Interoperability in the Western Balkans’ Public Administrations: Governments Should Consider Enhancing Interoperability at the Policy and Operational Levels - Interoperability is More than a Strategic Priority in Digital Transformation
Belgrade, 30-31 March 2023
The two-day Interoperability training was an opportunity for civil servants from the Western Balkans to discuss the insights of the collected information on the state of the art in the interoperability from the public administrations as well as to look into the EU framework, tools and policies for interoperability and good practices from Estonia, Austria and Croatia.
They discussed the challenges related to enhancing all aspects of interoperability in their respective administrations emphasising the need to improve the semantics, public procurement of technology solutions and organisational cooperation for bringing forward the interoperability agenda.
In the moderated dialogue the attendees exchanged views on the potentials and preconditions for the cross-border exchange of data in a safe, effective and efficient manner.
The participants had the opportunity to hear about the benefits of using European Interoperability Assessment Tools for assessing organisational interoperability maturity. The most recent European Interoperability Act was presented with light shed on the dialogue assured and co-owned envisaged cooperation between EU member states that would lead to intensifying of the cross-border exchange of services. Practices from Estonia, Austria and Croatia were followed by the dynamic discussion that has proven the value of exchanging information on potential replicable solutions from different national models.
The Training entailed the presentations of:
- Juhani Lemik, ReSPA’s Regional Study on Digitalization focusing on preliminary early findings related to interoperability;
- Darko Gulija and Mihkel Lauk shared views on interoperability challenges, needs, and ways forward as well as Cross-Border Interoperability in the #Western Balkans public administrations;
- Claudia Oliveira presented the background and main features of the European Interoperability Act;
- Raul Mario Abril Jimenez presented the EU Interoperability Assessment Maturity Tools;
- Darko Gulija gave an overview of the main elements of EIF good and focused on Interoperability Governance;
- Miljenko Hajnić presented the interoperability framework from Croatia's perspective;
- Mihkel Lauk shared his experiences in developing interoperability in Estonia;
- Christian Rupp presented interoperability from the EU Practice-Austria perspective
“All levels of governments in the Western Balkans should be able to share the necessary data while respecting citizen rights, data privacy and protection. They also should consider and address the issues for enhancing interoperability at the policy and operational level in their administrations because interoperability is more than a strategic priority in digital transformation. With this training ReSPA tried to cover topics of common interest and I hope met the urgent needs of our working group members dealing with interoperability” said Olivera Damjanović, ReSPA Programme Manager
