The "Once-Only" Principle

The main objective of The “Once-Only” Principle Project (TOOP) is to explore and demonstrate the functionality of the “once-only” principle through sustainable multiple pilots, using a federated architecture on a cross-border collaborative pan-European scale in order to identify drivers and barriers and to provide a basis for future implementation and wider use. The functionality of the “Once-Only” Principle (OOP) is explored and demonstrated in three pilots: Cross-border eServices for Business Mobility, Updating Connected Company Data and Online Ship and Crew Certificates. The methodological approach of TOOP is based on an exploratory and agile pilot life-cycle approach to sustainable multiple cross-border pilots of e-services, the planning and implementation of which is supported by the development of a generic federated architecture and building blocks, the identification and mitigation of barriers (including the legal issues) and the evaluation of the results, with pro-active dissemination and sustainable exploitation of the results throughout the project. TOOP’s main technological innovation is a generic federated OOP architecture that supports the interconnection and interoperability of national registries at the EU level. The pilots planned are ambitious as they contain product, service and organisational innovations not existing in the market today and provide a basis for recommendations for future implementations and the wider use of the OOP.