Impact
Tangible benefits
As for the tangible benefits in the form of revenue, the number of transactions going through the service is rather low as this depends on which countries are connected in the service (e.g. for the Netherlands the use of EULIS will increase once Germany and Belgium are connected), the development of market for cross-border transactions (credit crisis), etc. Based on the few statistical figures generally available it is however easy to see that for instance the number of "summer home" owners abroad is already substantial, and that there is a substantially bigger interest in becoming one. With the growth of the low-fare airline industry in Europe the practical difficulties in owning a home abroad are much smaller.
The total use of EULIS for enquiries between connected member countries was:
Q1 2008Â (123); Q2 2008Â (404); Q3 2008Â (115); Q4 2008Â (59); Q1 2009Â (81).
After the growth in 2008 the impact of the credit crisis became visible from the third quarter in 2008.
The revenue alone during the initial period of operation is not big enough to justify a continuation. A look at the number of transactions going through the present national services can however give a hint of the possible number of transactions. Even a low percentage of the total number of transactions will generate a substantial volume for the service.
Tangible benefits should be judged internationally in order to make their positive effects visible. Although there is just one party per country involved to bear the costs, many stakeholders will benefit and that makes it difficult to calculate the total sum of all benefits.
The theoretical perspective as described in eGEP (Measurement Framework, final version, 15 May 2006, page 11) is fully applicable on EULIS. We still are in the phase of "First N runs" and we see that the described values "Efficiency, democracy and better services and opportunities" will slowly be reached.
Intangible benefits
There is strong political interest due to the fact that EULIS aims at improving integration in the financial markets of the EU. If the service can contribute to this politically important objective it can only be of benefit to society as a whole.
By taking this initiative the national land registration/land information organisations represented in the consortium have taken a lead role, thereby leading the development rather than being ordered to follow others. Thus we can make better use of investments made in our national systems, and save costs in a longer perspective.
In addition we are, more or less, semi-commercial public organisations with public tasks. Therefore we can, and should, do things for the public good. In a Europe where the markets are gradually being integrated we have an obligation to our national customers to provide them with information from other jurisdictions, not only our own.
Furthermore we need to provide our customers with different ways of accessing different selections of the total mass of information we all hold. This is done through a constant development of new services in addition to those already in existence. The case often is that the user pick-up of such new services is slow, but there is still a need to retain them in order to fulfil other objectives, e.g. to reduce the number of phone enquiries. It sometimes also needs a culture change and it takes a long time to change culture in other businesses (for example, the change in land registration with lodging documents electronically).
There is a public need for a service like EULIS, which justifies our commitment and gives us at the same time a possibility of testing the commercial viability.
Another effect from EULIS is the possibility for easier comparisons. By having easy access to information from a number of different jurisdictions, customers are able to compare service levels, prices, etc. and put pressure on their national organisations for changes. This is something that will have to be taken care of, as and when it occurs. One obvious and early conclusion is that there will be a need for the partners to develop common policies, something that will most probably be beneficial as our customers become less national. Â
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Track record of sharing
Many ways of sharing our results and experiences have been followed:
- We organised 5 seminars in Lund (Sweden) on different topics with speakers from different European countries (February 2003; May 2003; September 2003; April 2004; June 2004).
- We held many meetings and gave presentations in many countries (Austria; Azerbaijan; Belgium; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hong-Kong; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Northern Ireland; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Scotland; Slovak Republic; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; The Netherlands; Turkey; UK; USA). These presentations were usually in the offices of the involved Land Registry office, but sometimes also in public sector actors (e.g. Notarkammer in Germany).Â
- We contacted many different organisations and gave presentations usually at their congresses (EMF, VDP,SEMIC, ELRA, EIIS, EBR, e-Justice, Inpsire).
- The last four years we had a stand at the annual eGovernment Congres;
- We published brochures (EMF 2007, 2008).
- We published articles in different magazines (mostly in magazines of the different joined land Registry organizations).
Lessons learnt
Lessons learnt:
- Cooperation between multiple European countries works!
- It is necessary to take small steps in the process of development.
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- Let the business model and organisation mature; don't push it, but give it time to develop in good cooperation as many players are involved;
- Watch the interoperability: multilingual services and product development;
- Strive to convergence first and postpone harmonisation to later.
- Success needs hard working (both on a national level by all participants as by marketing).
- Keep track of developments in the field of threats, opportunities, and market.
- Find your sponsors and key users and use their remarks to improve your services.
- Ask your customers and users to give you their feedback and let them very clearly explain what their requirements are.
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Award finalist 2009 
Award scheme
