Seite - 52 - in Austrian Law Journal, Band 1/2019

ALJ 2019 Peter Egger et al 52 contacts, failing to achieve the desired success.110 The SDG Regulation is now much more ambitious: It will create a digital single gateway (based on the existing information portal “Your Europe”) “to act as a single entry point through which citizens and businesses are able to access information about the rules and requirements that they have to comply with, by virtue of EU or national law”.111 This gateway is intended to provide EU citizens with easier cross-border access to the following content: (a) Information on the rules and requirements to be complied with under national and/or EU law in cross-border economic activities (Articles 4, 5). These include, for example, registration of a company, changes in its legal form, licensing requirements, protection of intellectual property, directors' liability, labour and social insurance law, product liability, etc. (b) Information on the conduct of administrative112 procedures in Member States (Art. 6). In addition, 13 basic procedures laid down in Annex II of the SDG Regulation must be completely feasible online (e.g. applying for proof of residence or study grants and loans, claiming pension benefits, etc.). (c) Contact with support and problem-solving services (Art. 7). The service should support those seeking help with regard to comprehension or application problems. Chapter III of the SDG Regulation lays down quality requirements, which must be met by the information and administrative procedures of the EU and the Member States accessible via the single entry point. It is not necessary to offer all information directly within the SDG, links to national homepages (e.g. local authorities) are permissible. However, all information must be translated into English (the “official language of the Union that is most widely studied as a foreign language by users across the Union”)113. As far as online procedures are concerned, the SDG Regulation does not lay down any substantive or procedural rules, but focuses on technical requirements. Member States are obliged to grant non-discriminatory access to existing online procedures to users from other EU countries. In this respect, factual hurdles such as forms based on national data formats, which constitute indirect discrimination, are particularly inadmissible. Furthermore, the once-only principle for online administrative procedures is introduced.114 According to this principle, individuals and companies no longer have to submit information that has already been collected by national authorities, but can request that it be exchanged between authorities.115 In view of the exchange of sensitive data between administrations, there are detailed requirements for encryption.116 The once-only principle could result in the reduction of bureaucratic burdens and transaction costs.117 The implementation of the SDG Regulation will raise serious organisational and legal challenges for national, regional and local administrations – the translation requirement not being the least 110 For further information on the implementation deficits of the PSC see European Commission, The Performance of the Points of Single Contact – an assessment against the PSC Charter, Jun. 29, 2015, available at https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/performance-points-single-contact-%E2%80%93-assessment-against-psc- charter-0_en. 111 Recital 12 of the SDG Regulation. 112 Court procedures are not covered by the SDG Regulation (cf. Recital 8 of the SDG Regulation). 113 Art. 12 para 3 of the SDG Regulation. 114 Akkaya and Krcmar, Towards the Implementation of the EU-Wide “Once-Only Principle”: Perceptions of Citizens in the DACH-Region, in ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT (Parycek P. et al. ed., 2018). 115 Art.14 of the SDG Regulation. 116 Cf. Recitals 52 seq. of the SDG Regulation. 117 Pilz, Der Vorschlag der EU Kommission für eine Verordnung zur Errichtung eines zentralen digitalen Zugangstors, 28 EUROPÄISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WIRTSCHAFTSRECHT 922 (2017).