A Common Data Model for Once-Only Cross-Border Data Exchanges in Europe

The Once-Only Principle has evolved into a main keystone of the European Union (EU)’s overall digital agenda in the coming years, as well as existing EU Regulations with the purpose of easing the free movement of citizens and businesses between Member State (MS) countries. This principle aims at lowering administrative burdens by giving information only once when interacting with public administrations. However, concerning cross-border settings, maintaining the interoperability between the different digital services offered by various EU public administrations can be a difficult task. This paper presents a common Exchange Data Model (EDM) for describing once-only cross-border message transactions in a more cohesive and unified way by utilizing existing open European standards and technical specifications as building blocks. Moreover, the proposed EDM specification is part of the EU financed Large-Scale Pilot “The Once-Only Principle Project” (TOOP) and the results of the specification piloting within the project's context are also presented.