Achieving cross-border interoperability of public services within the EU is the central objective of the Interoperable Europe Act, a new legislative initiative of the European Commission for a reinforced interoperability policy. While negotiations between the EU Council and the European Parliament continue to translate the Commission’s proposal into law, we take a closer look at this upcoming piece of legislation.
In our previous blog post, listed the various challenges this new EU Act in the making should address, as well as how to address them. But what does the Act itself entail?
An outline of the Interoperable Europe Act
One of the novelties of the Interoperable Europe Act, besides its binding dimension for EU Member States, is how it introduces a mix of top-down and a bottom-up approach. In a nutshell, the initiative proposes:
- a structured and co-owned EU cooperation on interoperability, which involves public administrations and private actors;
- the use of mandatory interoperability assessments to evaluate the impact of changes to IT systems and digital services;
- the sharing and reusing of interoperability solutions through an ‘Interoperable Europe Portal’, which acts as a one-stop-shop for such solutions and as a community platform;
- several innovation and support measures, such as regulatory sandboxes and GovTech cooperation, to encourage policy experimentation, develop skills, and scale up interoperability solutions for reuse.
Three main pillars
The proposal, as adopted already by the European Commission, rests on the following three pillars:
- interoperability solutions,
- policy implementation support projects,
- a governance framework.
To support these pillars, the Commission’s proposal also introduces two new general obligations for public sector bodies. To begin with, they will have to perform interoperability assessments. These assessments will be mandatory for any change to, or introduction of, an information system or system component of cross-border relevance that enables public services to be delivered or managed electronically. Secondly, they will have to support the sharing of interoperability solutions within the public sector.
A new paradigm for public services?
In our view, the Interoperable Europe Act could usher in a new era of European policymaking. In that new era, policymaking, just like regulation itself, will be fully digital-ready and interoperable by design. Such innovative policymaking, is, in fact, already part of the European Commission’s Better Regulation agenda. That agenda also includes a number of regulation guidelines and a toolbox which should help provide concrete guidance to European Commission services when preparing new initiatives and proposals as well as when managing and evaluating existing legislation.
As EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out in the letter of intent that accompanied her 2022 State of the Union Address, digital transformation - and innovation in general - has become even more important in light of recent health and geopolitical crises. This brings us to the new role that the public sector will have to play in strengthening the EU’s innovation capacity. Achieving that strategic goal will ultimately require a change of paradigm in how public administration works. It will need to operate in a fully accessible and highly transparent way, using open-source technologies and building on modern e-government concepts like the share-and-reuse principle and the once-only principle (OOP).
Sopra Steria: experts in interoperability
The Interoperable Europe Act is clearly an important part of the European Commission’s efforts to develop a trusted environment for the uptake of interoperability assets and the creation of an interoperability mindset. The Commission aims not only to succeed in those efforts while fostering inclusion and improving the accessibility of public services, but also without falling into the trap of over-regulation.
Since Sopra Steria is an expert on interoperability, notably in the area of Homeland Security, it should come as no surprise that we have been a key technology partner of the EU’s Large-scale IT Systems in the Area of freedom, security and justice (LISA) for many years. The Agency has taken an approach that puts interoperability at the centre of each of its projects, and we are proud to support eu LISA in those projects. However, our support is not limited to eu-LISA and the interoperability of information systems alone.
We are also a – real and potential – trusted partner of any public organisation that will have to implement the above-mentioned interoperability by design.Thanks to our commitment to that specific area of expertise, we also participated in last year’s SEMIC Conference on ‘Data Spaces in an Interoperable Europe’.
What are your thoughts on the EU’s interoperability strategy? Don’t hesitate to contact us and enter the discussion!