Businesses seeking to expand into other countries often struggle to comply with all the regulations they need to follow. Applying for licenses, permits and completing other administrative procedures in another country can be very complicated. This is even true in countries where eGovernment is quite advanced. Online services in foreign countries can have different service levels or follow a different logic to the services businesses use in their own countries.
The EU has initiated the SPOCS (Simple Procedures Online for Cross-Border Services) project to overcome these obstacles.
The EU Services Directive already requires all procedures involved in establishing a business and providing services in another EU country to be fully online. The SPOCS project is now taking things a step further by streamlining those procedures and offering seamless cross- border technology.
May 2011 will see the launch of the first services using SPOCS that will support travel agents, real estate agents and master builders in establishing a presence and doing business in other EU countries.
Businesses are invited to test-drive the new services, which will initially span 5 Member States. Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland will all demonstrate their services in the SPOCS pilot. Other EU Member States will join later in the year. More information and updates will be published on the SPOCS site and in future newsletters.
To learn more about SPOCS or register for the newsletter, please go to http://www.eu-spocs.eu/
All interested parties have the opportunity to influence developments, provide feedback and make proposals by participating in one of the following groups while registering to the SPOCS site http://www.eu-spocs.eu/ :
Member States – PSCs
Large Scale Pilots
IT Industry and Standards Bodies
Business Representatives and End Users
Local Government
Further information:
SPOCS website: http://www.eu-spocs.eu/
Services Directive: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/services/services-dir/index_en.htm
Editorial Contacts:
SPOCS Press Office:
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The Malta Chamber of SMEs represents over 7,000 members from over 90 different sectors which in their majority are either small or medium sized companies, and such issues like the one we're experiencing right now, it's important to be united. Malta Chamber of SMEs offers a number of different services tailored to its members' individual requirements' and necessities. These range from general services offered to all members to more individual & bespoke services catered for specific requirements.
A membership with Malta Chamber of SMEs will guarantee that you are constantly updated and informed with different opportunities which will directly benefit your business and help you grow. It also entails you to a number of services which in their majority are free of charge and offered exclusively to its members (in their majority all free of charge).
