The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) proposes a conceptual model for integrated public services to guide their planning, development, operation and maintenance by Member States. It is relevant to all governmental levels, from local to EU.
Conceptual Model
Use the conceptual model for European public services to design new services or re-engineer existing ones and reuse, whenever possible, existing service and data components.
- Recommendation 34. Use the conceptual model for European public services to design new services or reengineer existing ones and reuse, whenever possible, existing service and data components.
- Recommendation 35. Decide on a common scheme for interconnecting loosely coupled service components and put in place and maintain the necessary infrastructure for establishing and maintaining European public services.
- INSPIRE DIRECTIVE: It lays down general rules setting up an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe for the purposes of European Union (EU) environmental policies and for policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
- Open Data Directive: It promotes the use of open data and establishes public-sector bodies and public undertakings must make their documents available in any pre-existing format or language and, where appropriate, by electronic means in formats that are open, machine readable, accessible, findable and reusable, complete with their metadata.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): It allows European Union (EU) citizens to better control their personal data. It also modernises and unifies rules allowing businesses to reduce red tape and to benefit from greater consumer trust.
- Single Digital Gateway Regulation: It facilitate online access to the information, key administrative procedures and assistance and problem-solving services that citizens and businesses may wish to contact if they encounter problems when exercising their internal market rights while living in or doing business in another EU country.
Internal information sources and services
Information sources (base registries, open data portals, and other authoritative sources of information) and services available not only inside the administrative system but also in the external environment can be used to create integrated public services as building blocks. Building blocks (information sources and services) should make their data or functionality accessible using service-oriented approaches.
- Recommendation 36. Develop a shared infrastructure of reusable services and information sources that can be used by all public administrations.
- Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive: It sets out rules to ensure security in the processing of personal data, the notification of personal data breaches, and confidentiality of communications.
- INSPIRE DIRECTIVE: It lays down general rules setting up an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe for the purposes of European Union (EU) environmental policies and for policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
- Open Data Directive: It promotes the use of open data and establishes public-sector bodies and public undertakings must make their documents available in any pre-existing format or language and, where appropriate, by electronic means in formats that are open, machine readable, accessible, findable and reusable, complete with their metadata.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): It allows European Union (EU) citizens to better control their personal data. It also modernises and unifies rules allowing businesses to reduce red tape and to benefit from greater consumer trust.
- Integrated Public Service Provision - The central solutions of Hungary. Two main initiatives are highlighted in the case of Hungary for this component: the centrally provided Municipality ASP service and the Customisable State Administration Portal. They almost function as platforms for interoperable service provision. Both integrate several building blocks in order to ensure a ready-to-use integrated solution for all Hungarian public administrations to make their digital public services available on a single platform, therefore increasing interoperability. This concrete example also demonstrates how the country tackled the challenged linked to these services, which are their take-up by public bodies and the need to replace the traditional decision-making process with a data-driven approach.
Base registries
Base registries are the cornerstone of European public service delivery. A base registry is a trusted and authoritative source of information which can and should be digitally reused by others, where one organisation is responsible and accountable for the collection, use, updating and preservation of information.
- Recommendation 37. Make authoritative sources of information available to others while implementing access and control mechanisms to ensure security and privacy in accordance with the relevant legislation
- Recommendation 38. Develop interfaces with base registries and authoritative sources of information, publish the semantic and technical means and documentation needed for others to connect and reuse available information.
- Recommendation 39. Match each base registry with appropriate metadata including the description of its content, service assurance and responsibilities, the type of master data it keeps, conditions of access and the relevant licences, terminology, a glossary, and information about any master data it uses from other base registries.
- Recommendation 40. Create and follow data quality assurance plans for base registries and related master data.
- Law Enforcement Directive: This Directive aims to better protect individuals’ personal data when their data is being processed by police and criminal justice authorities.
Open data
The Directive on the reuse of public sector information provides a common legal framework for reuse of public sector data. The focus is on releasing machine-readable data for use by others to stimulate transparency, fair competition, innovation and a data-driven economy. To ensure a level playing field, the opening and reuse of data must be non-discriminatory, meaning that data must be interoperable so that can be found, discovered and processed.
- Recommendation 41. Establish procedures and processes to integrate the opening of data in your common business processes, working routines, and in the development of new information systems.
- Recommendation 42. Publish open data in machine-readable, non-proprietary formats. Ensure that open data is accompanied by high quality, machine-readable metadata in non-proprietary formats, including a description of their content, the way data is collected and its level of quality and the licence terms under which it is made available. The use of common vocabularies for expressing metadata is recommended.
- Recommendation 43. Communicate clearly the right to access and reuse open data. The legal regimes for facilitating access and reuse, such as licences, should be standardised as much as possible.
- Open Data Directive: The directive promotes the use of open data lays down the legal framework for the reuse of public-sector information such as geographical, land registry, statistical or legal information held by public-sector bodies or public undertakings, and of publicly funded research data.
- INSPIRE DIRECTIVE: The INSPIRE Directive lays down general rules setting up an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe for the purposes of European Union (EU) environmental policies and for policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) allows European Union (EU) citizens to better control their personal data. It also modernises and unifies rules allowing businesses to reduce red tape and to benefit from greater consumer trust.
- Single Digital Gateway Regulation: The single digital gateway will facilitate online access to the information, key administrative procedures and assistance and problem-solving services that citizens and businesses may wish to contact if they encounter problems when exercising their internal market rights while living in or doing business in another EU country.
Catalogues
Catalogues help others to find reusable resources (e.g. services, data, software, data models). Various types of catalogue exist, e.g. directories of services, libraries of software components, open data portals, registries of base registries, metadata catalogues, catalogues of standards, specifications and guidelines.
- Recommendation 44. Put in place catalogues of public services, public data, and interoperability solutions and use common models for describing them.
- eProcurement Directive: The legislation specifies that when national authorities use public procurement to invite tenders to provide works, supplies or services, they must treat all applicants equally and not discriminate between them.
- European Directive on patients’ rights: The aim of this directive is to set out the conditions under which a patient may travel to another EU country to receive safe and high-quality medical care and have the cost reimbursed by their own health insurance scheme.
- NIS Directive: This Directive proposes a wide-ranging set of measures to boost the level of security of network and information systems (cybersecurity) to secure services vital to the EU economy and society.
- European Electronic Communications Code: The Directive establishes a set of updated rules to regulate electronic communications (telecoms) networks, telecoms services, and associated facilities and services.
- Single Digital Gateway Regulation: The single digital gateway will facilitate online access to the information, key administrative procedures and assistance and problem-solving services that citizens and businesses may wish to contact if they encounter problems when exercising their internal market rights while living in or doing business in another EU country.
External information sources and services
Public administrations need to exploit services delivered outside their organisational boundaries by third parties, such as payment services provided by financial institutions or connectivity services provided by telecommunications providers.
- Recommendation 45. Where useful and feasible to do so, use external information sources and services while developing European public services.
Security and Privacy
Security and privacy are primary concerns in the provision of public services.
- Recommendation 46. Consider the specific security and privacy requirements and identify measures for the provision of each public service according to risk management plans.
- Recommendation 47. Use trust services according to the Regulation on eID and Trust Services as mechanisms that ensure secure and protected data exchange in public services.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) allows European Union (EU) citizens to better control their personal data.
- Data Governance Act: This Proposal aims at creating a legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces.
- Regulation on the free flow of non-personal data: This regulation aims to ensure that electronic data, apart from personal data, can be processed freely throughout the EU.
- eIDAS Regulation: The Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS) Regulation creates a new system for secure electronic interactions across the EU between businesses, citizens and public authorities.
- Commission Implementing Regulation: This Regulation lays down technical and operational requirements of the interoperability framework in order to ensure the interoperability of the electronic identification schemes which Member States notify to the Commission.
- European Directive on patients’ rights: The aim of this directive is to set out the conditions under which a patient may travel to another EU country to receive safe and high-quality medical care and have the cost reimbursed by their own health insurance scheme.
- Regulation on Interoperability in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration: This regulation aims to improve checks at the EU’s external borders, allow for better detection of security threats and identity fraud, and help in preventing and combating illegal immigration.
- Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive: This Directive sets out rules to ensure security in the processing of personal data, the notification of personal data breaches, and confidentiality of communications.
- Cybersecurity Act: This Act aims to achieve a high level of cybersecurity, cyber resilience and trust in the European Union (EU).
- NIS Directive: This Directive proposes a wide-ranging set of measures to boost the level of security of network and information systems (cybersecurity) to secure services vital to the EU economy and society.
- European Electronic Communications Code: The Directive establishes a set of updated rules to regulate electronic communications (telecoms) networks, telecoms services, and associated facilities and services.
- Single Digital Gateway Regulation: The single digital gateway will facilitate online access to the information, key administrative procedures and assistance and problem-solving services that citizens and businesses may wish to contact if they encounter problems when exercising their internal market rights while living in or doing business in another EU country.
- eInvoicing Directive: E-invoicing by a business in one EU country for work done for or goods delivered to a public authority in another has been hampered by problems of a lack of interoperability, i.e. incompatible e-invoicing systems in different countries.
- Law Enforcement Directive: This Directive aims to better protect individuals’ personal data when their data is being processed by police and criminal justice authorities.
- Regulation on Interoperability in the field of justice, freedom and security: It aims to to improve checks at the EU’s external borders, allow for better detection of security threats and identity fraud, and help in preventing and combating illegal immigration.
- eProcurement Directive: The legislation specifies that when national authorities use public procurement to invite tenders to provide works, supplies or services, they must treat all applicants equally and not discriminate between them.
- Integrated Public Service Provision - The central solutions of Hungary. Two main initiatives are highlighted in the case of Hungary for this component: the centrally provided Municipality ASP service and the Customisable State Administration Portal. They almost function as platforms for interoperable service provision. Both integrate several building blocks in order to ensure a ready-to-use integrated solution for all Hungarian public administrations to make their digital public services available on a single platform, therefore increasing interoperability. This concrete example also demonstrates how the country tackled the challenged linked to these services, which are their take-up by public bodies and the need to replace the traditional decision-making process with a data-driven approach.