The EU is pushing for common digital exchange standards between authorities.

The Commission's proposal for a law for an interoperable Europe aims to improve digital cooperation and data exchanging between the EU's member states. The draft provides for administrations, public authorities and facilities subject to public law in the EU to be able to share their services and data more easily by using common technical standards and interfaces. The main objective is to promote digital transformation in Europe and make the benefits of digital technologies accessible to all citizens and businesses. The trilogue negotiations, which only began on 10 October, were concluded surprisingly quickly on 14 November (see EC press release). The legal text must now be approved and adopted so that the regulation can come into force.

The idea in brief

At the centre of the initiative is the creation of a governance framework that will oblige public authorities to carry out interoperability assessments when investing in network and information systems. An advisory board will examine the solutions and then make recommendations. A new EU portal will present the interoperability solutions or recommend them for emulation and provide access to standards and specifications needed for the information and communication technologies. This will make it possible to exchange knowledge. The challenges facing the member states could be far-reaching. Consequently, they would have to ensure that their own systems and infrastructures comply with the proposed standards and are compatible. It might become necessary to invest in updating or even replacing existing IT systems.

The Council has urged a narrow approach

It was against this background that the Council adopted its general approach on 6 October and insisted on a clear and narrow definition for the scope of application. The law should only focus on pan-European digital public services - and not on network and information systems in general. This refers to services that through their network and information systems are primarily aimed at cross-border interactions between member states or between public authorities in member states and EU facilities. Consequently, the envisaged interoperability assessments should only refer to planned changes or investments that will involve or affect such pan-European digital public services. It would also logical to limit the planned portal for an interoperable Europe to the exchanging of information relating to pan-European digital public services.

The initiative only marginally affects social insurance

In a recital, the federal states had also explicitly named social insurance institutions to be subject to the scope of the planned law. Nevertheless, the tasks facing the social insurance  funds and their associations should be manageable initially. Key areas of their cross-border communications are covered by EESSI. The extended communications with the authorities, which also aims to involve citizens, is being developed as part of the digital access gateway and it also provides for specific services such as applying for and issuing the A1 certificate or the European Health Card. The ESSPASS (European Social Security Passport) and the digital identity (eID) - both of which are the conditions for digital communications in the context of social security - are being prepared. However, this does not exclude the possibility of other activities being developed for social insurance in the future.