In­ter­op­er­abil­i­ty of da­ta and services

The EU’s aim with the Data Act is to enable fair data access and fair data use. The objective is to make data universally usable and accessible in order to overcome data silos and vendor lock-ins, strengthen competition and foster innovation.

The European Commission has issued a standardisation request to ensure uniform requirements for participants in data spaces, meaning the environment in which various actors can share and use data. The standardisation request concerns rules on the interoperability of data, data sharing mechanisms and services, and common European data spaces (Article 33 of the Data Act). The three European standardisation organisations CEN (European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) are working on a response to the standardisation request.

Interoperability

Interoperability is a basic building block of the Data Act and generally describes the ability of all participants in a data space to exchange and use data safely and securely. The use of common (standardised) protocols and semantic representation of data ensures that all participants also interpret the data correctly.

Cloud providers

Providers of cloud services are specifically addressed in the Data Act and are required to simplify and support provider switching processes. The use of relevant standards helps to ensure compatibility between different providers’ services, simplify the switching process and enable the use of several services at the same time.