The Interoperability Test Bed will be used for the testing of Member State implementations of BRIS Disqualified Directors (BRIS DQd) exchanges as foreseen by new EU legislation on digital tools and processes in company law.

The Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS) is a cross-border solution developed as a joint effort by EU governments and the European Commission to communicate electronically in a safe and secure way in relation to cross-border mergers and foreign branches. Since being brought online, the BRIS ecosystem has been extended to address legal requirements aiming to safeguard the fully electronic nature of National business registries against abuse. The latest such extension is the exchange of information regarding disqualified directors (termed BRIS DQd), preventing persons that fail to meet their legal obligations from holding positions as company directors. The legislation foresees that Member States support such information exchanges at the latest by August 2023.

The information exchanges to support BRIS DQd will be based on the BRIS architecture, through well-defined messages that are securely exchanged using eDelivery. In preparation of BRIS DQd being brought online, Member States will be expected to go through a rigorous conformance testing process to ensure that they are capable of correctly producing, receiving and interpreting foreseen messages. The testing phase for Member State implementations is expected to start at the beginning of June 2023.

Since 2018, BRIS has been using the Interoperability Test Bed as its conformance testing solution. Throughout the evolution of the BRIS message specifications, Member States have used close to 300 test cases to execute more than 30,000 test sessions. Building upon this success, BRIS DQd will similarly be using the Test Bed for conformance testing, enabling Member States to validate their implementations and pass their formal acceptance tests before participating in message exchanges with peer systems. The conformance testing process will ensure the interoperability of National implementations and will pave the way towards a smooth overall launch in August 2023.

For further details on the overall support provided to BRIS by the Test Bed, you may find interesting the Test Bed’s published BRIS case study. This study provides extra context but also more details on the design of BRIS and its conformance testing service. For more information on the Test Bed itself general details on its services can be found in its Joinup space, with its value proposition being a good starting point for newcomers. Finally, if you are interested in receiving the Test Bed’s news, apart from subscribing to notifications through Joinup, you may also follow the Interoperable Europe’s social media channels (Twitter, LinkedIn) for updates on the Test Bed and other interoperability solutions.