Recommendations

Ensure that national interoperability frameworks and interoperability strategies are aligned with the EIF and, if needed, tailor and extend them to address the national context and needs.

Publish the data you own as open data unless certain restrictions apply.

Ensure a level playing field for open source software and demonstrate active and fair consideration of using open source software, taking into account the total cost of ownership of the solution.

Give preference to open specifications, taking due account of the coverage of functional needs, maturity and market support and innovation.

Ensure internal visibility and provide external interfaces for European public services.

Reuse and share solutions, and cooperate in the development of joint solutions when implementing European public services.

Reuse and share information and data when implementing European public services, unless certain privacy or confidentiality restrictions apply.

Do not impose any technological solutions on citizens, businesses and other administrations that are technology-specific or disproportionate to their real needs.

Ensure data portability, namely that data is easily transferable between systems and applications supporting the implementation and evolution of European public services without unjustified restrictions, if legally possible.

Use multiple channels to provide the European public service, to ensure that users can select the channel that best suits their needs.

Provide a single point of contact in order to hide internal administrative complexity and facilitate users' access to European public services.

Put in place mechanisms to involve users in analysis, design, assessment and further development of European public services.

As far as possible under the legislation in force, ask users of European public services once-only and relevant-only information.

Ensure that all European public services are accessible to all citizens, including persons with disabilities, the elderly and other disadvantaged groups.

Define a common security and privacy framework and establish processes for public services to ensure secure and trustworthy data exchange between public administrations and in interactions with citizens and businesses.

Use information systems and technical architectures that cater for multilingualism when establishing a European public service. Decide on the level of multilingualism support based on the needs of the expected users.

Simplify processes and use digital channels whenever appropriate for the delivery of European public services, to respond promptly and with high quality to users' requests and reduce the administrative burden on public administrations, businesses and citizens.

Formulate a long-term preservation policy for information related to European public services and especially for information that is exchanged across borders.

Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of different interoperability solutions and technological options considering user needs, proportionality and balance between costs and benefits.

Ensure holistic governance of interoperability activities across administrative levels and sectors.

Put in place processes to select relevant standards and specifications, evaluate them, monitor their implementation, check compliance and test their interoperability.

Use a structured, transparent, objective and common approach to assessing and selecting standards and specifications. Take into account relevant EU recommendations and seek to make the approach consistent across borders.

Consult relevant catalogues of standards, specifications and guidelines at national and EU level, in accordance with your NIF and relevant DIFs, when procuring and developing ICT solutions.

Actively participate in standardisation work relevant to your needs to ensure your requirements are met.

Ensure interoperability and coordination over time when operating and delivering integrated public services by putting in place the necessary governance structure.

Establish interoperability agreements in all layers, complemented by operational agreements and change management procedures.

When drafting legislation to establish a European public service, seek to make it consistent with relevant legislation, perform a 'digital check' and consider data protection requirements.

Document your business processes using commonly accepted modelling techniques and agree on how these processes should be aligned to deliver a European public service.

Clarify and formalise your organisational relationships for establishing and operating European public services.

Perceive data and information as a public asset that should be appropriately generated, collected, managed, shared, protected and preserved.

Put in place an information management strategy at the highest possible level to avoid fragmentation and duplication. Management of metadata, master data and reference data should be prioritised.

Support the establishment of sector-specific and cross-sectoral communities that aim to create open information specifications and encourage relevant communities to share their results on national and European platforms.

Use open specifications, where available, to ensure technical interoperability when establishing European public services.

Use the conceptual model for European public services to design new services or reengineer existing ones and reuse, whenever possible, existing service and data components.

Decide on a common scheme for interconnecting loosely coupled service components and put in place and maintain the necessary infrastructure for establishing and maintaining European public services.

Develop a shared infrastructure of reusable services and information sources that can be used by all public administrations.

Make authoritative sources of information available to others while implementing access and control mechanisms to ensure security and privacy in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Develop interfaces with base registries and authoritative sources of information, publish the semantic and technical means and documentation needed for others to connect and reuse available information.

Match each base registry with appropriate metadata including the description of its content, service assurance and responsibilities, the type of master data it keeps, conditions of access and the relevant licences, terminology...

Create and follow data quality assurance plans for base registries and related master data.

Establish procedures and processes to integrate the opening of data in your common business processes, working routines, and in the development of new information systems.

Publish open data in machine-readable, non-proprietary formats. Ensure that open data is accompanied by high quality, machine-readable metadata in non-proprietary formats, including a description of their content and the licence terms under which it is made available.

Communicate clearly the right to access and reuse open data. The legal regimes for facilitating access and reuse, such as licences, should be standardised as much as possible.

Put in place catalogues of public services, public data, and interoperability solutions and use common models for describing them.

Where useful and feasible to do so, use external information sources and services while developing European public services.

Consider the specific security and privacy requirements and identify measures for the provision of each public service according to risk management plans.

Use trust services according to the Regulation on eID and Trust Services as mechanisms that ensure secure and protected data exchange in public services.