The European Parliament adopted by 539 votes to 61 with 17 abstentions a legislative resolution on 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.
The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission proposal as follows:
Aims: the Regulation shall establish a user-friendly, interactive gateway which, based on users' needs, should guide them to the most appropriate services. In that context, the Commission and Member States should play an important role in achieving those objectives.
The gateway shall contribute to the greater transparency of rules and regulations relating to different business and life events, in areas such as travel, retirement, education, employment, healthcare, consumer rights and family rights. Furthermore, it shall help improve consumers' confidence, address the lack of knowledge about consumer protection and internal market rules and reduce compliance costs for businesses.
The gateway set up by the Commission and the Member States shall include a common user interface integrated into the existing Your Europe portal, to be managed by the Commission. The gateway shall provide access and links to relevant national and Union websites and webpages.
The gateway shall be easily findable through the related portals for which they are responsible and that clear links to the gateway are included through search facilities accessible to the public and in all relevant websites and webpages at Union and national level.
The logo of the gateway and a link to the gateway shall be made visible and available on the relevant Union-level and national-level websites that are connected to the gateway.
Once-only principle and data protection: the Regulation shall facilitate the use of online procedures, including by users from other Member States, and facilitate the exchange of supporting documents for the procedures listed in Annex II to the proposed Regulation and for the procedures provided for in Directives 2005/36/EC, 2006/123/EC, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU by applying the ‘once-only’ principle which aims at ensuring that citizens and business are requested to supply the same information only once to a public administration, which can then be re-used.
The Regulation shall fully respect the fundamental right to the protection of personal data, for the purpose of the exchange of evidence between competent authorities in different Member States.
Procedures to be offered fully online: each Member State shall ensure that users can access and complete any of the procedures listed in Annex II fully online, provided that the relevant procedure has been established in the Member State concerned.
Annex II shall cover, inter alia, the application for a certificate of registration of a birth, the application for proof of residence, the submission of a first application for admission to a higher education institution, an application for academic recognition of diplomas, a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), a confirmation of receipt of the income or corporation tax return or a proof of registration of a motor vehicle.
Quality requirements: in order to ensure that the single digital portal meets the needs of users, Parliament has proposed to establish standards for the quality of information. Thus, the information shall: (i) be user-friendly, (ii) enable users to easily find and understand the information, (iii) be accurate and sufficiently comprehensive, (iv) mention the name of the competent authority responsible for its content, (v) be accessible in an official language of the Union that is broadly understood by the largest possible number of cross-border users.
In addition, in the event of a deterioration in the quality of the information, procedures and assistance and problem-solving services provided by the competent authorities, the Commission may: (i) inform the national coordinator concerned and request remedial action; (ii) submit for discussion within the coordination group of the portal recommended actions to improve compliance with quality requirements; (iii) temporarily disconnect the information, procedures or services providing assistance or problem-solving from the gateway.
Translation of information: where a Member State does not provide the information, explanations and instructions, in an official language of the Union broadly understood by the largest possible number of cross-border users, that Member State shall request the Commission to provide translations into that language, within the limits of the available Union budget. Translation may be limited to the information that users need in order to understand the basic rules and requirements that apply to their situation.
Cross-border access to online procedures: the amended text ensures that, if Member States provide certain procedures to their nationals, they should also provide them in a non-discriminatory manner to cross-border users so that they can exercise their rights in the internal market deriving from Union law and comply with these obligations and rules.
Entry into force: municipal authorities shall have a maximum of 4 years from the entry into force of the Regulation to implement the requirement to provide information on rules, procedures and services for assistance and problem solving under their responsibility.
The provisions of the Regulation relating to procedures to be offered in full online, cross-border access to online procedures and the technical system for the automated cross-border exchange of supporting documents in accordance with the 'once only' principle shall be implemented at the latest 5 years after the entry into force of the Regulation.