Digital-ready policies

• Policies affect various business processes that in many cases are supported by digital technologies by default.
• Analyse the business processes of the different stakeholders affected by the policy.
• Focus on the users of the affected services, solutions, or systems to ensure simplification and automation of the business process.

• When designing a policy, it is imperative to assess the consistency and interactions with existing legislation and with on-going policy developments on digital topics such as eIDAS (electronic identification and trust services), eID Wallet (EU Digital Identity Wallet), and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
• Assess the consistency of your policy proposal with International or European Standards.
• Consider the existing IT investments programmes (e.g. high capacity networks).

• The Once-Only Principle allows public administrations in Europe to reuse, or share, data and documents that people have already supplied, in a transparent and secure way. The Single Digital Gateway is one important instrument to implement the once-only principle, but every EU policy should contribute to it.
• Policymakers should know the data assets linked to their policies and aim to remove obstacles to sharing, combining and reusing these data assets.
• When it comes to collecting data, the first step should be to explore existing data within your organisation and public sector data made open by Member States and European Institutions in line with the Open data directive.
• Reusing terminology and concepts helps not only consistency but also reuse of data across sectors.

• When designing the policy options, policymakers should involve IT experts to analyse the opportunities and risks provided by the existing IT landscape.
• Reusing existing ICT solutions could reduce costs and accelerate implementation. IT experts may consider the reuse of open-source interoperable solutions available on the Interoperable Europe Portal.
• To start with, contact your organisation’s IT unit for advice. It could also be useful to get in touch with the decentralised agencies managing IT systems for your policy and with your contacts in the Member States using these existing IT systems.

• Digital technologies give opportunities to respond to old problems in new ways for better outcomes and provide more added value to citizens.
• A digital-ready policy is designed in a forward-looking manner. It allows for further uptake or development of technology (such as the ‘Internet of Things’) to respond to future challenges and potentially save future costs.
• Policymakers should consider the high costs of phasing-out IT-legacy systems without preventing innovation and new digital approaches to develop. They should also have the right level of digital skills and IT experts needed for policy implementation.

• Use simple, precise and concise wording - especially for the parts that are likely to be automated - the digital-ready terms are as clear as code.
• Reuse existing terminology and concepts from your policy domain and ensure alignment with those in related policy sectors thus ensuring interoperability.
• Consider introducing experimentation clauses, as a legal basis for regulatory sandboxes.
• Consult the IT colleagues responsible for the deadlines. For example, avoid setting the date of entry into force right after bank holidays (e.g. 1 January).
• Set out clear rules in the legislative act while keeping those rules future-proof to technical development.
• Consider the need for clear governance for shared IT systems.
• Check for fit-for-purpose compliance promoting tools.

To follow all the above components, it is crucial to assemble a multidisciplinary team that will not only consider different views across policy areas but also reconcile priorities and perspectives during policymaking.

When designing digital-ready policies, the multidisciplinary team supporting the interservice work should ideally include:

• Business architects.
• People with a good overview of the digital EU legislative landscape.
• Data experts.
• People with digital/IT knowledge – including security aspects.
• People with implementation experience.
• People with knowledge in innovative policymaking methods.
• Experts from standardisation organisations or industry.
• Data protection specialists.