Assistance services

Annex III to the SDG Regulation defines cross-border assistance services where citizens and businesses can ask questions or present issues concerning their rights, obligations, single market rules or procedures.  The authorities responsible for assistance services must provide assistance in their subject area in accordance with the SDG Regulation and other EU regulations (e.g. the Professional Qualifications Directive). In addition, the SDG Regulation obliges assistance services to produce information on them via the Your Europe portal and to collect information on visits to the assistance services’ web pages, their customer cases, and the quality of the service provided.

Organise the service and produce information

Assistance services include

The assistance service must comply with the quality requirements of the SDG Regulation.

According to Article 16 of the Regulation:

  1. The service must be provided within a reasonable timeframe.
  2. When deadlines are extended, the customer must be informed of the reasons and of the new deadline.
  3. If a service requires a payment, it must be possible to pay any fees online from another EU Member State.  

Article 11 of the SDG Regulation lays down the requirements for the quality of information on assistance services.

The assistance service’s web page must contain a clear and user-friendly description of the service in Finnish, Swedish and English.

The web page must clearly state:

  • the type of service provided, its purpose, and the expected outcome
  • the contact details of the parties responsible for the service, such as a telephone number, email address, electronic questionnaire or any other
  • widely used electronic means of communication that is most suitable for the type of service provided and the target audience of that service
  • the fees and electronic payment methods applicable to the service
  • the service deadlines and, if there are no deadlines, the average or estimated time spent on the service
  • the languages in which the assistance service can be contacted and which can be used in subsequent contact.

Make sure that the web page contains the Your Europe logo and that the logo links to the portal.

For more information on the placement of the Your Europe logo on web pages, see the Commission’s guidance.
 

The SDG Regulation obliges Member States to provide information on the assistance services defined in Annex III via the Your Europe portal.

Member States are obliged to report information about the web pages of their assistance services via the Your Europe portal's user interface for authorities.

In order to register information about the web pages in your assistance service, you need

  1. an EU login user account
  2. Rights to access the Your Europe user interface for authorities.

You can request rights to access the user interface for authorities from the Digital Single Market team by email.

When you are able to log in to Your Europe’s user interface for authorities, register the web page of the assistance service in Finnish, Swedish and English and provide all the requested descriptions and metadata in the user interface. Also remember to update the information about the assistance service in Your Europe’s user interface for authorities if changes arise.

If the person responsible for the information on Your Europe changes, the new person responsible must obtain an EU login user account. Then, either the former person responsible for the information or the new person must contact the Digital Single Market team to update the Your Europe rights for the assistance service.