The adoption of the Interoperable Europe Act has shaped the evolution of the Interoperable Europe Portal. Existing spaces have been updated, following the Act’s implementation, new dedicated ones have been introduced, that align with the Act’s objectives and requirements. These spaces provide valuable resources, policy insights, governance frameworks, innovative solutions, and expert support to help users and policymakers navigate and contribute to interoperability efforts across the EU.
In this article we’ll walk you through the core sections of the Portal, explaining what they offer, how they’ve evolved in light of the Act, and how you can use them effectively. Whether you are new to the Portal or a long-time user, this overview will help you make the most of the available resources and elevate your overall experience.
The following spaces are essential to understanding the implementation of the Act. You can access most of them directly from the Portal’s top horizontal menu.
Policy
The Policy space is the users’ go-to source for news, events, and updates concerning the Act. It also features a comprehensive frequently asked questions page. Through the Policy page you can:
- Stay up to date with the latest interoperability-related topics, including interviews with stakeholders.
- Find out about initiatives supporting the digitalisation of EU public administrations, and best practices related to interoperability.
- Explore the Act’s goals and achievements – a great starting point for your journey through the Interoperable Europe Portal.
Governance
In the Governance area you can find information about the Interoperable Europe Board, funding opportunities, and details on interoperability assessments. More specifically, you can:
- Learn how the Board, established by the Act, fosters collaboration between stakeholders and sets priorities to advance cross-border interoperability in the public sector. To know more about the work of the Board, you can access its reports and outcomes of its biannual meetings.
- Explore the EU funding opportunities page to discover how the EU supports digital transformation through grants, initiatives and support programmes – and find out which ones are applicable to your digital project.
- Discover the Interoperability Assessments space, which includes step-by-step guidelines on how to conduct and upload interoperability assessment reports, as mandated by the Act. This space will include a repository of assessment reports and contains best practices to encourage discussion and knowledge sharing.
Solutions
This space is dedicated to interoperability solutions available on the Interoperable Europe Portal. Users can consult and reuse them to foster and strengthen the interoperability of digital public services, helping reduce costs and effort. The available solutions can be browsed by type and topic, and are divided in three major group types:
- Software solutions – includes tools that support the development of digital public services. For example, the Interoperability Test Bed, developed by the European Commission, facilitates the conformance testing of IT systems.
- Other solutions – covers topics such as licence, data models and frameworks. For example, users can refer to the Interoperability Architecture Solutions to reuse IT architecture frameworks (i.e., EIRA) and relevant tools to implement interoperable digital public services.
- EU OSS Catalogue – a recent addition to the Portal, the European Open Source Solutions Catalogue is a repository of open source software created by and for European Public Services.
A special note that in the future this Solutions space will also host the Act-driven Interoperable Europe Solutions, which will be interoperability solutions recommended by the Interoperable Europe Board.
Revamped Interoperable Europe Monitoring
In the IOPEU Monitoring space users can explore how interoperability and digital transformation are progressing across the EU. Here you can explore Factsheets, case studies, monitoring dashboards, and reports. A new Monitoring Mechanism, aligned with the Act’s requirements, is currently being developed and will be presented to the Interoperable Europe Board at its next meeting in May 2025. The first results of this mechanism will be soon available in the Monitoring space and will be annually enriched with more comprehensive data.
Interoperable Europe Academy
To provide users, policymakers, and professionals with the tools to better understand the concept of interoperability and the related challenges, the Interoperable Europe Academy offers online courses and learning paths. Webinars and events are frequently held by the Academy team, allowing experts to share the latest insights and thoughts on interoperability across the EU. You can find information on their courses, learning paths, course creation process and events on the Academy’s dedicated space on the Portal.
Interoperable Europe Support Centre
The Support Centre is a centralised space for expert guidance and technical support. It offers various services on legal, semantic, technical and organisational aspects to improve the interoperability of European digital public services. In this space you will find appropriate training courses, frameworks, architectures, core vocabularies and reporting on interoperability for public administrations.
