Dear reader,

Welcome to the January 2012 issue of the SPOCS newsletter! I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year 2012! May this year surpass the previous one, in both personal and professional achievements!

The global financial crisis has stimulated Europe’s thinking: the results are encompassed in the Europe 2020 strategy. The strategy adopts a cross-sector approach, explaining how Europe can become a “smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion”. The Digital Agenda stresses the need for European public administrations to provide efficient, effective cross-border eGovernment services. The EU Services Directive already requires all procedures involved in establishing a business and providing services in another EU country to be fully online.

According to the European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015, to support the Internal Market, governments should develop ‘seamless’ services for entrepreneurs to set up and run a business anywhere in Europe and allowing individuals to study, work, reside, receive health care and retire anywhere in the European Union. Businesses should be able to sell and provide services and products all across the EU, through easy electronic public procurement and the effective implementation of the Services offering single points of contact to businesses for their interactions with government. As stated in the Action Plan: “SPOCS ‘Simple Procedures Online for Cross-border Services’ aims at removing the administrative barriers that European business face when wanting to offer their services abroad, by supporting the implementation of next generation points of single contact and the associated eProcedures”.

SPOCS is one of several Large Scale Pilot’s (LSP) building software components and demonstrating e-services intended for reuse after the project is completed. Indeed, SPOCS is already reusing some of the software components of the STORK and PEPPOL projects and, in turn, SPOCS and other LSP building blocks will be reused within the newer project for e-Justice services e-CODEX and other future LSPs. Thus, the long term sustainability of SPOCS is linked to the fate of other LSPs and begs the question: Should there be a single cross-LSP action that sustains the infrastructural LSP outcomes as an integrated set? How can the LSPs together participate to such a joint initiative?

All interested parties have the opportunity to influence developments, provide feedback and make proposals by participating in one of the following groups while registering at www.eu-spocs.eu:

• Member States and PSCs
• IT Industry and Standards Bodies
• Large Scale Pilots
• Business Representatives and End User
• Local Government

To keep in touch, please register here. This will enable you to access further information regarding the latest developments.
Kind Regards,
SPOCS Newsletter team

Join Spocs On

SPOCS Industry and Business representatives Group meeting, 16 November 2011- Poznan, Poland

Since the previous contact with the Industry and Business representatives group, SPOCS has been very active in taking its specifications from paper to the real world of live pilots. Indeed, all the technical modules have been developed and integrated to national portals. Moreover, In June 2011 SPOCS has entered the “piloting phase” as three professions (Real Estate Agent, Travel Agent and Master Builder) were launched on the PSC portals of Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland in a real life environment. The second wave, introducing the professions of architect and tourist animator, is undergoing its final preparations in order to go live early 2012.

Participants of the meeting learned how SPOCS solutions work in real life situations. The first experiences of piloting Member States were presented.

The two-day forum was the first of a series of similar conferences that will take place in the coming years. It marked the starting point of a debate among EU institutions and stakeholders on the development of the Single Market.

• Wendy Carrara, Deputy Programme Director, spoke at the ePractice Event: Collaborative production of eGovernment services
• Wendy Carrara spoke at ePractice Event:Addressing evolving needs for cross-border eGovernment services
• Dinand Tinholt, SPOCS Programme Director, spoke at OPEN DAYS 2011(session: New business models in ICT intensive public services delivery)

The Commission has launched an Open Data Strategy for Europe, which is expected to deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU's economy each year. Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential: the large volumes of information collected by numerous public authorities and services.

Modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive will make it easier for professionals to find skilled jobs across Europe

The proposal aims at simplifying rules for the mobility of professionals within the EU by offering a European Professional Card to all interested professions which would allow easier and faster recognition of qualifications

Europeans continue to see the European Union as the most effective actor – ahead of national governments – in tackling the effects of the economic crisis. The EU remains in first place (23%, +1) and is followed by national governments (20%, unchanged).

The functioning and usability of the Points of Single Contact - Preliminary study results

Richard Doherty (Partner, Deloitte) gave a presentation titled “The functioning and usability of the Points of Single Contact - Preliminary study results” during the Doing business made easier? Making the most of the "Points of Single Contact" conference (28 November 2011).

Single Market News

The latest English version of Single Market News issue 62 is now available.

Doing business made easier: the "Points of Single Contact"- (The Krakow Declaration, Single Market Forum, 3-4 October 2011)

The Single Market Forum calls on EU countries to improve the availability, quality and userfriendliness of their PSCs. To facilitate and promote trade across borders, Member States must simplify access and use of the PSC for entrepreneurs from other EU countries.

• 6th Ministerial Conference on Borderless eGovernment: ePractice TV Interview: Wendy Carrara SPOCS Deputy Programme Director
• Video: 6th Ministerial eGovernment Conference: Wendy Carrara speaks during Session 14: Cross-Border e-Services
• Conference "Doing business made easier? Making the most of the 'Points of Single Contact'" a great success
• 6th Borderless eGovernment Services for Europeans: Opening ceremony with Commissioner Neelie Kroes- Exhibition visit to the LSP stands
• Neelie Kroes’, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, speech "Build, Connect, Grow": The road towards borderless eGovernment (6th Ministerial eGovernment Conference, Poznan Poznan, 17 November 2011)
• Director General Philippe de Buck discussed the implementation of the digital agenda with Robert Madelin, Director General of the Commission’s DG on Information Society and Media
• Single Market Forum- Krakow Declaration

• Information Systems 2012
• I-ESA - Shaping Enterprise Interoperability in Future Internet
• CeDEM12 - International Conference for eDemocracy and Open Government 2012