eGovernment Competence Centre and new media - EU Services Directive
Administrative procedures are to become simpler
With the EU Services Directive the European Union asked its Member States in 2006 to enforce the necessary legal and administrative regulations for meeting the goals of the Directive by the end of 2009. The Directive is intended to significantly simplify and facilitate free movement of services within the Community.
The simplification of administration (Chapter 2 of the Directive) for the benefit of companies forms the core of the Directive. Accordingly, the Member States are asked to:
- check the simplicity of the applicable procedures and formalities for taking up and exercising a service activity, and where necessary to simplify them (Art. 5 - simplification of administration),
- appoint single points of contact, via whom the service providers can handle all the procedures and formalities within the framework of their service activity (Art. 6 - single point of contact),
- ensure that all procedures and formalities can easily be handled remotely and electronically via the single point of contact or with the authority responsible (Art. 8 - electronic process handling),
- Adjust and expand company-related services accordingly.
The portal services must incorporate the lowest layers, i.e. extend into the processing, the so-called back-office, and thus form the basis for electronic process handling. The Virtual SME Office offers the state capital of Düsseldorf a suitable basis for the further portal components to implement the EU Services Directive. The extensions to the services offered in the portal will include
- an encryption service that makes it possible for all participants to communicate with one another and exchange data securely and in line with data protection regulations,
- an identity service that makes it possible for all participants to access information in accordance with their roles and - initially also without an electronic signature - to interact with one another in identifiable form,
- electronic forms connected to the corresponding specialist applications in the back-office for integrated electronic process handling and
- an e-payment solution in order to be able to handle payment processes electronically
and be successively implemented in the Virtual SME Office.
Virtual SME Office
The Düsseldorf company portal for all company-related services.
Further information
