NATIONAL LEGAL BASIS

 
In accordance with the State Administration Act (hereinafter ZDU-1), the Ministry, responsible for administration, is in the central state administration responsible for the management of the ICT infrastructure, development of common IT solutions and their technical, procedural and organisational compliance with the central ICT system, implementation of the single information security policy, and planning and management of all budget resources in these areas. This provision does not apply for the ICT systems intended for defence, protection against natural and other disasters, the police, intelligence and security activities, foreign affairs, prevention and detection of money laundering and terrorist financing, and to budget users.
The central information communication infrastructure must, inter alia, ensure a smooth electronic commerce among the authorities and with clients and provide for electronic services in administrative, judicial or other official proceedings.
 
The Ministry responsible for public administration provides the services of the central ICT system, electronic support of administrative and other procedures and the development of common IT solutions for e-commerce by State bodies, public agencies, local community authorities and bearers of public authority.
 
The Electronic Commerce and Electronic Signature Act (hereinafter ZEPEP) regulates electronic commerce, which covers commerce carried out in electronic form at a distance by means of ICT and the use of electronic signatures in legal transactions, including electronic commerce in judicial, administrative and other such procedures.
 
In accordance with the General Administrative Procedure Act (hereinafter ZUP) the administrative and other state authorities, authorities of self-governing local communities and holders of public authority, in administrative matters directly using the regulations, decide on the rights, obligations or legal benefits of individuals, legal entities and other parties.
 
The Public Information Access Act (hereinafter ZDIJZ) governs the procedure which enables everyone to have free access to and re-use of public information held by state bodies, local authority bodies, public agencies, public funds and other entities of public law, holders of public authorisations and public service contractors.
 
National Interoperability Framework provides a comprehensive national approach to the functioning of public administration, which is targeted at sustainable development and proper management of electronic commerce. It is carried out by interested organisations which wish to take care of the establishment and publication of key operational procedures for mutual coordination.

• represent the most important  requirements which must be respected at the development of information solutions when they include the processing of personal data,
• are designated to all those who deal with the development or procurement of solutions in the area of information-communication technologies, regardless whether this are new products, services, systems or individual solutions and applications.

Strategic goals and EU documents

The new European Interoperability Framework (EIF) is part of the Communication (COM(2017)134) from the European Commission adopted on 23 March 2017. The framework gives specific guidance on how to set up interoperable digital public services.

It offers public administrations concrete recommendations on how to improve governance of their interoperability activities, establish cross-organisational relationships, streamline processes supporting end-to-end digital services, and ensure that both existing and new legislation do not compromise interoperability efforts.

The new EIF is undertaken in the context of the Commission priority to create a Digital Single Market in Europe. The public sector, which accounts for over a quarter of total employment and represents approximately a fifth of the EU’s GDP through public procurement, plays a key role in the Digital Single Market as a regulator, services provider and employer.

The successful implementation of the EIF will improve the quality of European public services and will create an environment where public administrations can collaborate digitally.

 

• Why a new EIF?
• The first version of the EIF was adopted in 2010. As the field of information technology is developing by fast speed and new EU policies have emerged, the EIF needed an overall revision after six years of existence. The framework had to better react on emerging technological trends like open data and cloud computing. It also needed to be fully aligned with the most recent EU policy development.

• A need for a new framework was confirmed during a stakeholder consultation from April to June 2016. It targeted citizens, businesses, research centres, academic institutions, public administrations, as well as standardisation organisations and businesses supplying services to public administrations. The aim of the consultation was to detect needs and problems faced by stakeholders with regards to interoperability and the implementation of the EIF, identify expected revision's impacts, and collect feedback on the EU added value and coherence of the initiative.

• The new framework puts more emphasis on how interoperability principles and models should apply in practice. The number of recommendations has increased from 25 to 47. The updated interoperability recommendations have been made more specific to facilitate their implementation, with a stronger focus on openness and information management, data portability, interoperability governance, and integrated service delivery.

  This is the result of taking into account new EU policies, such as the revised Directive on the reuse of Public Sector Information, the INSPIRE Directive, and the eIDAS Regulation. New EU initiatives, such as the European Cloud Initiative, the EU eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020, and envisaged ones, such as the Single Digital Gateway, are also considered.

• What are the benefits of the EIF?

• All EU countries are currently digitising their public administrations. By following the recommendations provided by the new EIF, EU countries will follow a common approach when they make their public services available online, integrate them end-to-end, manage their information sources, or deal with security and data protection rules.

  This will ensure that services are accessible, not only within their national borders, but also across countries and policy areas. In other words, they will apply interoperability in practice. This way, public administrations can to save time, reduce costs, increase transparency, and improve the quality of services that they offer to citizens and businesses.

About EIF

• EIF infographic
• EIF leaflet
• EIF brochure
• Blog post by K. Bovalis
• EIF presentation
• European Interoperability Timeline poster

Official documents

• Communication from the European Commission
• Annex I: Interoperability Action Plan
• Annex II: EIF
• Documents in all EU languages

Videos

• Live chat with G. Ingestad
• Presentation of K. Bovalis at the Sharing & Reuse Conference 

Links

• Press release on the EIF adoption
• EIF consultation (April - June 2016)
•  

EUROPE 2020
 
The European Interoperability Framework, according to the principle of subsidiarity, predicts that each Member State has established a National Interoperability Framework, attributable or compatible with the EIF so as to facilitate the free movement of goods, services, people and capital.
 
DIGITAL AGENDA for Europe
The Digital Agenda is part of the Europe 2020 strategy, the EU’s plan for spurring higher economic growth over the next decade. The European Union has recognised ICT as a key part of the EU’s strategy for boosting economic growth and dealing with major challenges. The Digital Agenda is the first and most important of the seven key initiatives of the strategy.
 
The action areas of the Digital Agenda are based on seven pillars:

• a vibrant digital single market,
• Interoperability and standards,
• trust and security
• fast and ultra-fast internet access,
• Research and Innovation
• enhancing digital literacy, skills and inclusion,
• benefits for EU society enabled by ICT.

 
Communication from the Commission:  DIGITAL AGENDA FOR EUROPE
The ISA programme
 

"Europe can be more efficient with Semantic Interoperability?"

 

Metadata

Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, define or otherwise facilitates the acquisition, use or management of information sources.  Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.’ — National Information Standards Organisation

Metadata is data about data and therefore a special category of data.  
Data and metadata shall be subject to the same requirements in terms of quality.
 

Which main features should be taken into account to ensure good quality of metadata?

 
Data quality characteristics:

• accuracy: whether the Council correctly presents the real world or event?
• consistency: does the data not contain contradictions?
• availability: can data be accessed at this moment and also over time?
• perfection: does the data include all parts of information which constitute a single entity or the event?
• compliance:  is the data in accordance to accepted standards?
• credibility: does the data base on credible sources?
• capability of processing: is the data machine-readable?
• relevance :does the data contain a relevant amount of data?
• timeliness:  That figure represents reality and published quickly enough?