Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Removed(13) When public administrations decide to share their solutions with other public administrations or the public, they are acting in the public interest. This is even more relevant for innovative technologies: for instance, open code makes algorithms transparent and allows for independent audits and reproducible building blocks. The sharing of interoperability solutions among public administration should set the conditions for the achievement of an open ecosystem of digital technologies for the public sector that can produce multiple benefits.

Removed(14) When monitoring the coherence of the interoperability solutions and proposing measures to ensure their compatibility with existing solutions that share a common purpose, the Interoperable Europe Board should take into account the obsolescence of solutions. The mandate of the Interoperable Europe Board should cover issues related to all four levels of interoperability (legal, organisational, semantic and technical).

Removed(15) The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) should ensure coherence and be recognised as the single point of reference for the Union’s approach to interoperability in the public service sector. In addition, specialised interoperability frameworks can address the needs of specific sectors, domains or administrative levels. Those frameworks should further promote the implementation of interoperability solutions. They should take due account of the interoperability requirements set in accordance with Regulation [XX] (Data Act)].

Removed(15a) The EIF should further the principle of multilingualism in the public service sector and encourage use of the most advanced technologies (such as artificial intelligence) to preserve linguistic diversity while enhancing efficiency of the exchanges between information systems across language boundaries.

Removed(16) The EIF should be developed by the Interoperability Europe Board, composed, among others, by one representative of each Member State. The Member States, with the other members of the Interoperable Europe Board, are thus at the centre of the development and implementation of the EIF. The Interoperable Europe Board should update the EIF when necessary.

Removed(17) The specialised interoperability frameworks issued to complement the EIF should take into account and not prejudice the existing sector-specific frameworks developed at the Union level (for example in the health sector).

Removed(18) Interoperability is directly connected with, and dependent on the use of open specifications and standards. Therefore, the Union public sector should be allowed to agree on cross-cutting open specifications and other solutions to promote interoperability. The new framework should provide for a clear process on the establishment and promotion of such agreed interoperability solutions in the future. This way, the public sector will have a more coordinated voice to channel public sector needs and public values into broader discussions.

Removed(19) Many interoperability specifications used by the public sector could be derived from existing Union legislation. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a link between all specifications for public sector network and information systems that are mandatory to use due to Union legal provisions. It is not always easy for implementing authorities to find the requirements in the most recent and machine-readable format. A single point of entry and clear rules on the metadata of such information should help public sector bodies to have their digital service infrastructures comply with the existing and future rules.

Removed(20) An Interoperable Europe portal should be built on existing initiatives and established as an easily accessible point of reference for interoperability solutions, assessment, knowledge and community. The portal should be established as a link to official sources but should also be open to input from the Interoperable Europe Community.

Removed(21) The Interoperable Europe portal should make publicly available and free of charge 5RE solutions that follow the EIF principles of openness, technical neutrality and security. As open source enables users to actively assess and inspect the interoperability and security of the solutions, it is important that open source supports the implementation of interoperability solutions. In this context, the use of open source licences should be promoted to enhance legal clarity and mutual recognition of licences in the Member States.

Removed(21a) Member States, regional and local authorities as well as the Union institutions, agencies and bodies implementing Union-funded funded interoperable projects for public services based on open source should take into account the dedicated European Public License (EUPL).

Removed(22) At the moment, the Union’s public services delivered or managed electronically depend in many cases on non-Union providers. It is in the Union’s strategic interest to ensure that it retains and develops essential technological capacities to secure its Digital Single Market, to enhance Europe's digital sovereignty and in particular to ensure service delivery, protect critical network and information systems, and to provide key services. The Interoperable Europe support measures should help public administrations to evolve and be capable of incorporating new challenges and new areas in cross-border contexts. Interoperability is a condition for avoiding technological lock-in, enabling technical developments, and fostering innovation, which should boost the global competitiveness, resilience and open strategic autonomy of the Union. The parallel use of multiple data processing services could be encouraged. This is important, inter alia, for the successful deployment of ‘multi-cloud’ strategies, which allow customers to implement future-proof IT strategies and which decrease dependence on individual providers of data processing services.

Removed(23) It is necessary to establish a governance mechanism to facilitate the implementation of Union policies in a way that ensures interoperability. This mechanism should focus on the interoperable digital implementation of policies once they have been adopted in the form of legal acts and should serve to develop interoperability solutions on a needs-driven basis. The mechanism should support public sector bodies. Projects to support public sector bodies should be proposed by the Interoperable Europe Board to the Commission who should decide whether to set up the projects, with due regard to the need to encourage the development and deployment of free and open source solutions at all levels, including the local and regional ones.

Removed(24) All levels of government should cooperate with innovative organisations, be it companies or non-profit entities, in design, development and operation of public services. Supporting GovTech cooperation between public sector bodies, research and educational institutions, start-ups and innovative SMEs, or cooperation mainly involving civil society organisations (‘CivicTech’), is an effective means of supporting public sector innovation, flexibility and promoting use of interoperability tools across private and public sector partners. Supporting an open GovTech ecosystem in the Union that brings together public and private actors across borders and involves different levels of government should allow to develop innovative initiatives aimed at the design and deployment of GovTech interoperability solutions.

Removed(25) Identifying shared innovation needs and priorities and focusing common GovTech and experimentation efforts across borders would help Union public sector bodies to share risks, lessons learnt, and results of innovation support projects. Those activities will tap in particular into the Union’s rich reservoir of technology start-ups and SMEs. Successful GovTech projects and innovation measures piloted by Interoperable Europe innovation measures should help scale up GovTech tools and interoperability solutions for reuse.

Removed(26) Interoperable Europe support measures could benefit from safe spaces for experimentation, while ensuring responsible innovation and integration of appropriate risk mitigation measures and safeguards. To ensure a legal framework that is innovation-friendly, future-proof and resilient to disruption, it should be made possible to run such projects in innovation sandboxes. Innovation sandboxes should consist in controlled test environments that facilitate the development and testing of innovative solutions before such systems are integrated in the network and information systems of the public sector. The objectives of the innovation sandboxes should be to foster interoperability through innovative solutions by establishing a controlled experimentation and testing environment ▌

Removed▌

Removed(28) It is necessary to enhance a good understanding of interoperability issues, especially among public sector employees. Continuous training is key in this respect and cooperation and coordination on the topic should be encouraged. Beyond trainings on Interoperable Europe solutions, all initiatives should, where appropriate, build on, or be accompanied by, the sharing of experience and solutions and the exchange and promotion of best practices. In line with their efforts to achieve the targets set in the Digital Decade Policy Programme and in order to have high skilled specialists in this field, the Commission shall ensure the financial support through measures such as: investing in digital education, research and development, through continuous lifelong learning training, supporting digital innovations, providing increased and broader access to easily readable and interoperable high quality industrial and public data, increasing the general availability of digital skills at local and regional level. The Member States and the Commission should pay particular attention to the good understanding of interoperability and the implications for the public sector employees.

Removed(29) To create a mechanism facilitating a mutual learning process among public sector bodies and sharing of best practices in implementing Interoperable Europe solutions across the Member States, it is necessary lay down provisions on the peer review process. Peer reviews can lead to valuable insights and recommendations for the public sector body undergoing the review. In particular, they could contribute to facilitating the transfer of technologies, tools, measures and processes among the Member States involved in the peer review. They create a functional path for the sharing of best practices across Member States with different levels of maturity in interoperability. In order to ensure that the peer review process is cost-effective and produces clear and conclusive results, and also to avoid the placement of unnecessary burden, the Commission may adopt guidelines on the best set-up for such peer reviews, based on the needs that occur and after consulting the Interoperable Europe Board.

Removed(30) To develop the general direction of the Interoperable Europe structured cooperation in promoting the digital interconnection and interoperability of public services in the Union and to oversee the strategic and implementation activities related to that cooperation, an Interoperable Europe Board should be established. The Interoperable Europe Board should carry out its tasks taking into consideration cross-border interoperability rules and solutions already implemented for existing network and information systems.

Removed(31) Certain Union bodies such as the European Data Innovation Board and the European Health Data Space Board have been created and tasked to, among others, enhance interoperability at specific domain or policy level. However, none of the existing bodies is tasked to address cross-border interoperability of network and information systems which are used to provide or manage public services in the Union. The Interoperable Europe Board created by this Regulation should support the Union bodies working on policies, actions and solutions relevant for cross-border interoperability of network and information systems which are used to provide or manage public services in the Union, for example on semantic interoperability for data spaces portability and reusability. The Interoperable Europe Board should interact with all relevant Union bodies and national, regional and local administrations as well as the Free and Open Source community in order to ensure alignment and synergies between cross-border interoperability actions and sector specific ones. To this end the Interoperable Europe Board should involve in its activities representatives of regional and local governments and open source community.

Removed(32) Advancing public sector interoperability needs the active involvement and commitment of experts, practitioners, users and the interested public across Member States, across all levels of government, national, regional and local and involving international partners, research and educational institutions and the private sector. In order to tap into their expertise, skills and creativity, a dedicated open forum (the ‘Interoperable Europe Community’) should help channel feedback, user and operational needs, identify areas for further development and help scope priorities for EU interoperability cooperation. The establishment of the Interoperable Europe Community should support the coordination and cooperation between the strategic and operational key players for interoperability.

Removed(33) The Interoperable Europe Community should be open to all interested parties. Access to the Interoperable Europe Community should be facilitated and made as easy as possible, avoiding unnecessary barriers and burdens. The Interoperable Europe Community should bring together public and private stakeholders, including citizens, with expertise in the field of cross-border interoperability, coming from different backgrounds, such as academia, research and innovation, education, standardisation and specifications, businesses and public administration at all levels and recipients of public services. The Commission should make the information in relation to the Interoperable Europe Community publicly available to raise awareness of its role.

Removed(34) To ensure the rules laid down by this Regulation are efficiently implemented, it is necessary to designate national competent authorities responsible for its implementation. In many Member States, some entities have already the role of developing interoperability. Those entities could take over the role of competent authority in accordance with this Regulation.

Removed(35) An Interoperable Europe Agenda should be established as the Union’s main instrument for the coordination of public investments in interoperability solutions and digital infrastructure. It should deliver a comprehensive overview of funding possibilities and funding commitments in the field, integrating where appropriate the related Union programmes. The overview should pay special attention to resources needed for the skilling and upskilling as well as to the additional barriers incurred by areas with limited connectivity, rural areas, peripheral regions and islands, leaving no one behind. This should contribute to creating synergies and coordinating financial support related to interoperability and digital infrastructure development and avoiding duplication. The Interoperable Europe Agenda should also set clear objectives and introduce key performance indicators for measuring their achievement. The Agenda should, where appropriate, also include indicators on the use of open source solutionsamong public administrations, in order to measure its uptake.

Removed(35a) The Interoperable Europe Agenda should be in line with the principles of the Digital Europe Programme, the central programme for digital in the MFF. Its purpose is to accelerate economic recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe. It is designed to fill the gap between research and deployment of digital technologies, bringing the results of research to the market for the benefit of citizens and businesses, in particular SMEs.

Removed(35b) Since the objective of this Regulation is to promote the cross-border interoperability of network and information systems which are used to provide or manage public services in the Union, the Union should strengthen investments in a range of areas, including supercomputing and data processing capacities, core artificial intelligence (AI) capacities such as data spaces and libraries of AI algorithms, cybersecurity, digital skills, expanding the best use of digital capacity in the Union’s society and economy, and support to the digitalisation of businesses and public administrations.

Removed(35c) Supporting digital transformation is key to building resilience and advancing recovery. In order to asses the performance of this Regulation, the Union should put forward investments and funding for research and high-end innovation in enabling technologies, such as artificial intelligence and robotic, next generation Internet, high performance computing, big data, key digital technologies, 6G and to supports trans-European networks and infrastructures in telecommunications in order to build infrastructure that can handle emerging and future processes and applications.

Removed(36) Information should be collected in order to assess the performance of this Regulation against the objectives it pursues, and in order give feedback for an evaluation of this Regulation in accordance with paragraph 22 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. Therefore, the Commission should carry out a monitoring and evaluation of this Regulation. The evaluation should be based on the five criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and EU value added. The evaluation should also be the basis for impact assessments of possible further measures. The monitoring should integrate existing data sources and monitoring processes.

Removed(37) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to set out rules and the conditions for the establishment and the operation of the innovation sandboxes.

Removed(38) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely interoperability within public administrations on a Union-wide scale, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in the same Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve the objectives of the Treaties, especially with regards to the strengthening of the Single Market.

Removed(39) The application of this Regulation should be deferred to twelve months after the date of its entry into force in order to provide Member States and the institutions, bodies and agencies of the Union with sufficient time to prepare for the application of this Regulation. Such time is necessary to establish the Interoperable Europe Board and the Interoperable Europe Community and for the designation of national competent authorities and interoperability coordinators.

Removed(40) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council and delivered an opinion on…,

RemovedHAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

RemovedSubject matter and scope

Removed1. This Regulation lays down measures to promote the cross-border interoperability of network and information systems which are used to provide or manage public services in the Union by establishing common rules and a framework for coordination and cooperation on public sector interoperability, with the aim of fostering the development of interoperable trans-European digital public services infrastructure and enhancing the efficienncy of public administrations.

Removed2. This Regulation applies to public sector bodies of Member States and Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies ▌that provide or manage network or information systems▌.

RemovedDefinitions

RemovedFor the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

Removed(1) ‘cross-border interoperability’ means the ability of ▌the public sector bodies in different Member States and institutions, bodies, and agencies of the Union ▌to interact with each other by sharing data by means of electronic communication;

Removed(2) ‘network and information system’ means a network and information system as defined in Article46, point (1), of ▌ Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the European Parliament and of the Council7a;

Removed(3) ‘interoperability solution’ means a ▌reusable asset concerning legal, organisational, semantic or technical requirements to ▌enable cross-border interoperability, such as conceptual frameworks, guidelines, reference architectures, technical specifications, standards, services and applications, as well as documented technical components, such as source code;

Removed(4) ‘public sector body’ means a public sector body as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council7b;

Removed(5) ‘data’ means data as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Regulation (EU) 2022/868 of the European Parliament ▌and ▌of the Council;

Removed(6) ‘machine-readable format’ means a machine-readable format as defined in Article 2, point (13), of Directive (EU) 2019/1024;

Removed(7) ‘GovTech’ means a technology-based cooperation between public and private sector actors supporting public sector digital transformation;

Removed(8) ‘standard’ means a standard as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

Removed(8a) ‘ICT technical specification’ means ICT technical specification as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012;

Removed(9) ‘highest level of management’ means a manager, management or coordination and oversight body at the most senior administrative level, taking account of the high-level governance arrangements in each institution, body or agency of the Union.

Removed(9a) ‘cross-border public service’ means a service created or controlled by public authorities which involves data exchanges between information systems of public sector bodies in different Member States and institutions, bodies, and agencies of the Union across Member States, by means of dedicated functions and procedures.

Removed(9b) ‘key public services’ means key public services as defined in Article 2, point (8), of Decision (EU) 2022/24819a;

Removed(9c) ‘innovative public service’ means every new technique, solution, method, process or organisationnal procedure used to improve the provision of public services to citizens.

RemovedInteroperability assessment

Removed1. Where a public sector body or an institution, an agency or body of the Union intends to set up a new or significantly modify an existing network and information system ▌ it shall carry out an assessment of the impacts of the planned action on cross-border interoperability (‘interoperability assessment’) in the following cases:

Removed(a) where the intended set-up or modification affects one or more network and information systems used for the provision of cross-border public services or for public sector bodies across different Member States to interact with each other by sharing data by means of electronic communication ;

Removed(b) where the intended set-up or modification will most likely result in procurements for network and information systems ▌above the threshold set out in Article 4 of Directive 2014/24/EU;

Removed(c) where the intended set-up or modification concerns a network and information system ▌funded through Union programmes.

Removed▌2. The interoperability assessment shall be carried out before taking decisions on the legal, organisational, semantic or technical requirements for the new or modified network and information system in a binding manner. A single interoperability assessment may be carried out to address a set of requirements and several network and information systems.

RemovedThe public sector body or the institution, body or agency of the Union concerned shall publish a report presenting the outcome of the interoperability assessment on its website in a machine readable format, facilitating automated translation and share it electronically with the Commission. The Commission shall ensure that such reports are published on the Interoperable Europe portal and that a translation into any official language of the institutions of the Union is made available by means of an automated system.

RemovedThe publication shall not compromise intellectual property rights or trade secrets, public order or security.