Procedures without forms for European business and industry

The mapping of what type of services you need to apply for to be granted a permit to engage in sales in Norway was concluded in 2010. Only a few application procedures require a form, but businesses from all the EEA countries must nonetheless be able to find information and apply online through Altinn.
As in the EU countries, Norway will establish a single point of contact in the public administration for everyone wishing to sell services across national boundaries. Here, businesses will be able to find all the necessary information about requirements and rules in the country in question, submit the necessary applications and attachments and receive electronic feedback and decisions from the authority in question.
In Norway, the point of contact will be Altinn, which has been working towards a similar goal for several years, although, until now, based on purely national interests.
A mapping of all the application procedures that, pursuant to the EU’s Service Directive, are to be handled electronically, reveals that only a few application procedures require a form. The most common procedure is for the applicant to submit a letter without any formal layout requirements. Most of the schemes are not very relevant to most business, as they only involve a small number of players and simple procedures.
The most important exception concerns applications relating to serving and selling alcohol, where there are many forms, in different versions and combinations. Applications are dealt with at the municipal level, and each municipality has different versions for the different combinations of activities for which it is possible to apply. Many municipalities have online forms for this, while others have paper forms and some lack official forms for applications for a licence to serve or sell alcohol.
In addition, there are a few applications that require the use of paper forms, and some are available online for downloading and printing. At present, only a few of the application forms can be filled in and submitted online via Altinn.

For application procedures that do not require a form, it will be sufficient that the application letter, now in the form of an email message, can be created in Altinn, as long as the reply is also sent to the user’s Altinn mailbox.
It will be much more difficult to develop a solution that stores communication with hundreds of different versions for a single solution in the municipal sector. But work is now under way and the point of contact will be fully developed during the course of 2011.

Permit/licence schemes by application/channel: Paper form (5)
Paper + printout (2)
Only for printing (6)
Web form (8)
Varies between municipalities (6)
No longer valid (3)
No form (36)