Business Register Interoperability Throughout Europe

The goal is to establish Europe as a dynamic business ecosystem. The EC has adopted a fully integrated approach in the legislation designed to achieve this: regulations to promote transparent financial markets, to facilitate free movement of companies and services, to prevent financial crime and money-laundering are examples of coordinated laws impacting several administrative domains. To implement, enforce, amend and maintain these laws in respect of the declared objective will require an unprecedented degree of cross-border and cross-domain interoperability of systems, services and organisations, both public and private. BRITE will undertake research in knowledge management, will implement and demonstrate novel ICT engineering and will establish a new European cooperation instrument so that public bodies can effectively respond to the changes imposed on them by the new EU laws and new market requirements. The Business Registers are amongst those public operators most deeply affected by EU Company Law; they represent an enormous potential asset and catalyst for realising the objectives of the related EU legislation. Yet, there is still no EU-wide instrument that makes it possible to exploit this potential by allowing them to adapt in a coordinated manner. BRITE is an initiative that will unlock that potential. It will allow the Business Registers of Europe to effectively respond to legislative changes and contribute to building up the EU market. BRITE will set out to develop and pilot advanced ICT and organizational cross-border solutions for public operators active in cross-border Business Registration and in related e-Government areas such as financial transparency, financial crime prevention and e-procurement. Its expected impact is wide, affecting the business community, policy makers, researchers, technical innovators, the media, and the European citizenship in general.