At the final inter-institutional meeting on Thursday 24 May, the European Parliament and the Council reached general political agreement on the regulation putting in place a single digital gateway for administrative procedures, including on the legal basis of the text, the language regime and the date of entry into force.
On the legal basis, in addition to Article 114 which deals with the approximation of legislations, Article 21 paragraph 2 was introduced to cover the free movement of individuals, according to our information. The Commission and the Parliament argued for the addition of Article 21:2 whereas the Council wanted only Article 114.
The agreement reached will now stipulate that member states should make information available in the most broadly understood language by cross-border users, according to a source. The form of words here is identical to that of the Council’s general approach (see EUROPE 11916). Initially, the Commission proposed that information should be available in at least one other official EU languages in addition to the national language or languages.
The transposition period could exceed four and a half years, according to a source. Another source said that the agreement reached allowed up to five years for some Articles. This would be in line with the Council’s general approach which set five years for the entry into force of a number of articles, including Article 5 on access to administrative procedures.
On Article 5, indeed, the physical presence of a user could be required by national authorities for “overriding reasons of public interest”. Article 10 on quality requirements related to online procedures is believed to have been removed, in line with the Council position.
At the previous inter-institutional meeting (see EUROPE 12009), the Council of the EU is believed to have made a concession to the European Parliament in allowing use of the Your Europe portal. The Council is also thought to have conceded on extending the duties of the gateway coordination group, in line with Parliament demands.
A technical meeting is scheduled for 1 June, according to our information.
Little information had filtered out at the time these lines were being written. EUROPE will return to this matter in the coming days. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)