Interoperability is a keyword used in different contexts, and its meaning varies depending on where and how it is used.

Based on the European Interoperability Framework, which was published 15 years ago, interoperability is defined as 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 between organizations, systems, and various stakeholders, in a way that is 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲, 𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁, meaning that the exchange needs to be also processable by the machines and the way it’s defined there.

Four layers of interoperability define the EIF:

1. Legal
2. Organisational
3. Semantic
4. Technical

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿

The legal layer plays a critical role at the top of the EIF in ensuring that the laws, norms, and regulations governing interoperability are harmonized among all stakeholders. This is particularly important in the European Union, where directives from the European Commission must be implemented coherently by member states. Misalignment in legal frameworks can lead to conflicts, inefficiencies, and even legal disputes.

For instance, consider the challenges when two institutions from different countries engage in a business transaction. Each company operates under its own set of legal norms and regulations. If these legal frameworks are not aligned, the companies may face significant hurdles in their collaboration, potentially leading to contract disputes and delays. The legal layer ensures that all parties are on the same page legally, reducing the risk of conflicts and fostering smoother cooperation.

Practical Application of the Legal Layer in the EU

Within the European Union, the legal layer is crucial for ensuring that member states do not interpret EU directives in conflicting ways. For example, when implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), all member states needed to align their national laws with the overarching EU regulation to avoid inconsistencies in data protection across Europe.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿

The second layer of the European Interoperability Framework is the Organisational Layer.

This refers to how public administrations coordinate their business processes, responsibilities, and expectations to achieve shared and mutually beneficial goals.

Organisational interoperability involves documenting and aligning business processes and the relevant information exchanged. It also aims to meet the user community’s needs by ensuring services are available, easily identifiable, accessible, and user-centered.

Business process alignment

For different administrative entities to efficiently and effectively collaborate in providing European public services, they may need to align their current business processes or create new ones.

Aligning business processes involves documenting them agreed upon using commonly accepted modeling techniques, including the information exchanged. This ensures that all public administrations delivering European public services can understand the overall (end-to-end) business process and their role within it.

Organisational relationships

Service orientation, which is the foundation of the conceptual model for public services, requires a clear definition of the relationship between service providers and service consumers.

This involves formalizing mutual assistance, joint actions, and interconnected business processes as part of service provision through instruments like MoUs and SLAs between participating public administrations.

Practical Application of the Organisational Layer in the EU

For a better understanding of how the organisational layer operates, let’s take a real-life example of cross-border healthcare that outlines the importance of the organisational layer:

1. A patient in Germany needs specialized medical treatment, which is available in France.
2. The German healthcare system coordinates with the French healthcare provider to ensure the patient’s medical records are transferred securely and accurately.
3. Both healthcare systems use standardized procedures and data formats to exchange information, ensuring the patient’s medical history is understood and validated.
4. The French healthcare provider schedules the treatment and updates the German system about the patient’s progress and outcomes.
5. This seamless exchange and cooperation are possible because of the aligned business processes and formal agreements (e.g., SLAs) between the healthcare systems of both countries.

This illustrates why business process-level interoperability is vital for providing effective cross-border public services.

The Organisational Layer is essential because it ensures seamless collaboration and efficient service delivery among public administrations by aligning business processes and formalizing relationships.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿

This layer ensures that the exact format and meaning of exchanged data are preserved and understood by all parties, ensuring that “what is sent is what is understood”, and covers both semantic and syntactic aspects:

• The semantic aspect involves the meaning of data elements and their relationships, including developing vocabularies and schemata to describe data exchanges, ensuring that all parties interpret data elements consistently.
• The syntactic aspect specifies the exact format of the information to be exchanged, including grammar and format.

To improve semantic interoperability, data and information should be perceived as valuable public assets, appropriately generated, collected, managed, shared, protected, and preserved.

For instance, agreements on reference data, such as taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, thesauri, code lists, and reusable data structures/models, are essential for semantic interoperability.

As technical standards have promoted technical interoperability (e.g., network connectivity) for decades, robust, coherent, and universally applicable information standards and specifications are necessary for meaningful information exchange among European public organizations.

Given the diverse linguistic, cultural, legal, and administrative environments in the Member States, this layer presents significant challenges. Without mature standardization efforts in the semantic interoperability layer, it’s difficult to ensure seamless information exchange, free movement of data, and data portability among Member States.

Practical Application of the Semantic Layer in the EU

Example: Cross-Border Exchange of Tax Information

• Germany and France must exchange detailed tax records to prevent tax evasion and ensure compliance with international tax regulations.
• The German tax authority sends detailed tax data to the French tax authority.
• The data includes income, deductions, and tax credits, all formatted according to agreed-upon standards and vocabularies.
• The French tax authority receives and interprets the data correctly, thanks to the standardized format and shared understanding of the data elements.

This seamless exchange enables both countries to assess and verify tax information accurately, ensuring compliance and preventing fraud.

The Semantic Layer ensures that exchanged data and information are accurately understood, fostering effective collaboration and integration. The robust standardization and shared understanding mandated in this layer are vital for seamless information exchange, free data movement, and supporting the EU’s digital single market.

T𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿

This layer involves the applications and infrastructures that connect systems and services. Technical interoperability includes specifications for interfaces, interconnection services, data integration services, data presentation and exchange, and secure communication protocols.

Legacy systems pose a significant challenge to interoperability. In the past, applications and information systems in public administrations were developed independently to address specific local problems. This led to isolated ICT systems (Information and Communication Technology) that are hard to integrate.

Because public administrations are large and have fragmented ICT solutions, the numerous legacy systems add a layer of difficulty to technical interoperability.

Practical Application of the Semantic Layer in the EU

Example 1: Cross-Border Document Exchange

A public administration in Italy needs to send official documents to a counterpart in Spain.

• The Italian system uses standardized message schemas and secure communication protocols to ensure that documents are transferred accurately and securely.
• Despite their underlying technical differences, both systems use agreed-upon technical specifications to interpret and process the exchanged documents correctly.
• The Spanish administration receives the documents and processes them according to the same technical standards, ensuring the information is understood and acted upon as intended.

The technical layer ensures seamless information exchange and cooperation are possible because of the aligned technical standards and interoperability protocols between the systems of both countries.

Example 2: Cross-Border Medical Treatment

A patient in Germany needs specialized medical treatment, which is available in France. To facilitate this, both countries’ healthcare systems must securely and accurately exchange the patient’s medical records, involving technical interoperability.

• German healthcare uses HL7 or FHIR to structure medical records, ensuring consistency.
• Protocols like HTTPS and TLS protect data during transmission from Germany to France.
• Middleware or APIs enable seamless data exchange despite different technical infrastructures.
• The French healthcare system processes and integrates the data into its EHR system.
• Both systems adhere to agreed-upon standards to correctly interpret and process data.

The technical layer ensures timely, appropriate care based on a complete medical history, improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency in both healthcare systems.

Technical interoperability should be ensured whenever possible using standards, guidelines, or protocols that define how systems should be designed or operated to ensure compatibility.

Conclusion: Achieving True Interoperability

Achieving true interoperability is a complex but essential task for modern organizations. It requires connecting systems and ensuring that all parties (organizations, departments, or software systems) communicate clearly and effectively. By understanding and implementing the four layers of the European Interoperability Framework, organizations can pave the way for seamless cooperation and data exchange, leading to more efficient operations and better outcomes.

The EIF provides a comprehensive blueprint for achieving interoperability, from aligning legal frameworks to ensuring that systems can exchange data accurately. As organizations continue to digitize and globalize, the need for effective interoperability will only grow. By adopting the principles outlined in the EIF, organizations can position themselves to thrive in this interconnected world.

Meaningfy continues to support the European Commission’s initiatives, leading the charge toward a transparent, efficient, and interconnected European public sector. If you represent a European Institution or a public company that needs to implement an interoperability solution, contact us, and together, we can find the best solution.