SPOCS, which is the acronym for “Simple Procedures Online for Cross-border Services”, is a pilot project launched by the European Commission which aims to remove the administrative barriers that European businesses face before offering their services abroad.
SPOCS is expected to further enhance the quality of electronic procedures completion and has been designed for businesses that have an interest in cross-border activities. It will allow them to meet all the administrative obligations through a single contact point that will be available online in all EU Member States by the end of 2009.
It will initially involve at least two professional categories of service providers and its results will be widely promoted to raise awareness and to encourage innovative solutions for administrative simplification. A special effort will be placed on the dissemination of open specifications, the sharing of knowledge and best practices, as well as the encouragement for further cooperation.
A wide range of organisations is represented among the partners in order to ensure that the value chain – from decision makers to service providers and IT solutions – is well balanced, and to allow contributions from different backgrounds.
Technology solution
SPOCS will have the advantage of already benefiting from the results
achieved by similar and related projects as STORK (on electronic identity) andPEPPOL (on electronic procurement), as far as mutual recognition for the use of electronic identity and signatures is concerned.
The pilot project will be implemented in different phases and a special emphasis will be given on the development of common specifications and tools for electronic services, such as technical and semantic interoperability, the promotion of electronic documents (eDocuments) and the creation of a services directory.
At all stages, SPOCS will be carried out openly to facilitate consensus by public administrations, their suppliers and partners, industry and standardization bodies. Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning that the national systems will not be replaced, but will only take into account common specifications to ensure cross border interoperability.
EU Dimension
The timing and objectives of SPOCS are ideal for producing high impact, as well as for meeting the EU’s objectives in terms of policy and governance.
SPOCS is a pilot project in the ICT-PSP (ICT Policy Support Programme) , under the CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme) , and co-funded by EU.
During the Manchester Ministerial eGovernment Conference in 2005, the need for “Transforming Public Services” was set out and an action plan was approved by the Council in June 2006. The Manchester objectives were further enhanced in the 4th Ministerial conference that took place in Lisbon on September 2007, where the eGovernment i2010 subgroup issued a progress report entitled “National Progress Report on eGovernment in the EU27+” which stated that the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan had led to considerable progress in many areas of public services. Interoperability among Member States and reduction of administrative bureaucracy were also set as the main objectives of the Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment agreed upon during the Lisbon Conference.
On a paramount level as part of the CIP programme, SPOCS will boost growth and employment in Europe and contribute the larger agenda of the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs. SPOC offers a unique opportunity to:
- accelerate the deployment of EU-wide services, both through the work achieved on informational – contents – and transactional levels.
- contribute to the development of the EU Market and avoid both geographical and qualitative fragmentation: notably thanks to the cultural and administrative diversity of the different partners in the consortium.
- Help SMEs and service providers by bringing the EU Market to their doorstep through the networking and dissemination of the solutions developed.
SPOCS is aware of the policy and governance context in EU. The i2010 high level group and the eGovernment sub-group, including a number of ad hoc groups (e.g. e-Inclusion, e-Identity Management) form the governance structure of the EU’s efforts to support eGovernment through studies, best practice exchange, pilot projects and so on.
Based on the Directive 2006/123/EC SPOCS will build upon existing services and the first experiences in EU Member States and the emphasis focuses on the interoperability, as well as on legal and practical issues arising when implementing such services cross-border. SPOCS will attend to security issues by defining security specification and conducting formal verification of this specification.
The general principle relies upon the elaboration of common specifications and the adoption of interoperability rules which will enable different information systems to be compatible, without reconsidering the internal organization for Member States. The specifications proposed will be examined on the basis of concrete service provider professions, in order to test the pertinence and the effectiveness of the suggested solutions.
SPOCS intends to address these issues by differentiating informational – contents – and transactional levels. The development and testing of the specifications that will be elaborated will be conducted bearing in mind the need to provide open, reliable, replicable and scalable solutions. To that end, specific dissemination efforts will be made.
Moreover, SPOCS aims to closely collaborate with the Commission DGs in deliverables, events and other collaborative frameworks. DG INFSO is the central coordinator of eGovernment activities and responsibilities for eGovernment research and strategy. Additionally, Directorate-General of Informatics (DIGIT) is a proactive leader in information and communication technologies, identifying opportunities and offering, in partnership with stakeholders, innovative tools, solutions and e-services to enable the Commission to accomplish its goals more effectively and efficiently manage and deliver European policies for the benefit of EU public administrations, citizens and business.
Besides, SPOCS will take stock of the building blocks developed in the other two LSPs on eID and eProcurement, namely STORK and PEPPOL . Reference to these projects is made throughout the detailed descriptions of the Work Packages. This cohesive approach will contribute to ensure the consistency and overall strategy of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) and its contribution to the i2010 action
In summary, SPOCS is expected to:
- Improve the efficiency of cross-border cooperation by making the different approaches that are currently used in the EU countries compatible
- Support service innovations for businesses by reducing time and energy loss, and by enabling them to provide services anywhere in the EU – which is particularly useful for SMEs
- Increase cross border activities, the access to new markets and generate benefits for the overall economic growth and job creation
- Reinforce competitiveness and contribute to the development of trade, which benefits already from electronic services, such as electronic procurement and online company registration
- Accelerate the development of common technology requirements that will foster interoperability, efficiency and the quality of services
- Foster innovative technical solutions, enhanced cooperation and system interoperability that will be useful to modernize the services offered by the public administrations.
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