  the  technical  and 
operational specifications of the OOTS46 and set up six groups to perform the following key 
tasks:  evidence  mapping,  technical  design,  security,  standardisation,  testing  and  operational 
governance. The Commission is developing the OOTS Common Services and supporting the 
Member States on how to ensure the technical connection between their procedure portals with 
the  Common  Services.  The  large-scale  events,  that  the  Commission  is  organising,  (called 
Projectathons)47,  have  demonstrated  the  high  functional  readiness  of  the  OOTS  Common 
Services developed by the Commission.  

To ensure interoperability between the OOTS and the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, the 
Commission also established a group with experts from Member States to assess three synergy 
types: on user experience, on investments and on semantics. Once the EUDI Wallet becomes 
operational the users will benefit from additional procedural options. For instance, users will 
be able to disclose their identity and electronic documents from their EUDI Wallet to procedure 
portals or use the OOTS to fetch electronic documents directly from the authentic source of 
information48. The evidence retrieved through the OOTS will also be downloadable. 

Finally,  more  users  will  be  able  to  benefit  from  the  SDG  (including  the  OOTS)  and  the 
simplifications they bring, as the Commission has proposed to expand their scope of application 
to new use cases as part of new legislative initiatives. Some of them will concern many citizens 
and businesses, for example in the context of the short-term accommodation rental services and 
driving licences49. Others will relate to permitting for strategic projects that are essential for the 
Green Industrial Plan, such as in the Net Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Material Act. 

Next steps 

-  Achieving the December 2023 milestone 

45 European Commission, eGovernment Benchmark 2022 – Insight Report, p. 32. 
46 Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1463 of 5 August 2022. 
47 Consisting of interoperability and compliance tests in a structured environment, to support the development and 
deployment of the OOTS. 
48 Other synergies could be envisaged such as the reuse of OOTS services by EUDI.  
49 Proposal for a Directive amending Directive (EU) 2015/413, facilitating cross-border exchange of information 
on road-safety-related traffic offences. COM(2023) 126 

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The Commission will make available the OOTS Common Services, including the interfaces 
allowing  national  coordinators,  competent  authorities,  intermediary  platforms,  and  the 
Commission,  to  manage  the  information  contained  in  these  services.  The  Commission  will 
finalise the IMI common repository for exceptions to online procedures and the IMI workflow 
for the verification of authenticity of evidence. It will assist the Member States to complete the 
registration of authorities in IMI50. 

Member States shall ensure a smooth onboarding process to enable the connection between 
the  procedure  portals  and  the  Common  Services.  As  the  OOTS  relies  on  the  eIDAS 
authentication  regulated  by  the  eIDAS  Regulation,  Member  States  have  to  notify  on  time 
electronic identification and authentication schemes for both natural and legal persons.  

-  Maximising the benefits of online ‘once only' procedures 

The Commission will explore opportunities to expand the scope of the SDG to additional 
procedures, for example, in the areas of social economy and social security coordination. This 
endeavour  can  gain  from  a  more  systematic  landscaping  exercise  of  procedures,  targeting 
especially those that help companies and citizens to do business, move and work in another EU 
country. 

Furthermore,  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  should  promote  the  progressive 
alignment and simplification of administrative procedures under the SDG across the EU, 
for example through Mutual Learning Exercises, and thereby contributing to the objective of 
reduction  of  reporting  requirements  by  25%51.  Public  authorities  with  more  complex 
administrative  processes  could  learn  from  the  authorities  that  use  simpler  ones  and  further 
promote administrative simplification and harmonisation.  

-  Maximising the benefits of the OOTS 

As  the  first  EU-wide  cross-border  and  cross-sector  government-to-government  data  space 
linking public authorities acting as trusted authentic sources of information, the OOTS is a key 
element of the emerging EU common data space. The Commission will ensure that the OOTS 
data  space  will  be  integrated  into  the  common  European  data  spaces  for  public 
administrations 52 and that it will be interoperable with other sectorial data spaces such as the 
EU health data space53. This will ensure cross-border access to data beyond a specific sector.  

The Commission will continue investigating all beneficial bridges between the OOTS and other 
EU  systems  (e.g.  the  Electronic  Exchange  of  Social  Security  Information  (EESSI))  or 
initiatives.  It  is  also  examining  how  the  OOTS  can  support  users,  and  especially  SMEs,  in 
simplifying their reporting obligations, for instance in the case of multiple reporting.  

For  the  future  evolution  of  the  OOTS,  the  potential  benefits  from  initiatives  such  as  the 
European  Blockchain  Service  Infrastructure  launched  under  the  European  Blockchain 
Partnership aiming at transforming public services into the era of web3, should be investigated. 

50 In accordance with Articles 6(4) and 15 of the SDG Regulation. 
51 As announced by President von der Leyen 15 March 2023 at the European Parliament. 
52 Other data spaces are for e.g. the public administrations legal data space, the public procurement data space (see 
2023/C 98 I/01) and the public administrations security data space for innovation (SWD/2022/45 final). 
53 COM/2022/197 final. 

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•  Member States shall ensure a smooth onboarding to enable the  connection between the 
procedure  portals  and  the  Common  Services.  They  shall  notify  the  eIDAS 
authentication scheme in particular for legal persons and reach agreements on operational 
modalities to ensure the efficient functioning and maintenance of the OOTS. 

•  The Commission will look to expand the SDG to additional procedures. It will encourage 
the use of the SDG to achieve administrative simplification and harmonisation, notably 
through  peer  review  and  mutual  learning.  It  will  ensure  that  the  OOTS  data  space 
seamlessly integrates into the broader EU common data space. 

CONCLUSION 

The  SDG  is  a  major  eGovernment  instrument  to  ensure  a  better  functioning  and  more 
competitive  Single  Market.  It  radically  improves  the  European  business  environment  and 
plays a cornerstone role in supporting SMEs. The SDG is in full deployment and increasingly 
supports businesses and citizens across Europe.  

Member States are encouraged to include the SDG in their national roadmaps to be adopted by 
9  October  2023,  to  achieve  the  targets  of  Digital  Decade  2030  and  foster  EU’s  digital 
transformation.54 

The Commission is seizing the opportunity of this report to reach out to SME representatives, 
networks  and  stakeholders,  and  gather  their  feedback  in  an  effort  to  constantly  improve  the 
instrument. 

54 Europe’s Digital Decade: digital targets for 2030 (europa.eu). 

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