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EIF

The European interoperability framework is a commonly agreed approach to the delivery of European public services in an interoperable manner. It defines basic interoperability guidelines in the form of common principles, models and recommendations.

The purpose of the EIF is to:

  • inspire European public administrations in their efforts to design and deliver seamless European public services to other public administrations, citizens and businesses which are to the degree possible, digital-by-default (i.e. providing services and data preferably via digital channels), cross-border-by-default (i.e. accessible for all citizens in the EU) and open-by-default (i.e. enabling reuse, participation/access and transparency);
  • provide guidance to public administrations on the design and update of national interoperability frameworks (NIFs), or national policies, strategies and guidelines promoting interoperability;
  • contribute to the establishment of the digital single market by fostering cross-border and cross- sectoral interoperability for the delivery of European public services.

The EIF is meant to be a generic framework applicable to all public administrations in the EU. It lays out the basic conditions for achieving interoperability, acting as the common denominator for relevant initiatives at all levels including European, national, regional and local, embracing public administrations, citizens and businesses.

The EIF describes a set of 47 recommendations, as actionable items to be implemented by public administrations. Several these recommendations impact NLX. All recommendations from the EIF and their impact on NLX are detailed below.

  • Requirement NLX0001
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle: Subsidiarity and proportionality
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description 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. |
    • Implications
      • The NLX will be aligned with the goals described in the EIF.
      • Extensions in the NLX have been added with regards to authentication and logging in the federated infrastructure
  • Requirement NLX0002
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle: Openness
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Publish the data you own as open data unless certain restrictions apply.
    • Implications
      • NLX can be used as the infrastructure to publish any data, including open data.
      • Making data available as open data is the responsibility of the data owner.
  • Requirement NLX0003
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Underlying principle: Openness
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant Yes
  • Description 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. |
  • Implications
    • NLX is being developed as Open Source using Open Source components.
    • Development is done using the European Union Public License, version 1.2 (EUPL-1.2) license.
  • Requirement NLX0004
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle: Openness
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Give preference to open specifications, taking due account of the coverage of functional needs, maturity and market support and innovation.
    • Implications
      • The NLX development exclusively uses both international and national open specifications.
      • Examples of local open specifications are the Dutch DSO API/URI specification and Dutch government OAuth 2.0 profiles.
  • Requirement NLX0005
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Transparency
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Ensure internal visibility and provide external interfaces for European public services.
    • Implications
      • NLX can be used as the infrastructure for provisioning the external interfaces.
      • Ensuring internal visibility and provisioning of external interfaces is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0006
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Underlying principle:Reusability
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant Yes
  • Description Reuse and share solutions, and cooperate in the development of joint solutions when implementing European public services.
  • Implications
    • NLX is being developed as Open Source using Open Source components.
    • Development is done using the European Union Public License, version 1.2 (EUPL-1.2) license.
  • Requirement NLX0007
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Reusability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Reuse and share information and data when implementing European public services, unless certain privacy or confidentiality restrictions apply.
    • Implications
      • Reusing and sharing of information and data is the responsibility of the data owner
  • Requirement NLX0008
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Technological neutrality and data portability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Do not impose any technological solutions on citizens, businesses and other administrations that are technology-specific or disproportionate to their real needs.
    • Implications
      • NLX doesn't impose any technical solutions on organizations or businesses which are disproportionate to their needs.
      • NLX is being developed as a lightweight solution based on open source development.
  • Requirement NLX0009
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Technological neutrality and data portability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • Ensuring data portability is the responsibility of the data owner;
      • NLX can accommodate the transfer of the data between systems and organizations.
  • Requirement NLX0010
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:User-centricity
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Use multiple channels to provide the European public service, to ensure that users can select the channel that best suits their needs.
    • Implications
      • It is the responsibility of the public administration to provide multiple channels for provisioning of public services.
  • Requirement NLX0011
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:User-centricity
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Provide a single point of contact in order to hide internal administrative complexity and facilitate users' access to European public services.
    • Implications
      • It is the responsibility of the public administration, or government, to provide a single point of contact in order to hide internal administrative complexity.
  • Requirement NLX0012
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Underlying principle:User-centricity
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant N/A
  • Description Put in place mechanisms to involve users in analysis, design, assessment and further development of European public services.
  • Implications
    • Involving users in analysis, design, assessment and further development of public services is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0013
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:User-centricity
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description As far as possible under the legislation in force, ask users of European public services once-only and relevant-only information.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0014
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Inclusion and accessibility
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Ensure that all European public services are accessible to all citizens, including persons with disabilities, the elderly and other disadvantaged groups. For digital public services, public administrations should comply with e-accessibility specifications that are widely recognised at European or international level.
    • Implications
      • The API discovery user interface used to find services offered by API-providers through NLX should be accessible to all citizens and compliant with the "Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe" standard (EN 301 549 v1.1.2)
  • Requirement NLX0015
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Underlying principle:Security and privacy
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant Yes
  • Description 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.
  • Implications
    • The NLX exchanges data in a way that is secure and in full compliance with the GDPR and eIDAS regulations.
    • Transaction logs are maintained for auditing purposes.
  • Requirement NLX0016
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Multilingualism
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • The main users of NLX and the services offered through NLX are developers
      • Developers are used to working in environments where English is the main language
      • The primary language for development and documentation of NLX will be English
      • The primary language for API documentation published through NLX will be English
  • Requirement NLX0017
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Administrative simplification
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • Simplifying processes and using digital channels for the delivery of public services is the responsibility of the public administration offering these services.
  • Requirement NLX0018
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Underlying principle:Preservation of information
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant Yes
  • Description Formulate a long-term preservation policy for information related to European public services and especially for information that is exchanged across borders.
  • Implications
    • NLX doesn't store any information related to European public services except transaction logs;
    • NLX transaction logs need to be preserved long-term to be able to comply with Dutch legislation.
  • Requirement NLX0019
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Underlying principle:Assessment of Effectiveness and Efficiency
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of different interoperability solutions and technological options considering user needs, proportionality and balance between costs and benefits.
    • Implications
      • <add explanation why the technology used was selected>
  • Requirement NLX0020
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Interoperability governance
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Ensure holistic governance of interoperability activities across administrative levels and sectors.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration, relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities) and the Dutch government.
  • Requirement NLX0021
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Interoperability governance
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Put in place processes to select relevant standards and specifications, evaluate them, monitor their implementation, check compliance and test their interoperability.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration, relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities) and the Dutch government.
  • Requirement NLX0022
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Interoperability governance
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration, relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities) and the Dutch government
      • The 'Forum Standaardisatie' (Dutch Standardisation Forum) selects open standards taking into account the relevant EU recommendations
      • Relevant open standards are published on a 'comply or explain' list which use is mandatory for the public sector.
  • Requirement NLX0023
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Interoperability governance
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant N/A
  • Description 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.
  • Implications This is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0024
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Interoperability governance
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant N/A
  • Description Actively participate in standardisation work relevant to your needs to ensure your requirements are met.
  • Implications
    • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities).
  • Requirement NLX0025
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Integrated public service governance
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant N/A
  • Description Ensure interoperability and coordination over time when operating and delivering integrated public services by putting in place the necessary governance structure.
  • Implications
    • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities).
  • Requirement NLX0026
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Integrated public service governance
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Establish interoperability agreements in all layers, complemented by operational agreements and change management procedures.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities).
  • Requirement NLX0027
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Legal interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Ensure that legislation is screened by means of 'interoperability checks', to identify any barriers to interoperability. 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities).
  • Requirement NLX0028
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Organisational interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Document your business processes using commonly accepted modelling techniques and agree on how these processes should be aligned to deliver a European public service.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities).
  • Requirement NLX0029
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Organisational interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Clarify and formalise your organizational relationships for establishing and operating European public services.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0030
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Semantic interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Perceive data and information as a public asset that should be appropriately generated, collected, managed, shared, protected and preserved.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration, ministries and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities)
      • Standardisation of semantic interoperability is of major importance, but generally speaking not for NLX. With regards to NLX logging there needs to be semantic and syntactical standardisation but not for administrative data processed through APIs.
  • Requirement NLX0031
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Semantic interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration, relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities) and the Dutch government.
      • With NLX information management will be simplified.
  • Requirement NLX0032
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Semantic interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities)
  • Requirement NLX0033
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Technical interoperability
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Use open specifications, where available, to ensure technical interoperability when establishing European public services.
    • Implications
      • Technical interoperability is ensured via the use of open technical specifications
  • Requirement NLX0034
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • NLX is setup as a modular infrastructure and comprises of loosely coupled service components interconnected through shared a common infrastructure.
  • Requirement NLX0035
  • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
  • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
  • Type Recommendation
  • Compliant Yes
  • Description 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.
  • Implications
    • NLX is the implementation of such a common scheme. - Interconnectivity is provided by standardised API-Gateways and a combination of private (GGI Network) and public (Internet) networks
  • Requirement NLX0036
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Develop a shared infrastructure of reusable services and information sources that can be used by all public administrations.
    • Implications
      • NLX is an open source inter-organizational system facilitating federated authentication, secure connecting and protocolling in a large-scale, dynamic API landscape.
  • Requirement NLX0037
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • Authoritative sources can publish their services and make them accessible to consumers through NLX;
      • NLX implements delegated authorisation enabling data owners to implement local access and control mechanisms.
  • Requirement NLX0038
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration;
      • NLX supports the publishing of semantic and technical means and documentation needed for others to connect and reuse available information.
  • Requirement NLX0039
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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, a glossary, and information about any master data it uses from other base registries.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities)
  • Requirement NLX0040
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Create and follow data quality assurance plans for base registries and related master data.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the data owner.
  • Requirement NLX0041
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the public administration.
  • Requirement NLX0042
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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, the way data is collected and its level of quality and the licence terms under which it is made available. The use of common vocabularies for expressing metadata is recommended.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the data owner.
  • Requirement NLX0043
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description 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.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the data owner.
  • Requirement NLX0044
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Put in place catalogues of public services, public data, and interoperability solutions and use common models for describing them.
    • Implications
       * All services provided through NLX will be published in (a) catalogue(s).
      Requirement NLX0045
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Where useful and feasible to do so, use external information sources and services while developing European public services.
    • Implications
      • This is the responsibility of the service provider.
  • Requirement NLX0046
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant N/A
    • Description Consider the specific security and privacy requirements and identify measures for the provision of each public service according to risk management plans.
    • Implications
      • Assessing the specific security and privacy risks for a service is the responsibility of the public administration, ministries and relevant trade associations (VNG Realisatie for Dutch municipalities);
      • NLX will support the various eIDAS security levels (low, substantial, high)
  • Requirement NLX0047
    • Source European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
    • Category Conceptual model for integrated public services
    • Type Recommendation
    • Compliant Yes
    • Description Use trust services according to the Regulation on eID and Trust Services as mechanisms that ensure secure and protected data exchange in public services.
    • Implications
      • All services provided through NLX will be protected in accordance with the EU eIDAS regulation.