Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1121 of 29 July 2020 on the collection and sharing of user statistics and feedback on the services of the single digital gateway in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)

• CELEX: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1121
• Articles: 17

Article 1 Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)

‘common user feedback tool’ means the feedback tool provided by the Commission pursuant to Article 25(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(2)

‘alternative user feedback tool’ means any other feedback tool which has similar functionalities as the common user feedback tool and is available on the webpages of a competent authority for the purpose of monitoring service quality, as referred to in Article 25(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 or is available to users of the assistance and problem-solving services listed in Annex III and referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(3)

‘common dashboard’ means the interface providing service providers with access to the management functionalities of the gateway, including access to the repository for links as set out in Article 19 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(4)

‘common data repository’ means the data management tool linked to the common dashboard allowing for the collection, storage, sharing, analysis and displaying of user statistics and feedback collected in accordance with Articles 24 and 25 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(5)

‘service providers’ means all of the following:

(a)

competent authorities within the meaning of point 4 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(b)

the Commission and bodies, offices and agencies of the Union providing information, procedures and assistance or problem-solving services covered by Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(c)

providers of assistance and problem-solving services as referred to in Article 7(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(6)

‘network manager’ means the Commission and bodies, offices and agencies of the Union or an entity responsible for the coordination of the work of assistance and problem-solving services performing similar tasks in all or in the majority of Member States.

Article 2 Context data

1.   Together with the user statistics and user feedback data related to information webpages linked to the gateway, the service providers shall transmit the URL of the webpage to which the user statistics or user feedback relate.

2.   The service providers shall ensure that context data including descriptive elements to enable the identification of the substance covered by the webpage to which the URL relates are provided as follows:

(a)

as part of the meta-data of all pages which are part of the gateway structured and formatted in a way that it can be recognised by the tool referred to in paragraph 4; or

(b)

directly to the repository for links together with the relevant URL.

3.   The descriptive elements referred to in paragraph 2 shall consist of the following indicators, to be associated with the different types of pages as set out in Annex I:

(a)

the Member State;

(b)

a regional or local indicator, where the information provided only applies regionally or locally;

(c)

the language in which the information is provided on the page;

(d)

a marker that the page is part of the gateway;

(e)

the type of service or services covered on the page: information, procedure or assistance and problem-solving service;

(f)

an indication of the topic covered as set out in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 or the assistance and problem-solving service covered as set out in Annex III of that Regulation or included in the gateway in accordance with Article 7 of that Regulation.

4.   The Commission shall provide a tool to retrieve the tagging information directly from the webpages that are part of the gateway for storage in the common data repository together with the relevant URLs.

Article 3 Collection and transmission of statistics relating to information services

1.   All service providers shall collect and transmit for all the webpages providing information on rules and obligations, on procedures and on assistance and problem solving services that are part of the gateway and for which they are responsible, the number of page views within the reporting period broken down into:

(a)

the countries from which users are visiting the webpage;

(b)

the type of devices used to visit the webpage.

2.   The service providers shall ensure that the web data analytics tool used to collect the statistics referred to in paragraph 1, fulfils the technical interoperability requirements listed in Annex II to enable the automatic transmission of statistics to the common data repository.

3.   The service providers shall transmit the statistics referred to in paragraph 1, together with the URLs of the webpages to which the statistics relate, to the common data repository once per month through an application programming interface developed by the Commission.

4.   An automatic confirmation of a successful transmission or an alert if the transmission was not successful shall be provided to a service provider having attempted to transmit statistics to the common data repository pursuant to paragraph 3.

Article 4 Collection, aggregation and transmission of statistics relating to assistance and problem-solving services

1.   For the purposes of this Chapter, a request for an assistance and problem-solving service means any request submitted through an online form, email or any other communication means. Where the providers of an assistance and problem-solving service or network managers decide that it is not feasible to include statistics on requests received through phone calls, online chats, or visits in person, they shall inform the Commission thereof.

2.   Providers of assistance and problem-solving services or network managers shall communicate the number of requests to the common data repository broken down into requests:

(a)

from citizens or from businesses;

(b)

from users in a cross-border situation or from those in a national situation.

The division of requests into categories referred to in point (a) and (b) shall not apply where the service is only offered to one of the two categories of users referred to in points (a) and (b).

3.   For the purpose of paragraph 2(b) a user in a cross-border situation means a user in a situation which is not confined in all respects within a single Member State.

4.   For the purpose of collecting statistics on the subject matter of specific requests made, the provider of assistance and problem-solving service or a network manager shall provide the Commission with a list of categories for the subject matters, prior to the inclusion of such service in the gateway.

5.   The response time shall be calculated from the receipt of the request to the final response or closure of the case, on the same basis as the applicable deadlines to be respected or the average or estimated time required to deliver the service, referred to in Article 11(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724.

6.   The response times shall be calculated as an average in calendar days of the response times over a period of 6 months.

7.   The statistics shall be collected and aggregated at the level of each individual provider of the assistance and problem-solving service and shall indicate the Member State of the provider of the service. The Commission shall agree on the modalities of transmission of statistics to the common data repository with the provider of the assistance and problem-solving service or with a network manager prior to the inclusion of service in the gateway.

8.   The providers of assistance and problem-solving services or the network managers shall transmit the aggregated statistics twice a year. For the period from 1 January to 30 June the aggregated statistics shall be transmitted by 31 August, and for the period from 1 July to 31 December by 28 February of the following year, unless otherwise agreed with the Commission.

Article 5 Access to and storage of statistics

1.   The statistics aggregated and transmitted in accordance with this Chapter shall be kept in the common data repository for a maximum of 3 years from the transmission date. It shall be automatically deleted after this period has lapsed.

The deletion shall not apply to the data made available to the public in accordance with Article 24(3), last sentence of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724.

2.   The Commission shall ensure that the common dashboard enables the national coordinators, the service providers and the Commission to:

(a)

search, sort and filter the data;

(b)

visualise the data in graphs and charts;

(c)

extract the data in a form of reports and download them.

Article 6 Functionalities of the common user feedback tool

1.   The common user feedback tool referred to in Article 25(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 shall contain the following elements:

(a)

questions to solicit user feedback, user ratings and a free text box, relevant for the webpages with information, procedures and assistance and problem solving services, as included in Annex III;

(b)

surveys with detailed questions on the quality of information, of online procedures and of the assistance and problem-solving services, to be invited to participate once that user has submitted the initial feedback;

(c)

automatic transmission of the user feedback to the common data repository;

(d)

capture and transmission of the URL of the webpage to which the user feedback relates together with the user feedback.

2.   For the collection of user feedback on information and on procedures, service providers shall be able to choose between a version of the common feedback tool with or without a free text box.

3.   The Commission shall ensure that the common dashboard sends regular email messages to all service providers using the common user feedback tool to remind them that they can consult the feedback regarding their services in the common dashboard.

4.   The Commission shall make the common user feedback tool available in all official languages of the Union.

Article 7 Functionalities of the alternative user feedback tools

1.   Alternative user feedback tools used by service providers shall include:

(a)

similar questions and a rating system producing comparable results to the one used in the common user feedback tool and, for the assistance and problem-solving services a free text box allowing users to leave free text comments;

(b)

links to the surveys included in the common user feedback tool according to the type of the service;

(c)

a mechanism provided by the Commission allowing the transmission of the feedback data together with the URLs of the webpages to which the feedback relates, to the common data repository.

For the collection of user feedback on information and on procedures, service providers shall be able to choose whether to include a free text box or not.

2.   Once a user submits responses to the questions referred to in paragraph 1(a), the user shall receive a confirmation message with an invitation to provide more detailed comments by clicking on a link referred to in paragraph 1(b). The link shall direct users to a page on the common user feedback tool containing a survey on compliance with the quality requirements laid down in Regulation (EU) 2018/1724.

3.   Point (b) of paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 shall not apply where a service provider already collects feedback on questions which are similar to those included in the survey.

Article 8 Collection of user feedback on online procedures

The service providers shall integrate the common or an alternative user feedback tool in a way that makes it easy for users to provide their feedback either following submission of the request or in case they choose not to submit a request in the end.

Article 9 Collection of user feedback from users of assistance and problem-solving services

The providers of assistance and problem-solving services shall ensure that users of their services who can be reached by digital means receive an invitation to provide their feedback on the service received that is sent either in conjunction with the final response provided by the assistance and problem-solving service provider or within a short time thereafter, which shall not exceed ten working days.

Article 10 Transmission of user feedback

1.   All feedback provided by users through the common user feedback tool together with the URL links referred to in Article 2 shall be transferred automatically, as soon as it is provided by users, to the common data repository.

2.   The service providers collecting feedback through an alternative user feedback tool shall use the mechanism referred to in Article 7(1)(c) and shall comply with the technical interoperability requirements set out in Annex II to enable the transfer of user feedback as soon as it is provided by users, simultaneously to the national user feedback recipients and to the common data repository.

Alternatively, they shall transfer asynchronously, in bulk, all feedback provided during a calendar month, within five working days following the end of that calendar month.

3.   Service providers using an alternative user feedback tool shall ensure that:

(a)

only the feedback to questions and ratings corresponding to those in the common user feedback tool are transferred to the common data repository;

(b)

feedback provided as free text is not transmitted to the common data repository;

(c)

the URLs of the webpages from which feedback is collected are transmitted together with the feedback to the common data repository.

4.   Where service providers qualify for the exception laid down in Article 7(3), they shall ensure that the feedback on questions that are similar to those included in a survey is transmitted to the common data repository.

Article 11 Access to and storage of user feedback

1.   The data on user feedback shall be stored in the common data repository linked to the common dashboard.

2.   The Commission shall provide the following access rights to the user feedback stored in the common data repository:

(a)

national coordinators and the Commission shall have access to user feedback with the exception of free text comments;

(b)

service providers shall have access to user feedback concerning services for which they are responsible, including free text comments provided by users using the common feedback tool.

3.   The Commission shall ensure that the user feedback is stored in the common data repository for a maximum of 3 years and is automatically deleted after this period.

4.   The Commission shall ensure that the common dashboard enables its users to:

(a)

search, sort and filter the feedback;

(b)

visualise it in charts and graphs;

(c)

extract the data in the form of reports and download them.

Article 12 Responsibilities

1.   The service providers using alternative user feedback tools shall be responsible for:

(a)

the functioning of their own tools through which they collect user feedback under Regulation (EU) 2018/1724;

(b)

the transfer of the feedback to the common data repository through the interconnection service provided by the Commission, in bulk or in any other form of transfer;

(c)

complying with the technical requirements laid down in this Regulation;

(d)

the security of the national tools collecting and participating in the transmission of the user feedback.

2.   The service providers using the common user feedback tool shall be responsible for the insertion of links to that tool in accordance with this Regulation.

3.   The Commission shall be responsible for:

(a)

the functioning, security and the accessibility of the common user feedback tool;

(b)

the links to the common feedback tool to be included in the Union-level webpages;

(c)

the functioning of the interconnection service referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1;

(d)

maintaining and ensuring the availability of the infrastructure necessary for receiving data transfers.

Article 13 Personal data

1.   The service providers or network managers in case of assistance and problem-solving services shall ensure that the statistics aggregated and transmitted by them to the common data repository do not contain any personal data.

2.   The common user feedback tool shall allow users to comment anonymously about their experience with the services provided through the gateway. The free text box shall include a warning to users not to include personal data.

Article 14 Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .

It shall apply from 12 December 2020.

Schedules & Appendices

ANNEX I Indicators for tagging referred to in Article 2(3)

ANNEX I

Indicators for tagging referred to in Article 2(3)

Elements that must form part of the tagging information to be included in the metadataof the webpages that are part of the single digital gateway

Generic part

Country code

Sub-national code (where applicable)

Type of service

( *1 )

Language of the page

Area covered by Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1724

Service covered by Annex III or Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724

Single Digital Gateway (SDG)

Following ISO 3166 –Alpha 2 code (EL for Greece)

Following NUTS 1-3 or LAU

Following ISO 639-1 Alpha 2 Code

A-Q

01-09

Full title of service

Webpages with information on rules, rights and obligations

X

x

x

Information

x

x

x

Not applicable

Webpages with information on procedures

X

x

x

Procedure

x

x

x

Not applicable

Webpages with information on assistance or problem solving services

x

x

x

Assistance

x

Not applicable

Not applicable

x

( *1 )   If a page contains information on more than one type of service or covers more than one information area, all relevant elements must be included in or associated with that page.

ANNEX II

ANNEX II

Technical requirements referred to in Article 3(2) and Article 10(2)

Data transmission

An Application Programming Interface (API) gateway will expose a Representational State Transfer (REST) API. Each service provider collection system can call this API:

(1)

in real time – no limitation to the number of calls;

(2)

regularly, according to a schedule chosen by the service provider.

API security

Communication with the API Gateway will be secured via an API Key. Each service provider will have a specific API Key. This key will allow to secure the communication (encryption of the channel) and to know which service provider is sending data (authentication).

API Keys will be available on a dedicated back-office web application. Each service provider will generate his key on the web application, download it and install on its premises.

Requirements enabling the data transmission

For the purpose of ensuring automatic transmission, the web analytics tool referred to in Article 3(2) and the alternative user feedback tool referred to in Article 10(2) shall:

(a)

allow transmission of data in JSON format via REST APIs;

(b)

support secure connections with Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL);

(c)

support ISO 8601 for the representation of date and time. Date and time data shall be expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC);

(d)

support a unique identifier for transmissions. A service provider pushes the data with a unique identifier provided through the API. If a service provider decides to change this data, it must push a correction with the same unique identifier.

The frequency of transmission of statistics should not change the structure of the JSON file. For example, the JSON could contain array of objects (one per set of statistics for the reference period), an array of length n;

The Commission shall provide a detailed technical description of the API for user feedback and statistics.

ANNEX III

ANNEX III

User feedback questions in the common user feedback tool, referred to in Article 6(1)(a):

(1)

Questions related to information on webpages

•

Found what you were looking for? (mutually exclusive options: YES/NO/PARTLY) [mandatory field]

( *1 )

•

Rate this page (star rating: from 1 to 5) [mandatory field]

•

Help us improve (free text box) [optional field]

(2)

Questions related to procedures

•

Rate how easy it was to use this procedure (star rating from 1 to 5) [mandatory field]

•

Help us improve (free text box) [optional field]

(3)

Questions related to assistance and problem-solving services

•

Rate the service provided (star rating from 1 to 5) [mandatory field]

•

Help us improve (free text box) [optional field]

The user feedback tool for information and procedures will be prepared in two versions: one with the free text box and another without the free text box enabling the service providers to choose which one to use in accordance with Article 6(2).

( *1 )

The text in brackets ‘[…]’ informs about the fields that will be used in the common user feedback tool.