Marlene Mizzi, Rapporteur. – Mr President, free movement in the single market is one of the biggest achievements of the EU. It provides opportunities for millions of EU citizens and businesses: to travel, study, work, shop and live in other Member States. Unfortunately, many still encounter difficulties when moving, working or studying in another Member State because facing 28 different national systems can be very frustrating and daunting both for citizens and for businesses looking to expand to new markets. Therefore, as the rapporteur on this legislation, I needed to understand where the challenges lie in order to address the issues in the interests of our citizens.

The paradox we discovered during our work was that the problem was not always a lack of legislation, information or existing procedures. On the contrary, in many cases it was the existence of legislation which complicated matters. It was therefore important to address issues such as lengthy or unclear administrative procedures, complex and confusing information – which is all over the place – and difficulties in getting access to various public services. To make matters worse, when information is available only in a single language, it is not necessarily understood by the majority of the users. So voting in favour of the new rules tomorrow will help Parliament to reach an important milestone in significantly improving the lives of citizens and businesses, and will showcase the tangible benefits that the European Union can bring to its citizens.

The new rules will establish a user-friendly, interactive European Single Digital Gateway which, based on people’s needs, will guide them to the most appropriate services and will provide access to all the necessary information and administrative procedures needed to move freely in the European Union. In simple words, we will create a European search engine which will connect all public services in Member States and will assist with information and procedures that currently are often scattered, incomplete and certainly not transparent.

The gateway will provide information on matters such as travelling, working and retiring, residing and having access to education and healthcare, family residence, and citizens and consumer rights in the EU. Furthermore, it is not only information that is important, but also the quality of information, and that is why we are introducing quality standards in Member States to ensure high-quality, accurate and up-to-date information, which will also be accessible to end-users with disabilities.

The gateway will also provide full, online, fair, non-discriminatory access to a list of 21 key administrative procedures such as requesting birth certificates, applying for study grants, requesting social security benefits, enrolling at universities, requesting diplomas, declaring income tax, and so on and so forth.

Another important milestone achieved with this legislation is the ‘once only’ principle, which for the first time ever will be introduced at European level. This means that citizens will no longer have to submit the same documents over and over again, but instead will submit them only once, and they can then be reused, while fully respecting the protection of personal data. And what is very important is that, whatever information people need, they will be able to obtain it in more than a single language.

This effectively means no more wasting precious time and money; no more red tape and complex procedures; no more papers and hours of waiting in long queues in public places. Therefore, I urge all of you to support this regulation – a new important step towards providing a responsive, inclusive, borderless, user-friendly, digital public service to citizens and businesses at national and European level.

Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to the shadow rapporteurs, to the Commission and to the Bulgarian Presidency for their open and collaborative work on this report. We worked under extreme pressure and to a strict timetable but, when there is a will, a way will always be found to improve lives and to deliver tangible benefits to our citizens.