The Interoperable Europe Act proposal, along with its accompanying Communication, has been adopted by the Commission to enhance cross-border interoperability and collaboration in the EU’s public sector. This Act aims to establish a network of interconnected digital public administrations, ensuring their sovereignty while promoting the rapid digital transformation of Europe’s public sector.
What’s new?
By implementing this Act, the EU, and its Member States can significantly improve the delivery of public services to citizens and businesses, aligning with Europe’s digital objectives for 2030 and facilitating trusted data flows. Additionally, cost savings are anticipated, with estimates suggesting potential savings ranging from €5.5 to €6.3 million for citizens and between €5.7 and €19.2 billion for businesses engaged with public administrations. Overall, this Act represents a crucial milestone in achieving a more connected and efficient digital public sector within Europe.
The Commission has embraced the Interoperable Europe Act proposal, which consolidates valuable resources to bolster public sector entities throughout the EU, facilitating the reuse of existing solutions, preferably open source, for the public good. In doing so, it streamlines administrative processes by addressing legal, organizational, semantic, and technical barriers, ultimately leading to cost and time reductions for businesses, citizens, and the public sector itself.
What are the key elements?
Key elements of the Interoperable Europe Act include:
- Structured EU cooperation, where public administrations collaborate within projects co-owned by Member States, regions, and cities, with support from both public and private actors.
- Mandatory assessments to evaluate the impact of IT system changes on cross-border interoperability within the EU.
- The establishment of an ‘Interoperable Europe Portal,’ serving as a centralized platform for sharing and reusing solutions, often open source, encouraging community cooperation.
- Implementation of innovation and support measures, including regulatory sandboxes for policy experimentation, GovTech projects for scaling up reusable solutions, and training support.
The Interoperable Europe Board, comprising representatives from EU Member States, the Commission, the Committee of the Regions, and the European Economic and Social Committee, will steer the future interoperability cooperation framework. Among its responsibilities are agreeing on common reusable resources, providing support and innovation measures, and updating the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), a well-known conceptual model for interoperability in Europe.
Supporting the Board is the Interoperable Europe Community, which brings together a diverse group of practitioners and experts, including GovTech companies, the Open Source community, and representatives from regions and cities across the EU to aid in the implementation of new solutions.
Funding for implementing the Interoperable Europe Act will primarily come from the Digital Europe Programme.
