Networks – Image by mohamed Hassan on Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Parliament and Council reached provisional agreement Monday on legislation to boost public sector interoperability across the EU and improve online public services for people and businesses.
Public sector interoperability represents the ability of administrations to cooperate and make public services function across borders, sectors and organisational boundaries. It saves time and costs for people and businesses by improving their interactions with administrations.
The new regulation is aimed at strengthening cross-border interoperability and cooperation in Europe’s public sector, helping to achieve Europe’s digital targets for 2030, by making key public services available online to all persons in the EU without discrimination.
The Interoperable Europe Act brings public sector exchange of information across the Union to a next level and accelerates the digital transformation of Europe’s public sector. It introduces a cooperation framework for public administrations across the EU to help cross-border exchange of data.
This cooperation ensures agreement on interoperable and re-usable digital solutions, such as open-source software, guidelines, checklists, frameworks, and IT tools. In doing so, it helps to remove administrative burdens, including legal, organisational, semantic and technical obstacles to administrative cooperation.
The Act will ensure seamless access to cross-border public services for people in the EU, improving the quality of life for those wishing to work, study or retire in another Member State, including the 150 million EU citizens living in a border region, or two million commuters between Member States.
The legal text now needs to be approved and adopted, before the Regulation can enter into force. The Commission is preparing the ground to ensure a smooth and timely implementation of the Regulation.
