Electronic licensing procedure for pesticide (BVL)

The BVL relies on the application of web-based communication, information technologies and a modern service-provision establishment. One of the central projects is the conversion of the licensing proceedings for pesticide, which in the future, will be completely handled electronically. At the moment, the BVL verifies approximately 100 licensing applications per annum, wrapped up in about ten to twenty five folders each and submitted in quadruplicate. In the future, the applicant will send its documents online with electronic signature and pay for the proceedings by ePayment. The BVL will receive a complete electronic file, which will be processed in a uniformed system of sequence processing and finally archived electronically. To communicate with external parties to the process, a portal will be embedded in the web page of the BVL, in which applicants, evaluation agencies and expert assessors may swap documents. Moreover, processing status will be accessible to all parties concerned online. As from 2007, the BVL will be processing all applications in the area of pesticide licensing electronically. The BVL will thus, be minimizing the administrative labor involved in the process, be improving the quality of application processing and making the job of the agencies more transparent so that all parties to the process may stand to gain from this project.

Main results, benefits and impacts

Benefits: full electronic application process, handover of documents in an EU-wide standard format "CADDY", electronic file and workflow management, electronic information for the evaluating agencies and the applicants in a special internet portal (extranet solution), communication with the other evaluating agencies via XML, rearrangement of the scale of charges and fees with financial incentives for electronic application

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

Professional project management and support through the Project Group "Projektgruppe BundOnline", their competence centers and the "Bundesverwaltungsamt" are the main sucess factors. Involvement of the industry and the staff of the BVL and the other evaluating agencies from the beginning of the project is an other important factor for the acceptance oft the solution on all three sides (BVL, evaluating authorities, applicants).