On Oct 28, the Better Legislation for Smoother Implementation (BLSI) community hosted an online apero workshop, dedicated to the question of regulation of interoperability in European public sector. The webinar was linked to the commitment of the European Commission to present a reinforced interoperability policy by Q2 2022, based on the outcomes of the evaluations of the  European Interoperability Framework  (supporting study now available here) and the ISA2 programme, an ongoing impact assessment (supporting study now available here) and on the recommendations of the Expert Group on interoperability of European public services.

The Commission has invited a panel of experts to discuss the legal options of how to best regulate interoperability of public services and a fit-for-purpose setup of a future interoperability governance in the EU:

• Joep Crompvoets, professor at KU Leuven;
• Laurence Diver, legal researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel;
• Sachiko Muto, CEO of OpenForum Europe; 
• Arne Pilniok, assistant professor at University of Hamburg.

 

Key takeaways

The EU right to take action

• Legal basis. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) has several provisions that could be considered as a basis for legal action in the field:  Art. 114 TFEU establishes legal basis for single market and is used for many digital policies, it is however not applicable, if there is a more specific legal basis. Art. 170 and following TFEU on Trans-European-Networks allow the Union to take action on public sector digital cooperations and interoperability standards. This was confirmed by a decision of Court of Justice (C-22/96 of 28 May 1998).
• Digital-ready policy making. The success of implementing digital-ready policy-making depends on the commitment of the MS, EU institutions and interinstitutional agreement. The speakers argued there is a need for an updated interinstitutional agreement on better regulation.

Governance for public sector interoperability

• The ultimate goal of the public sector interoperability governance is increase of public value for its citizens and businesses. The governance should not focus solely on cost-cutting aspects and cannot be steered by market instruments alone.
• The speakers outlined the necessity of continuous governance to ensure appropriate implementation of interoperability practices – yet the governance should be defined for each project, depending on its needs and relevant stakeholders.
• Appropriate interoperability governance should involve multiple stakeholders, including business representatives, end-users, EU / national / local representatives of public administration. The EU should aspire for a collaborative and joint decision-making process.
• Technology is not neutral. Public sector solutions need to ensure “legal protection by design” and assess compliance of the new initiatives against law and democratic principles – this needs considerations already, when setting requirements for the technical solutions in legislative provisions.

Binding interoperability agreements

• The speakers highlighted the necessity to create a positive discourse around interoperability. In the past, there have been several political commitments around interoperability preparing a solid basis for future work – for example, Berlin and Tallinn declarations. Those commitments are not put into practice: Many previous policies do not contain instruments to ensure interoperability, but the Commission should build on the existing practices and encourage its use by public administration and businesses.
• However, binding legislation is not the only way to address interoperability challenges. The speakers suggested that the European Commission should better understand the challenges of national administrations and provide them with support and solutions. One of the possibilities could be developing an open-source solution to encourage collaborative work.
• In the context of the rapid development of technologies, some of the speakers pointed out that binding legislation might outdate faster than being put in place.

Benefits of incentives for interoperability in law

• Stability of cooperation depends on availability of funding – there is a need for the EU funding instrument to produce interoperability solutions and profit from the cooperation framework.
• Establishment of interoperability regulation will have a direct impact on all levels of governments. The Commission should provide tools and best practices for national and local policies, make the policies and recommendations more operational. The speakers also pointed out that the legislation should be supported by change-management actions, such as cultural change, increase of willingness to cooperate, development of needed skills, catalogue of solutions, etc.
• The policies on interoperability should include references to ethical issues, cybersecurity, response to challenges outside of the EU, strengthen the link between interoperability and private sector.
• Lastly, the Commission should incentivize adoption of digital-ready policies by providing practical use cases of how interoperability can increase public value.

 

To receive information on our upcoming, become a member of our Better Legislation for Smoother Implementation community and subscribe to our newsletter.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.