The Interoperable Europe Act
On 21 November 2022, the European Commission adopted the Interoperable
Europe Act proposal
[https://commission.europa.eu/publications/interoperable-europe-act-proposal_en]
to strengthen cross-border cooperation in public sectors across the
EU. Public sector interoperability is the ability of administrations
to cooperate and make public services function across borders, sectors
and organisational boundaries. This Act introduces a cooperation
framework across the EU that helps build a secure cross-border
exchange of data and agree on shared digital solutions. For instance,
the creation of the EU Digital COVID Certificate
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans/eu-digital-covid-certificate_en] facilitated
cross-border travel in the EU during the pandemic.

The Act brings in several benefits, such as delivering better public
services to citizens and businesses. It will also accelerate digital
transformation in the EU by achieving Europe's digital targets for
2030
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/europes-digital-decade-digital-targets-2030_en] and
supporting trusted data flows. Moreover, cross-border interoperability
will be fostered to achieve cost savings of around €5.5 - €6.3
million for citizens and €5.7 - €19.2 billion for businesses
dealing with public administrations.

The key highlights of the Act are:

 	* A STRUCTURED EU COOPERATION where public administrations,
supported by public and private actors, come together in the framework
of projects co-owned by Member States, as well as regions and cities. 
 	* MANDATORY ASSESSMENTS evaluating the impact of changes in
Information Technology systems on cross-border interoperability. 
 	* SHARING AND REUSE OF SOLUTIONS, often open source, would be
powered by a one-stop-shop ‘INTEROPERABLE EUROPE PORTAL' for
solutions and community cooperation. 
 	* INNOVATION AND SUPPORT MEASURES would include regulatory sandboxes
for policy experimentation, GovTech projects to develop and scale up
solutions for reuse and training support.

The interoperability cooperation framework will be steered by the
Interoperable Europe Board. The Board will be supported by the
Interoperable Europe Community which brings together a broad set of
interested practitioners and experts, such as GovTech companies,
the Open Source
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-strategy_en] community
and Member States across the EU to help implement new solutions. The
Act will be funded primarily by the Digital Europe Programme.

Data.europa.eu being the official open data portal for Europe actively
supports interoperability and cross-border exchange of information
required by various stakeholders to accelerate the digital
transformation of Europe's public sector.  

 

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Publication Date/Time
2022-12-21T08:00:00+00:00
Read how the Act will open new frontiers for data interoperability
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