The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has published the report Proactive Public Services in the EU: Readiness, maturity, and pathways to implementation (Nikiforova, Rodriguez Müller and Tangi, 2026), a study on how proactive public services (PPS) are designed and governed in Europe. The AOC has participated as one of the 20 organizations from 12 member states interviewed, and is among the people expressly thanked in the report.
The central conclusion: the main restriction of proactive services it's not the technology, but the preparation in governanceProactivity is a service logic, the administration anticipates the need and acts without prior request, and should not be confused with digitalization, automation or personalization, which responds to this way i on the service is provided, not to here starts it.
The study's recommendations
The report formulates 26 recommendations: 8 addressed to European institutions and 18 to public administrations.
At the European level, proposes four lines of action: develop differentiated guides that are sensitive to the maturity of each administration, with legal interpretative support (model clauses and scenarios by type of service); create networks of skills for mutual learning and direct support to administrations with less capacity; strengthen common enablers (reference architectures, reusable blocks) and enable test environments (sandboxes) for cross-border services of vital events; and promote a sovereign and responsible AI, with inclusion and multi-channel guidelines.
For public administrations, the recommendations are grouped into five priorities:
- Preparation and strategic selectivity: define proactivity as a service logic, diagnose readiness before escalating, establish legal bases from the beginning of the design and prioritize services where proactivity provides clear public value (reduce non-access to rights, simplify high-burden vital events).
- Institutionalize capabilities: overcome project logic with permanent multidisciplinary teams, systematically use vital fact mapping, manage internal resistance as a governance challenge and train all profiles in data and AI.
- Data, interoperability and contracting: invest in data quality and orchestration before advanced AI, ensure that citizens can see and correct their data, and align procurement with modular architectures that avoid supplier dependency.
- Responsible AI and human oversight: apply the approach purpose-first and the "zero question" (is AI needed?), designing consent and reversibility by type of service, treating explainability as a design requirement and preserving human supervision in high-impact services.
- Inclusion and learning: multi-channel with accessible alternatives, proportional participation of citizens beyond usability tests, and integrated evaluation from the beginning, distinguishing service performance from the feeling associated with the vital event.
Innovative practices in Europe
The study collects reference experiences. Estonia stands out on several fronts: federated data architecture X-Road, digital services based on vital facts promoted by ministries, the network of virtual assistants Bureaucrat and, especially, the data tracker (date tracker), which allows each person to see which authority has accessed their data, when and for what purpose, a mechanism that the report points to as a model of transparència which reinforces legitimacy.
Belgica the platform provides MAGDA of Flanders, a more centralized model of data exchange between administrations that makes the principle effective once-only. Denmark participates with the Tax Agency, a classic example of proactivity in the tax field, where clearly defined eligibility allows pre-filled declarations and automatic actions. Germany, the FITKO federation articulates interoperability between federal, state and municipal levels, while regional hubs such as Schleswig-Holstein explore service innovation.
The common pattern identified by the study is revealing: current value comes mostly from mature mechanisms—interoperable records, rules-based automation, pre-filled forms, and notifications—and not from advanced AI, the mature cases of which remain scarce.
The legal framework to promote personalized and proactive services
The report devotes special attention to law as an enabling condition. The current European framework already provides an operational basis: the Interoperability Regulation (Interoperable Europe Act) facilitates the exchange of data between administrations; the European framework fordigital identity and the future EUDI wallet provide verifiable identification and credentials; and the once-only technical system of the single digital gateway reduces the resubmission of documents by citizens and companies.
However, the study finds that legal uncertainty is one of the most decisive blockers: unclear legal bases for initiating services without prior request, divergent interpretations of the same rule between organizations and excessive risk aversion, often for fear of breaching the GDPR even when there is legal scope. Under theGDPR, the absence of opt-out does not automatically imply unlawful processing if there is a legal basis vàlida, but legality does not exempt from transparència, proportionality and data minimization. TheAI Act, for its part, raises the demands for explainability and human supervision when there is profiling or automated decisions.
The report's proposal is pragmatic: a new regulatory paradigm is not needed, but rather explicit, lawful and legitimate the shift in logic from citizen-initiated to authority-initiated service. This involves defining and documenting the legal bases before major investment decisions, and differentiating consent mechanisms according to the type of service: duties can legitimately operate without opt-out; rights and benefits often require confirmation or waiver; and discretionary or data-intensive services require reinforced safeguards and human intervention.
The AOC perspective
This diagnosis connects with the trajectory of the AOC: Via Oberta materializes the once-only and data reuse; idCAT mobile and certificate provides the digital identity that underpins the secure initiation of services; and in Catalonia a firm commitment has been made to a responsible and sovereign AI. The future of proactive services, the report concludes, will depend less on the speed of technological adoption than on the ability to govern proactivity well. This is precisely the area where the shared services of the Catalan model have the most to contribute.
Reference: Nikiforova, A., Rodriguez Müller, AP and Tangi, L., Proactive Public Services in the EU: Readiness, maturity, and pathways to implementation, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2026. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/4554259
