Two years on, the Interoperable Europe Act moves from law to delivery

On 11 April 2026, the Interoperable Europe Act marked two years since it entered into force. Public sector interoperability may sound technical, but its purpose is straightforward: it empowers different administrations’ systems, data and business processes to work together securely across borders and sectors. In its second year, the Act started turning that promise into something more tangible.  

The first major achievement of that second year came on 5 May 2025, when Interoperable Europe launched the Interoperable Europe Community. That move gave the Act a real public space for collaboration. It brought public administrations, EU institutions, experts, civil society and private actors into a structured forum where they exchange knowledge, respond to consultations and help shape common solutions for Europe’s digital public services.  

A few weeks later, the second meeting of the Interoperable Europe Board turned that new collaborative energy into policy work. Meeting in Warsaw on 20 May 2025, the Board launched the consultation on the first Interoperable Europe Agenda and adopted the criteria that solutions must meet to earn the label “Interoperable Europe solution.”  

In August 2025, the Act’s innovation pillar came alive. The rules for interoperability regulatory sandboxes entered into force on 7 August 2025, giving public administrations a structured way to test new digital solutions in controlled conditions before deploying them more widely. That gave the Act a practical instrument for experimentation and made it easier for authorities to innovate without taking unnecessary risks with live public systems.  

On 13 November 2025, the Community held its first annual assembly, bringing together public administrations, EU institutions, Member States, the private sector and civil society to share progress and strengthen collaboration across Europe’s interoperability ecosystem. By spring 2026, the Community page on the Portal listed 299 members, a sign that the Act is building a durable network around practical cross-border cooperation.  

The second year also brought a more practical backbone for one of the Act’s most important obligations: interoperability assessments. The Interoperable Europe Portal assembled an Assessment Toolbox with an online tool, a central repository, a shared vocabulary and an API to support the preparation, submission and publication of assessment reports. That mattered because mandatory assessments only work when officials can carry them out in a consistent, reusable and machine-readable way.  

At its third meeting in Brussels on 4 December 2025, the Board adopted the first Interoperable Europe Agenda, the Act’s main instrument for planning and coordinating priorities for cross-border interoperability. The Agenda turned a broad legal ambition into a needs-based roadmap. It linked priorities to support measures and innovation actions, and it gave Member States a common basis for funding and implementation.  

At the same meeting, the Board approved the first labelled Interoperable Europe solutions: Core Vocabularies and DCAT-AP.  

Less than two weeks later, the Commission published the first Annual Report on Interoperability in the Union. The report offered the clearest verdict yet on the Act’s second year: implementation had moved from legislation to practice. It pointed to a governance structure now in place, a Portal that had become a one-stop shop for solutions and guidance, and interoperability assessments that are becoming part of the policy and project lifecycle for new or significantly upgraded trans-European digital public services.  

Another major step came in March 2026, when IMPACTS-EDIC held its first Members’ Assembly in Athens and formally launched a new framework for countries to build interoperable digital public services together. Hosted by the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance, the launch brought founding members, observer countries and the European Commission into one room around a practical goal: to develop, test and deploy shared digital solutions, common building blocks and open standards that can make public services more secure, efficient and seamless across borders. Established in December 2025, the consortium gives the Interoperable Europe Act a new delivery vehicle for multi-country projects. 

In the same month, Interoperable Europe opened a public consultation to update the Agenda, inviting administrations, interoperability coordinators and the wider Community to say what should stay, what should change and which reusable tools deserve the next label.  

The focus now turns to implementing the Interoperable Europe Agenda, starting with its first priority: moving towards a shared understanding of Europe’s future interoperability landscape and identifying the main enablers from an interoperability architecture perspective.  

At its next meeting in May, the Board is expected to approve the Guidelines for Sharing Interoperability Solutions, another important strand of work under the Agenda. The Commission will continue to support Member States in carrying out interoperability assessments, building on the resources already made available, including the assessment guidelines, the dedicated online space on the Interoperable Europe Portal, the report form, the repository of completed assessments and the Application Programming Interface (API) that allows national assessments to be shared directly on the Portal. The next phase will focus more closely on the substance of the assessments, including their effects on cross-border interoperability, while also looking at the process itself, such as the potential to automate parts of the work. 

Another important priority is the review of the European Interoperability Framework, which the Commission and the Board have already launched. Consultation activities to support that review, including a call for evidence, are due to begin in May. 

The next annual Interoperable Europe Community Assembly is scheduled for the end of 2026. 

The Interoperable Europe Act entered into force on 11 April 2024. Most of its provisions started to apply on 12 July 2024. The new legislation marked a significant step forward in shaping a more connected and efficient digital public sector across the European Union.   

Read more about the achievements of the Act in its first year in our article: One year of the Interoperable Europe Act 

Stay tuned with all future developments around Interoperable Europe by subscribing to our monthly newsletter or by joining our Linkedin group!