(1)

It is necessary to strengthen the development of the cross-border interoperability of network and information systems which are used to provide or manage public services in the Union, in order to allow public administrations in the Union to cooperate and make public services function across borders. The existing informal cooperation should be replaced by a clear legal framework to enable interoperability across different administrative levels and sectors and to facilitate seamless cross-border data flows for truly European digital services that strengthen the internal market while respecting the principle of subsidiarity. Public sector interoperability has an important impact on the right to free movement of goods, persons, services and capital laid down in the Treaties, as burdensome administrative procedures can create significant obstacles, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

(2)

Cooperation with regard to cross-border interoperability between public sector bodies can address common challenges, in particular in the border regions, and can ensure seamless cross-border data flows.

(3)

The Union and Member States have been working for more than two decades to support the modernisation of public administrations through digital transformation and to foster the deep interconnections needed for a truly European digital space. In its communication of 9 March 2021 entitled ‘2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade’, the Commission underlined the need to speed up the digitalisation of public services by 2030, including by ensuring interoperability across all levels of administration and across public services. Moreover, Decision (EU) 2022/2481 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) sets a clear target of 100 % online accessible provision of key public services by 2030. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic increased the speed of digitalisation, pushing public administrations to adapt to the online paradigm, including for cross-border digital public services, as well as for the smarter and greener use of technologies in accordance with the climate and energy targets set in the European Green Deal and in Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5). This Regulation aims to significantly contribute to those Union objectives by creating a structured cooperation framework on cross-border interoperability among Member States and between the Commission and Member States to support the setup of digital public services, helping to reduce costs and save time for citizens, businesses and the public sector.

(4)

In the pursuit of enhancing cross-border interoperability in the Union, it is imperative to underscore that interoperability, while of the utmost importance, does not ensure, in isolation, the accessibility and seamlessness of trans-European digital public services. A comprehensive and sustainable ecosystem of digital infrastructures, with adequate financial support, is equally important to achieving the objectives set out in Decision (EU) 2022/2481. In line with the communication of the Commission of 30 June 2021 entitled ‘A long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040’, particular attention should be paid to extending connectivity to rural and remote areas within the Union, areas affected by industrial transition, and regions which suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as islands, cross-border and mountain regions, ensuring that the benefits of digital transformation align with and support established Union initiatives for enhanced regional inclusivity and connectivity.

(5)

The development of cross-border interoperability for trans-European digital public services set out in this Regulation should take into account legal interoperability. As a catalyst for the development of organisational, semantic and technical interoperability, legal interoperability facilitates reaping the benefits of cross-border interoperability generally, including swift access for citizens and businesses to information, faster procedures and services and the reduction of administrative obstacles. Furthermore, as the language barrier is one of the obstacles to interoperability, to the reuse of solutions and to the establishment of cross border services, semantic interoperability is key to facilitating effective communication in diverse multi-linguistic environments, including at regional and local level.

(6)

Trans-European digital public services are digital services provided by Union entities or public sector bodies to one another or to natural or legal persons in the Union, and requiring interaction across Member State borders, among Union entities or between Union entities and public sector bodies, by means of their network and information systems. Trans-European digital public services should include, inter alia, the key public services as defined in Decision (EU) 2022/2481, covering essential services that are relevant for major life events for natural persons, such as finding a job or studies, and for legal persons in their professional life-cycle. Key public services with trans-European relevance are intended to give rise to major benefits for citizens where they become interoperable across borders. Examples of trans-European digital public services are services that, by means of cross-border exchanges of data, allow for the mutual recognition of academic diplomas or professional qualifications, exchanges of vehicle data for road safety, access to social security and health data, including pandemic and vaccination certificates, access to single window systems, the exchange of information related to taxation, customs, public tender accreditation, digital driving licenses or commercial registers, and in general all those services that implement the ‘once-only’ principle to access and exchange cross-border data.

(7)

Without prejudice to the competence of the Member States to define what constitutes public services, Union entities and public sector bodies are encouraged to reflect on user needs and accessibility in the design and development of such services, in line with the European Declaration of 15 December 2022 on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade (6). Also, Union entities and public sector bodies are encouraged to ensure that people with disabilities, older people and other vulnerable groups are able to use public services at service levels comparable to those provided to other citizens.

(8)

A new governance structure, with the Interoperable Europe Board (the ‘Board’) at its centre, should be established and should have a legal mandate to drive, together with the Commission, the further development of cross-border interoperability in the Union, including the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and other common legal, organisational, semantic and technical interoperability solutions, such as specifications and applications. Furthermore, this Regulation should establish a clear and easily recognisable label for certain interoperability solutions (Interoperable Europe solutions). The creation of a vibrant community around open government technology solutions should be fostered.

(9)

Regional and local authorities will play an active role in the development of interoperability solutions. They should also seek to involve SMEs, research and educational organisations and civil society and share the outcome of such exchanges.

(10)

It is in the interests of a coherent approach to public sector interoperability in the Union and of supporting the principle of good administration and the free movement of personal and non-personal data within the Union to align the rules as far as possible for all Union entities and public sector bodies that set binding requirements for trans-European digital public services, and thus affect the ability of those entities and bodies to share data through their network and information systems. That objective includes the Commission and other Union entities, as well as public sector bodies in the Member States across all levels of administration: national, regional and local. Union entities play an important role in collecting regulatory reporting data from Member States. Therefore, the interoperability of such data should also fall within the scope of this Regulation.

(11)

The fundamental right to the protection of personal data is safeguarded, in particular, by Regulations (EU) 2016/679 (7) and (EU) 2018/1725 (8) of the European Parliament and of the Council. Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (9) protects, in addition, private life and the confidentiality of communications, including by way of conditions for any personal and non-personal data storing in, and access from, terminal equipment. Those Union legislative acts provide the basis for sustainable and responsible data processing, including where datasets include a mix of personal and non-personal data. This Regulation complements and is without prejudice to Union law on the protection of personal data and privacy, in particular Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) No 2018/1725 and Directive 2002/58/EC. No provision of this Regulation should be applied or interpreted in such a way as to diminish or limit the right to the protection of personal data or the right to privacy and confidentiality of communications.

(12)

Cross-border interoperability is not solely enabled by means of centralised digital infrastructures in the Member States, but also by means of a decentralised approach. This entails the need for trust between public administrations, allowing for data exchange between local administrations in different Member States without necessarily going through national nodes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop common interoperability solutions that are reusable across all administrative levels. Interoperability solutions encompass different forms ranging from higher-level tools like conceptual frameworks and guidelines to more technical solutions such as reference architectures, technical specifications or standards. Moreover, concrete services and applications, as well as documented technical components such as source code, including artefacts and artificial intelligence models can be interoperability solutions, if they address legal, organisational, semantic, or technical aspects of cross-border interoperability. Needs for cross-border digital interactions are increasing, which requires solutions that can fulfil those needs. This Regulation intends to facilitate and encourage exchanges at all levels of administration, overcoming cross-border barriers and administrative burdens, thereby increasing the efficiency of public services across the Union.

(13)

Interoperability facilitates the successful implementation of policies, in particular those with a strong public sector connection, such as justice and home affairs, taxation and customs, transport, energy, health, agriculture, and employment, as well as in business and industry regulation. However, a single sector interoperability perspective is associated with the risk that the adoption of different or incompatible solutions at national or sectoral levels will give rise to new electronic barriers that impede the proper functioning of the internal market and the associated freedoms of movement. Furthermore, it risks undermining the openness and competitiveness of markets and the delivery of services of general interest to citizens and business. Therefore, this Regulation should also facilitate, encourage and apply to cross-sector interoperability, thereby supporting the removal of barriers, incompatibilities and the fragmentation of digital public services.

(14)

In order to eliminate fragmentation in the interoperability landscape in the Union, a common understanding of interoperability in the Union and a holistic approach to interoperability solutions should be promoted. A structured cooperation should support measures promoting a digital-ready and interoperability-by-design policy set-up. Furthermore, it should promote the efficient management and use of digital service infrastructures and their respective components by Union entities and public sector bodies that permit the establishment and operation of sustainable and efficient public services, with the aim of ensuring accessibility up to the lowest administrative division.

(15)

Union entities and public sector bodies can introduce binding requirements for trans-European digital public services. To ensure that such services are able to exchange data cross-border, a mechanism should be established to allow for the discovery of legal, organisational, semantic and technical barriers to cross-border interoperability (interoperability assessment). That mechanism should ensure adequate consideration of cross-border interoperability aspects in all decisions that can have an effect on the design of such services.

(16)

To set up binding requirements for trans-European digital public services, it is important to focus on the interoperability aspect as early as possible in the policymaking process following the digital-by-default principle and interoperability-by-design approach. Therefore, a Union entity or public sector body that intends to set binding requirements for one or more trans-European digital public services that have an effect on cross-border interoperability, for example in the course of the digitalisation of key public services as referred to in Decision (EU) 2022/2481, should carry out an interoperability assessment. To ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of this task, a Member State can decide on the internal resources and the collaboration between its public sector bodies necessary to support carrying out those interoperability assessments.

(17)

An interoperability assessment is necessary to understand the magnitude of the impact of the planned requirements and to propose measures to reap the benefits and address the potential costs. In situations in which an interoperability assessment is not mandatory, the Union entity or public sector body should be able to carry out the interoperability assessment on a voluntary basis. This Regulation therefore fosters interoperability in general.

(18)

Binding requirements include any obligations, prohibitions, conditions, criteria, or limits of a legal, organisational, semantic or technical nature within a law, regulation, administrative provision, contract, call for tender, or other official document. Binding requirements affect how trans-European digital public services and their networks and information systems used for their provision are designed, procured, developed and implemented, thereby influencing the inbound or outbound data flows of those services. However, tasks such as evolutive maintenance that do not introduce substantive change, security or technical updates, or the simple procurement of standard information and communication technologies (ICT) equipment do not usually affect the cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services, and do not therefore give rise to a mandatory interoperability assessment within the meaning of this Regulation.

(19)

The approach to conducting interoperability assessments should be proportionate and differentiated in accordance with the level and scope at which they are undertaken. In some circumstances, it can be reasonable and economical for the subject of an interoperability assessment to be broader than a single project, including where public sector bodies intend to establish a common application or processing platform. In such cases, the interoperability assessment should be strongly encouraged to go beyond the achievement of the Interoperable Europe objectives towards the full implementation of interoperability. Similarly, the requirements for interoperability assessments conducted at the level of single project implementation, such as in a local authority, should be pragmatic and allow for a narrow focus, taking into account the fact that the wider benefits of interoperability assessments are generally harvested at the early stages of policy design and the development of reference architecture, specifications and standards. Where the Board adopts guidelines on the content of the interoperability assessment, it should take into account, inter alia, the capacity of regional and local public sector bodies and avoid excessive administrative burden.

(20)

In the process of consulting those directly affected or their representatives, the Union entity or public sector body should be able to make use of established consultation practices and current data.

(21)

The interoperability assessment should evaluate the effects of the planned binding requirements for trans-European digital public services on cross-border interoperability, for example, having regard to the origin, nature, particularity and scale of those effects. The outcome of that assessment should be taken into account when determining the appropriate measures that need to be taken in order to set up or modify the binding requirements for trans-European digital public services.

(22)

The Union entity or public sector body should publish a report on the outcome of the interoperability assessment in a public location designated by the national competent authorities or the interoperability coordinators for Union entities, at least on an official website in a machine-readable format. Publication of the report should not compromise intellectual property rights or trade secrets, and should be restricted where justified on the grounds of public order or security. Union law governing the protection of personal data should be complied with. The Union entity or public sector body should share the outcome of the interoperability assessment electronically with the Board. On that basis, the Board should analyse and provide proposals for improving the cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services. The Board’s proposals should be published on the Interoperable Europe portal.

(23)

A common checklist for interoperability assessment reports is needed to facilitate the tasks of Union entities and public sector bodies of carrying out those assessments and to enable the Board to draw up recommendations based on their outcomes in order to improve cross-border interoperability. Accordingly, the report representing the outcome of the interoperability assessment process should summarise the effects of the assessed requirement on the legal, organisational, semantic, technical and governance dimensions of cross-border interoperability, along with the type of Interoperable Europe solution used to tackle such effects and the remaining barriers that are not yet tackled. The use of that common checklist should be further explained by guidelines adopted by the Board.

(24)

The Commission should provide user-friendly means by which to address and transmit the outcome of the assessments, including in a machine-readable format. An online tool for interoperability assessment reports should serve the purpose of providing a simple and user-friendly interface to produce and publish such reports. A standardised output of reporting in a machine-readable format could be used for monitoring purposes. Such a tool should also facilitate automated translation and should be integrated in the Interoperable Europe portal. To foster interoperability and seamless integration, the online tool should also adopt and comply with an open data model derived from the common checklist for interoperability assessment reports. The provision of an application programming interface is crucial, allowing the integration of the tool into existing reporting platforms, thereby maximising utility and efficiency for all stakeholders. While the use of the online tool should be voluntary, by submitting the necessary data and by allowing for its publication on the Interoperable Europe portal, the obligation of a Union entity or a public sector body to publish a report presenting the outcome of the interoperability assessment in a public location should be considered to be fulfilled.

(25)

Union entities or public sector bodies that search for interoperability solutions should be able to request from other Union entities or public sector bodies the interoperability solutions those bodies or entities use such as good practices, specifications, and software code, together with the related documentation. Sharing should become a default. In addition, Union entities or public sector bodies should seek to develop new interoperability solutions or to further develop existing interoperability solutions. When doing so, they should prioritise solutions that do not carry restrictive licensing terms where such solutions are equivalent. Nevertheless, sharing interoperability solutions should not be understood as a requirement for Union entities and public sector bodies to give up their intellectual property rights.

(26)

Where public administrations share their solutions with other public administrations or the public, they are acting in the public interest. This is even more relevant for innovative technologies. For instance, open code makes algorithms transparent and allows for independent audits and reproducible building blocks. The sharing of interoperability solutions among public administrations should set the conditions for the achievement of an open ecosystem of digital technologies for the public sector that can produce multiple benefits.

(27)

When monitoring the coherence of the recommended interoperability solutions and proposing measures to ensure their compatibility with existing solutions that share a common purpose, the Board should take into account the obsolescence of solutions.

(28)

The EIF should ensure coherence and be recognised as the single point of reference for the Union’s approach to interoperability in the public service sector. In addition, specialised interoperability frameworks can address the needs of specific sectors, domains or administrative levels. Those frameworks, which are of a non-binding nature, should further promote the implementation of interoperability solutions and the interoperability-by-design approach.

(29)

The EIF should, inter alia, promote the principle of multilingualism in the public sector.

(30)

The EIF should be developed by the Board. The Board should be composed of one representative from each Member State and one representative of the Commission. The Member States, together with the Commission, are thus at the centre of the development and implementation of the EIF. The Board should update the EIF where necessary.

(31)

The specialised interoperability frameworks issued to complement the EIF should take into account and not prejudice the existing sector-specific frameworks developed at Union level, such as in the health sector.

(32)

Interoperability is directly connected with and dependent on the use of open specifications and standards. Therefore, the Union public sector should be allowed to agree on cross-cutting open specifications and other solutions to promote interoperability. The new framework should provide for a clear process on the establishment and promotion of recommended interoperability solutions in the future, bearing the label ‘Interoperable Europe solution’. This way, the public sector will have a more coordinated voice to channel public sector needs and public values into broader discussions. The Board should agree upon the general criteria which interoperability solutions are to meet. The Board should be able to withdraw its recommendations. Where the Board withdraws its recommendations, the ‘Interoperable Europe solution’ label should be removed from the relevant interoperability solutions and those interoperability solutions could, if necessary, be deleted from the Interoperable Europe portal.

(33)

Many interoperability specifications used by the public sector could be derived from existing Union law. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a link between all specifications for trans-European digital public services that are mandatory pursuant to Union law. It is not always easy for implementing authorities to find the requirements in the most recent and machine-readable format. A single point of entry in the form of the Interoperable Europe portal and clear rules on the metadata of the information relating to such requirements are intended to help public sector bodies to ensure their digital service infrastructures complies with existing and future rules.

(34)

The Interoperable Europe portal should be developed on the basis of existing initiatives and should be established as an easily accessible point of reference for interoperability solutions, assessments, knowledge and community. The Interoperable Europe portal should be established as a link to official sources and should be open to input from the Interoperable Europe Community established by this Regulation.

(35)

The Interoperable Europe portal should make publicly available and findable interoperability solutions that follow the EIF principles of openness, accessibility, technical neutrality, reusability, security and privacy. There should be a clear distinction between Interoperable Europe solutions, which are recommended by the Board, and other interoperability solutions, such as those shared proactively for reuse by public administrations, those linked to Union policies and relevant solutions from national portals. Use cases in the Interoperable Europe portal should be searchable by country or by the type of public service that they support. The Board should be consulted on how solutions are to be categorised on the Interoperable Europe portal.

(36)

As open source enables users to actively assess and inspect the interoperability and security of solutions, it is important that open source supports the implementation of interoperability solutions. In that context, the use of open source licences should be promoted to enhance legal clarity and the mutual recognition of licences in the Member States. With the European Union Public Licence (EUPL), the Commission already provides a solution for such licencing. Member States’ portals collecting open source solutions that are linked with the Interoperable Europe portal should allow for the use of EUPL, while not excluding the possibility that such portals can allow the use of other open source licences.

(37)

The Union’s public services that are delivered or managed electronically currently often depend on non-Union providers. It is in the Union’s strategic interest to ensure that it retains and develops essential technological capacities to secure its Digital Single Market and, in particular, to ensure service delivery, protect critical network and information systems, and to provide key public services. The Interoperable Europe support measures should help public administrations to evolve and be capable of incorporating new challenges and new areas in cross-border contexts. Interoperability is a condition for avoiding technological lock-in, enabling technical developments, and fostering innovation, which should boost the global competitiveness, resilience and open strategic autonomy of the Union.

(38)

It is necessary to establish a governance mechanism to facilitate the implementation of Union policies in a way that ensures interoperability. That mechanism should focus on the interoperable digital implementation of policies once they have been adopted in the form of legal acts and should serve to develop interoperability solutions on a needs-driven basis. The mechanism should support public sector bodies. Policy implementation support projects to support public sector bodies should be proposed by the Board to the Commission who should decide whether to set up the support projects, with due regard to the potential need for non- authoritative, machine-executable versions of the policy, such as reference implementation models or code, reusable at all levels of administration.

(39)

All levels of administration should cooperate with innovative organisations, including companies and not-for-profit entities, in design, development and operation of public services. Supporting GovTech cooperation between public sector bodies, research and educational institutions, start-ups and innovative SMEs, and civil society organisations (CivicTech), is an effective means of supporting public sector innovation, flexibility and promoting use of interoperability tools across the private and public sectors. Supporting an open GovTech ecosystem in the Union that brings together public and private actors across borders and involves different levels of administration should allow the development of innovative initiatives with regard to the design and deployment of GovTech interoperability solutions.

(40)

Identifying shared innovation needs and priorities and focusing common GovTech and experimentation efforts across borders would help Union public sector bodies to share risks, lessons learnt, and results of innovation measures. Those activities will tap in particular into the Union’s rich reservoir of technology start-ups and SMEs. Successful GovTech projects and innovation measures piloted by Interoperable Europe innovation measures should help scale up GovTech tools and interoperability solutions for reuse.

(41)

Interoperable Europe support measures could benefit from safe spaces for experimentation, while ensuring responsible innovation and integration of appropriate risk mitigation measures and safeguards. To ensure a legal framework that is innovation-friendly, future-proof and resilient to disruption, it should be made possible to run such projects in interoperability regulatory sandboxes. Interoperability regulatory sandboxes should consist of controlled test environments that facilitate the development and testing of innovative solutions before such solutions are integrated in the network and information systems of the public sector. The establishment of interoperability regulatory sandboxes should aim to foster interoperability through innovative solutions by establishing a controlled experimentation and testing environment with a view to ensuring the alignment of those solutions with this Regulation and other relevant Union and national law, to enhance legal certainty for innovators and the competent authorities and to increase the understanding of the opportunities, emerging risks and the impact of the new solutions. To ensure uniform implementation across the Union and to achieve economies of scale, it is appropriate to establish common rules for the implementation of the interoperability regulatory sandboxes. The European Data Protection Supervisor has the power to impose administrative fines on Union entities in the context of interoperability regulatory sandboxes, in accordance with Article 58(2), point (i), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(42)

It is necessary to provide rules for the use of personal data collected for other purposes in order to develop certain interoperability solutions in the public interest within the Interoperability regulatory sandbox, in accordance with Article 6(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and without prejudice to Article 4(2) of Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10). All other obligations of data controllers and rights of data subjects under Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) No 2018/1725 and Directive (EU) 2016/680 remain applicable. In particular, this Regulation does not provide a legal basis in the meaning of Article 22(2), point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 or Article 24(2), point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. This Regulation aims to provide only for the processing of personal data in the context of the Interoperability regulatory sandbox. Any other processing of personal data falling within the scope of this Regulation would require a separate legal basis.

(43)

In order to increase transparency of the processing of personal data by Union entities and public sector bodies, the Interoperable Europe portal should provide access to information on the processing of personal data in the context of Interoperability regulatory sandboxes, in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) No 2018/1725.

(44)

It is necessary to enhance a good understanding of interoperability issues, especially among public sector employees. Continuing training is key in this respect and cooperation and coordination on the topic should be encouraged. Beyond training on Interoperable Europe solutions, all initiatives should, where appropriate, build on, or be accompanied by, the sharing of experience and solutions and the exchange and promotion of best practices. To that end, the Commission should develop training courses and training materials, and should promote the development of a certification programme on interoperability matters in order to promote best practices, qualifications for human resources and a culture of excellence. The Commission should contribute to the increase of the general availability and uptake of training on public sector interoperability at national, regional and local level, in line with the Union strategies for digital skills. The Commission and the Member States should foster capacity-building, particularly within public administrations, in terms of the reskilling and upskilling needed for the implementation of this Regulation.

(45)

To create a mechanism facilitating a mutual learning process among Union entities and public sector bodies and sharing of best practices in implementing Interoperable Europe solutions across the Member States, it is necessary to lay down provisions on the peer review process. Peer review should lead to valuable insights and recommendations for the public sector body undergoing such review. In particular, it could contribute to facilitating the transfer of technologies, tools, measures and processes among the participants of peer review. Peer review should create a functional path for the sharing of best practices across Member States and Union entities with different levels of maturity in interoperability. It should be possible to carry out peer review on a voluntary basis upon the request of a Union entity or a public sector body where necessary. In order to ensure that the peer review process is cost-effective, produces clear and conclusive results, and avoid unnecessary administrative burden, the Commission should be able to adopt guidelines on the methodology and the content of peer review, based on the needs that occur and after consulting the Board.

(46)

The Board should facilitate the development of the general direction of the Interoperable Europe structured cooperation in promoting the digital interconnection and interoperability of public services in the Union and oversee the strategic and implementation activities related to that cooperation. The Board should carry out its tasks taking into consideration cross-border interoperability rules and solutions already implemented for existing network and information systems.

(47)

Certain Union entities, such as the European Data Innovation Board and the European Health Data Space Board, have been created and tasked, inter alia, to enhance interoperability at specific domain or policy level. However, none of the existing entities are tasked to address binding requirements for trans-European digital public services. The Board should support the Union entities working on policies, actions and solutions relevant for cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services, for example on semantic interoperability for data spaces portability and reusability. The Board should interact with all relevant Union entities in order to ensure alignment and synergies between cross-border interoperability actions and sector specific ones. To that end, the Commission, as Chair of the Board, may invite experts with specific competence in a subject on the agenda, including representatives from regional and local authorities and from the open source and standardisation communities.

(48)

Advancing public sector interoperability needs the active involvement and commitment of experts, practitioners, users and interested citizens across Member States. That effort spans all levels of administration – national, regional and local – and involves international partners, research and educational institutions, as well as relevant communities, and the private sector. In order to tap into their expertise, skills and creativity, the Interoperable Europe Community, a dedicated forum, should help channel feedback, user and operational needs, identify areas for further development and priorities for interoperability cooperation in the Union. The establishment of the Interoperable Europe Community should support the coordination and cooperation between the strategic and operational key players for interoperability.

(49)

The Interoperable Europe Community should be open to all interested parties. Access to the Interoperable Europe Community should be made as easy as possible, avoiding unnecessary barriers and administrative burdens. The Interoperable Europe Community should bring together public and private stakeholders, including citizens, with expertise in the field of cross-border interoperability, coming from different backgrounds, such as academia, research and innovation, education, standardisation and specifications, business and public administration at all levels. Active participation in the Interoperable Europe Community, including by identifying support measures and funding opportunities should be encouraged.

(50)

In order to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of this Regulation, it is necessary to designate national competent authorities responsible for its implementation. In many Member States, some entities already have the role of developing interoperability. Those entities should be able to take over the role of competent authority in accordance with this Regulation and, where there is more than one national competent authority, a single point of contact should be designated from among them.

(51)

An Interoperable Europe Agenda should be developed as the Union’s main instrument for coordinating public investments in interoperability solutions and setting out the roadmap for implementing this Regulation. It should deliver a comprehensive overview of funding possibilities and funding commitments in the field, integrating where appropriate the related Union programmes. This should contribute to creating synergies and coordinating financial support related to interoperability development and avoiding duplication at all levels of administration.

(52)

Information should be collected in order to guide the effective and efficient implementation of this Regulation, including information to support the work of the Board, and input for the evaluation of this Regulation in accordance with the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (11). Therefore, the Commission should carry out a monitoring and evaluation of this Regulation. The evaluation should be based on the following five criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and value added, with a specific focus on the impact of this Regulation on the cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services as an enabler for seamless and accessible digital public services, the reduction of administrative burdens and the need for any additional measures and policies at Union level. The evaluation should also be the basis for impact assessments for possible further measures. Furthermore, the Commission should, after consulting the Board, prepare the methodology, process, and indicators for monitoring. The monitoring mechanism should be designed to minimise the administrative burden on Member States by reusing, to the extent feasible, existing data sources and by creating synergies with existing monitoring mechanisms, such as the Digital Economy and Society Index, the eGovernment Benchmark and the trajectories of the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 established by Decision (EU) 2022/2481.

(53)

The Commission should submit and present an annual report to the European Parliament and to the Council on interoperability in the Union. That report should include an account of progress made with regard to the cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services, implementation barriers and drivers, and results achieved over time, in line with the monitoring topics listed in this Regulation. With regard to indicators for which data is not available, Member States should provide the data in a timely manner through the Board to ensure the effective delivery of the report. The quality of the report is contingent upon the timely availability of data.

(54)

In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to set out rules and the conditions for the establishment and the operation of the interoperability regulatory sandboxes. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12).

(55)

Since the objective of this Regulation, namely to strengthen the internal market by promoting cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(56)

The application of this Regulation should be deferred by three months after its date of entry into force in order to provide Member States and the Union entities with sufficient time to prepare for the application of this Regulation. Such a deferral is necessary to establish the Board and the Interoperable Europe Community and to designate interoperability coordinators. In addition, this Regulation should allow time for Member States and the Union entities to prepare for the effective implementation of interoperability assessments and for each Member State to designate one or more national competent authorities and a single point of contact. Therefore, the provisions on interoperability assessments, national competent authorities and single points of contact should apply nine months from the date of entry into force of this Regulation.

(57)

The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and delivered an opinion on 13 January 2023 (13),