Interoperable Europe Solutions

To move towards a more streamlined vision for the development of interoperability solutions in the European Union, the Interoperable Europe Board can award the “Interoperable Europe solutions” label. This label goes beyond a symbolic recognition of mature solutions; it carries legal implications: all labelled Interoperable Europe solutions must be considered for potential re-use in interoperability assessments (Art. 3 of the Act).

Additionally, interoperability solutions published on the Interoperable Europe Portal must demonstrate coherence with these labelled solutions. Interoperable Europe solutions will also act as crucial guiding light for multi-country projects under the Digital Europe Programme. The decision to award the label will be based on the criteria established by the Interoperable Europe Board and the priorities outlined in this Agenda. The Board will use the needs identified in this Agenda to determine where labelled solutions are essential to move towards the shared vision of interoperable public services in the Union.

Criteria for Interoperable Europe Solutions

The Board's priority is to identify and recommend working interoperability solutions that are secure, well-maintained, and operational. Drawing inspiration from the European Interoperability Framework and ensuring alignment with the Interoperable Europe Act, the Interoperable Europe Board puts forward the following objective criteria for evaluating interoperability solutions. 

1. Needs and User Centricity should ensure that all Interoperable Europe solutions are relevant for the stakeholders taking into account business and user needs. The upcoming Interoperable Europe Agenda will identify needs regarding the development of interoperability solutions, which should become a central point of reference for the assessment of this criterion. As public administrations in the Union have an ongoing work ahead in implementing the developing Union digital acquis, solutions that help such ‘cross-border interoperability’. Implementation should also be considered as being aligned with business needs. The criteria could in the future also build on peer-to-peer exchange on use-cases, that could be facilitated through the Interoperable Europe portal. 
2. Reusability is an inherent characteristic in interoperability solutions and as such should also become a central criterion for the potential Interoperable Europe solutions. The possibility of reuse can be assessed by looking at the existing use cases and their diversity in terms of use by Member States, in administrative levels or domains. 
3. Security and Data Privacy is a must-have asset for future Interoperable Europe solutions. The performance regarding these criteria should be measured in close alignment with the evolving EU policies and international standards around these. Existing certificates or compliance checks should be used to facilitate the assessment.
4. Openness is introduced by the Interoperable Europe Act (Art. 7 (2)) as another mandatory criterion for Interoperable Europe solutions. The assessment of the criterion could focus on topics such as links with frequently used open specifications and standards, open-source licences, open data or open interfaces (APIs). 
5. Sustainability: considering the Interoperable Europe Board’s interest to make Interoperable Europe solutions central building blocks of the interoperability architecture of public administrations for all sectors and all administrative levels sustainability of such solutions is key. Sustainability should assess aspect such as the long-term governance of a solution, including the roles and responsibilities, its long term plan for maintenance and development and potential user support and training. In the future, as such data becomes available this criterion can also be used to assess environmental sustainability of a solution.