ISA Action 1.1 supported the Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS) with the development of an XML data model for the BRIS messaging system, which reuses the Core Business Vocabulary. The benefits of this XML data model include: reduced development costs, improved integration of BRIS information with data from other sources, improved efficiency for the project team by analysing XML design choices, the resolution of technical issues, achieving semantic interoperability by following naming and design conventions, moving towards a common mind-set for semantic interoperability.

What is BRIS?

Following Directive 2012/17/EU, the European Commission has been working on BRIS, which is designed to connect the business registers of all Member States of the European Union. This project has the potential to increase confidence in the European Single Market by improving the security of the business environment. European businesses can become more competitive and legal certainty of information stored in European business registers will increase. A joint effort of DG Justice and Informatics, BRIS covers the development of a European Central Platform (ECP), the establishment of technical specifications for interconnecting domestic business registers within the ECP and the connection of the ECP with the e-Justice Portal (the future European access point for information on companies in the interconnected business registers).

The Core Business Vocabulary and BRIS

The Core Vocabularies have the purpose of enabling semantic interoperability via simplified, reusable and extensible data models that capture the fundamental characteristics of concepts. The new BRIS vocabulary reuses elements the Legal Entity class of the Core Business Vocabulary, demonstrating their cross-sector nature and their easy reuse to support different policy-domain-specific applications.

The Core Business Vocabulary is a reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a legal entity (legal name, activity, address, etc.). It is one of the three Core Vocabularies developed in the context of ISA Action 1.1, developed by a multidisciplinary Working Group with people from 22 countries (EU and non-EU). As of January 2013, there is an RDF syntax of the Core Business Vocabulary published on the W3C standards track, revised as Registered Organisation Vocabulary.  

In essence, the BRIS XML data model provides a stable data specification based on existing standards to exchange data between national platforms and the central platform. Considering the flexible nature of the XML syntax several design decision have been made for the BRIS XML Schema. Reuse at XML Schema level is not easy and requires many design decisions. What is most important is the alignment of the data model with the Core Vocabularies at the conceptual level.

The methodology for elaborating this new XML schema has been defined in the Core Vocabularies Handbook and comprises the following steps: defining the context and requirements, selecting and reusing Core Vocabulary Concepts, defining the business rules, binding the vocabulary to a syntax and documenting the syntax and creating conformance mapping.

The BRIS vocabulary provides some remarkable results:

• Lower development costs of implementation of a new vocabulary;
• Better integration opportunities of BRIS information with data from other systems;
• Less time spent defining a new vocabulary built on existing vocabularies; and
• Better quality via the use of proven design rules, existing standards and naming conventions.

Overall, these results translate into certain benefits to BRIS:

• Easier cross-border access to information on companies;
• Improved quality of data in domestic business registers with cross-border coherency;
• Digital implementation of cross-border processes;
• Increased possibilities for cross-border activities for companies;
• Transparency at EU level regarding companies;
• Facilitation of increased cross-border competition; and
• Facilitation of cooperation and communication between registers.

For more information

For details on BRIS, Core Vocabularies and more, you can access:

• This article on the Core Business Vocabulary in action;
• This case study on the Core Business Vocabulary and BRIS;
• The latest version of the Core Vocabularies; and
• The SEMIC community on Joinup.