Position paper on the evaluation of the European Interoperability Framework and new interoperability strategy for EU governments
In CSC’s view, the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) has proven to be a useful tool for advancing data sharing in Europe. It must be kept in mind, however, that the EIF is only a starting point and its real impact on the functioning of European public services and digitalisation depends on how it is applied in practice. Application must be uniform across the different EU Member States, extend to all sectors (public-private-research) and take into account all relevant dimensions.
In order to harmonise interoperability practices across the Union, some EU-level regulation may be necessary. However, it must be noted that recommendations and other soft law instruments often yield better and more durable results. Therefore, the aim must be a combination of a reasonable level of regulation and soft law instruments/community-driven best practices towards an open, federated and interoperable ICT ecosystem. Interoperability with existing data infrastructures must be ensured, and existing infrastructures utilised where possible, to avoid duplicating efforts and building silos.