Providing information for a mobile citizen – the Single Digital Gateway provides?
Dr. Bastiaan Didden
Researcher
Choosing to work or live in another country often does not happen overnight. Obtaining information beforehand is indispensable. To this end, numerous websites can be consulted that provide further insight into conceivable administrative, fiscal and social security law issues you may be confronted with as a mobile worker or ‘cross-border’ pensioner. These are often national websites or websites that highlight the situation of two countries. Tools such as the Fair Mobility Tool and the tool included on grensinfo.nl also provide at-a-glance insight into the points of interest when working and/or living in another country for various conceivable topics.
The need – in view of traffic freedoms – for adequate digital information provision for mobile citizens (and companies) has also been recognised at European level. In this context, particular reference can be made to the so-called Single Digital Gateway Regulation. An actuality (more on this later), which has prompted action particularly among government organisations. As its name suggests , the regulation aims to provide mobile EUcitizens a single online portal containing information about other countries. This online portal is called Your Europe. This portal can serve as a starting point to obtain more information on topics that come into play when living and/or working in an (other) EUMember State. In terms of topics , this could include ‘travel’, ‘pension’ but also ‘healthcare’ , for example. Via a handy step-by-step plan, this information can then be requested per topic and per EU Member State . Incidentally, the information is not included on Your Europe, but from this portal is redirected to the government websites of the relevant EU Member State. The relevant information there should also be accessible in the English language.
Another aspect of the Single Digital Gateway regulation that is worth mentioning, concerns the so-called ‘once only principle’. The thrust of this principle is that once you as a citizen have provided data to a government organisation, that organisation can share the data with another government organisation. Specifically , this would mean that, as a citizen, you only have to provide the data once. Also in a ‘mobile’ situation and if another government organisation of another EU Member State is involved. How this will work out in concrete terms is currently still ‘work in progress’ (see , for example, this EU website about this , where privacy aspects are also taken into account , of course ). Ostensibly, such a behind-the-scenes exchange can be meaningful for a mobile citizen from an administrative point of view. The word choice ‘of significance’ in previous sentence is not unconscious, several aspects are yet to be crystallised. Although according to this post on digitaloverheid.nl for implementation of the Single Digital Gateway regulation was 12 December 2023, however, the aforementioned news item states that several steps still need to be taken by Dutch government organisations. To keep abreast of developments on the Dutch side on this issue , please refer to digitaloverheid.nl.