Brussels, 21 November 2022
The Commission has adopted the Interoperable Europe Act proposal and its accompanying Communication to strengthen cross-border interoperability and cooperation in the public sector across the EU. The Act will support the creation of a network of sovereign and interconnected digital public administrations and will accelerate the digital transformation of Europe’s public sector. It will help the EU and its Member States to deliver better public services to citizens and businesses, and as such, it is an essential step to achieve Europe’s digital targets for 2030 and support trusted data flows. It will also help save costs, cross-border interoperability can lead to cost-savings between €5.5 and €6.3 million for citizens, and between €5.7 and €19.2 billion for businesses dealing with public administrations.
The Interoperable Europe Act introduces a cooperation framework for public administrations across the EU that helps build secure cross-border exchange of data and agree on shared digital solutions, such as open source software, guidelines, checklists, frameworks, and IT tools. It will also enable them to cooperate more effectively, exchange information and to ensure the seamless delivery of public services across borders, sectors and organisational boundaries. It stimulates public sector innovation and public-private “GovTech” projects.
Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Budget and Administration:
“Improving public sector interoperability is fundamental for building a digital European Union, one that is open, inclusive, fair and trusted. It translates the core European idea of together finding better solutions for the digital age. It allows public administrations to better cooperate, to understand and trust each other, for the benefit of people, businesses, and our communities.”
Essentially, interoperability is about achieving common goals together, despite organisational or geographical distance between actors. Public sector interoperability represents the ability of administrations to cooperate and make public services function across borders, sectors and organisational boundaries. A press release and Q&A are available online.
Source – EU Commission