(1) Spain has developed a comprehensive legal framework and National Interoperability Framework (NIF) to govern e-government and ensure interoperability between different levels of public administration. (2) Common infrastructures and services like communications platforms, electronic identification, and notification systems have been built to support interoperability. (3) Strong cooperation between national and regional governments, through committees and working groups, has contributed to the development of e-government and achievement of interoperability in Spain.

1. E‐GOVERNMENTTRANSFORMATION WORKSHOP:
MOVING FROM NICE‐TO‐HAVETO MUST‐HAVE
World Bank Office in Bucharest, May 30, 2013
Strategy and experience of Spain in interoperability for
eGovernment
Opening
Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I appreciate very much the invitation of the World Bank to speak here today.
My talk is about the strategy and experience in interoperability for
egovernment in Spain.
In particular, I will identify the key factore to achieve interoperability.
Delivery of eGov services in a complex scenario
During the last five years, the Spanish Government and all public
administrations in Spain have made a large effort to build eGovernment.
eGovernment services in Spain are provided in a complex scenario
which involves the interaction of the General State Administration, 17 regional
governments and 2 autonomous cities, plus over 8,000 municipalities;
together with the relationships with EU Institutions and agencies and the
administrations of other Member States.
There are differences in organization, processes, data structures and
technological solutions; besides, sophistication is growing, from information to
personalized services.
At some moment in time it was clear that without common rules and
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2. infrastructures efforts were repeated and resources wasted.
Cooperation between all P.A.s is essential to provide services to citizens
and guarantee their right to communicate electronically with them. And there
are many actors involved, from local to European Union, including citizens.
But cooperation requires the right conditions, that is, it must have what
is called interoperability, which should embrace all aspects of interaction
between organizations, whether legal, organizational, semantic and technical.
Why interoperability
Interoperability is a precondition in the service of the development of
eGovernment. It is important:
– To make a reality principles and rights of the citizens.
– To enable more easier cooperation in the development and delivery
of eGoverment services.
– To enable better efficiency; reduction of time and costs in the
development and delivery of eGoverment services.
Why have we achieved these results … Three keys to
success
(1) The legal framework
Spain has developed a sound and comprehensive legal framework for
eGovernment, oriented to implement the legal safeguards that exist in the
real world to the virtual world.
This legal framework provides legal certainty.
The eGovernment Law regulates:
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3. • (1) a number of principles and rights,
The main one is right to interact with Public Administration by
electronic means, i.e. to conduct their administrative business by
electronic means on a 24-hour basis any day of the year.
In consequence there is an obligation of public administrations to
enable electronic access to their services.
• (2) the main elements of the administrative procedure by
electronic means: e-registry, e-site, e-identification and
authentication, notifications and communications, e-document, e-file,
e-archive
• (3) the cooperation between public administrations, there is a title
on this question. ,
There is a mandate to Public Administrations to adopt measures to ensure
interoperability and article 42 creates the National Security Framework
and the National Interoperability Framework.
These frameworks are the result of a collective effort of all public
administrations and also of the Industry through their main
associations.
(1) The legal framework: the National interoperability
Framework
The National Interoperability Framework is a legal text, the Royal Decree
4/2010, which develops provisions about interoperability stated in the
eGovernment Law; and it is applicable to all public administrations in Spain.
This legal approach to implement the NIF embeds interoperability
requirements in the legal framework of eGovernment, thus configuring an
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4. integrated coherent and comprehensive approach.
The NIF takes into account the European context and
recommendations; it is aligned with the European Interoperability
Strategy and the European Interoperability Framework; and
systematically refers to the linking of the interoperability instruments of
Spain with the equivalent ones in the EU environment.
Objectives
The main objectives are the following:
– Contribute to create adequate interoperability conditions for the
deployment and delivery of eGovernment services, in the service of
the exercise of rights and the fulfillment of duties through the electronic
access to public services.
– Provide benefits in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
– Introduce common elements of interoperability to guide public
administrations:
– Facilitate interactions
– Communicate interoperability requirements to Industry.
– Facilitate the implementation of security policies (National Security
Framework, Royal Decree 3/2010).
Main elements
The NIF addresses requirements in relation to the implementation of
interoperability principles, levels, agreements and governance, plus other
issues related to interoperability, such as the interoperability dimensions,
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5. standards, common infrastructures and services, reuse of applications,
eSignature, eDocuments.
The NIF develops the following:
• The NIF assumes the general principles stated in the eGovernment Law
and additionally defines three specific principles of interoperability:
Interoperability as an integral quality; multidimensional character of the
interoperability; and approach of multilateral solutions.
• Organisational interoperability: it sets out a number of dispositions
addressing issues like the role of interoperability nodes, the inventories
of administrative information (procedures, services, administrative units,
registry services), publication and conditions of use of eServices
through the administrative network which are supporting the extension
of brokering services.
• Semantic interoperability: publication and use of semantic assets and
associated code lists.
• Technical interoperability: conditions about the selection and use of
standards, taking into account the European and national legal
framework about standards plus other references like CAMSS, the
Common Assessment Method of Standards and Specifications.
• Common infrastructures and services are relevant instruments that
contribute to the simplification and propagation of interoperability; they
facilitate multilateral interactions and there is a call to public
administrations to link their infrastructures and services to those ones
provided by the General State Administration.
• In particular, there is a call to public administrations to link their
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6. networks with the administrative communications platform provided by
Red SARA to facilitate exchanges of information and services between
them and with the European Union (through sTESTA); besides, it is
mandatory to follow the IP Addressing Plan of the Administration.
• It is explicitly recognised that the 'reuse' applied to applications of Public
Administrations, associated information and to other objects of
information, together with 'share' and 'collaborate' contributes to a better
interoperability. The NIF includes provisions about applicable licenses,
particularly about OSS with a call to use the EUPL, about repositories
and their linking, with a call to public administrations to take into
account solutions available in those repositories and to publish the code
of their applications.
• There is a chapter on the interoperability of electronic signatures and
electronic certificates with provisions about policies, profiles of
certificates, validation platforms and other issues.
• There is a chapter on the preservation and recovery of the electronic
document, since the NIF adds the effect of time in interoperability to the
traditional dimensions, with a focus on eDocuments. Public
administrations should adopt measures to ensure the preservation and
recovery of eDocuments and they should create e-repositories
equivalent in their functions to the traditional archives.
• There is a number of provisions about compliance with the NIF.
• Finally, the NIF is extended through a number of Interoperability
Agreements, technical interoperability regulations which develop
specific requirements necessary to guarantee the more practical and
operational aspects of interoperability between public administrations
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7. and citizens.
They have been published in the Official Gazette; in 2011 (about issues like
eDocument, eFile, Digitisation, Authentic Copies, eSignature policy and
certificates, connection to the administrative network ‘Red SARA’ and the
exchange of in-formation between input/output registries); in 2012 regarding
the Catalogue of standards, Brokering services, data models (semantic
assets) and an eDocuments management policy; in 2013, another one
regarding Reuse of public information resources.
These Interoperability Agreements have been developed in cooperation
between all public administrations in Spain following the same cooperative
approach which was used to develop the NIF.
Although additional documents on compliance with the NIF are still to be
published, possibly even still in 2013, a monitoring process of the
implementation of the NIF in the General State Administration is ongoing
carried on in February, May, September and December 2013.
(2) Common infrastructures and services
An ecosystem of common infrastructures and services is available and
growing, built to support the whole administrative procedure lifecycle
as defined in our legal framework.
These common infrastructures and services have legal support.
They are enablers of the massive and full implementation of e-services.
There are agreements for the use of these services between National and
Regional Govs.
There are actions ongoing to extend and improve them and to add new
ones.
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8. They contribute to security through simplification of the scenario.
The development and extensive use of a series of infrastructure and
common services that the General State Administration offers, for free,
to all Public Administrations, has greatly facilitated interoperability
between them. This approach contributes to service quality and allows to
provide many more services, more channels and better quality and
management parameters at much lower cost.
Some relevant common infrastructures and services are the following:
• Communications platform: Red SARA allows the interconnection of
the Spanish Public Administrations enabling the cooperation and the
exchange of information and services between them as well as with the
EU and other Member States through the link with sTESTA. It is
evolving to become a cloud of services (SARA Cloud).
• Electronic identification, authentication and signature:
◦ National eID card – DNIe : The national eID card makes it possible
to digitally sign elec-tronic documents, identify and authenticate
citizens in a secure digital environment.
◦ @firma: National platform for electronic signatures creation/
validation as well as for time stamping services.
• Intermediation services: it is intended to simplify administrative
procedures, so that citizens or businesses do not have to deliver data or
documents already held by public authorities, and to reduce fraud in
applications and related procedures.
• ‘060 Network’ provides citizens and businesses with a unique multi-
channel and a key entry point to the administrative services. Three
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9. channels: local offices, ‘060.es’ web portal, telephone hotline number
‘060’. Contact points for entrepreneurs have been incorporated in the
‘060’ network of integrated offices.
• Service Directive Point of Single Contact EUGO.ES: This website is
the Point of Single Contact of the Services Directive(SD) in Spain.
• eNotifications allows citizens and businesses to receive free online
administrative notifications and correspondence in the Electronic
Administrative Address. eGovernment Law, article 28. Approximately
2.27 M eNotifications sent in 2011. The Ministry of Finance and Public
Administrations owns the service and its provider is the state-owned
public company Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos.
• 'eGovernment pack': Aimed to provide the basic elements for the
implementation of eGovernment services to administrative units
(whatever the tier it belongs) It includes 4 building blocks:
▪ ORVE: Register for face-to-face application.
▪ ACCEDA: Register for e-channel applications, includes CMS for
a basic website
▪ PORTAFIRMAS: Corporative eSignature application.
▪ INSIDE: eFile
▪ + a Portal for local entities
• Datos.gob.es. Reuse of public sector information: The legal
framework is configured by Law 37/2007 and Royal Decree 1495/2011.
Datos.gob.es is the national portal that organizes and manages the
Catalogue of Public Information, the single point of access to data sets
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10. of the General State Administration.
These common services behave as building case. For instance the use of the
intermediation platform involves also the use of the communications platform,
Red SARA, and of the platform for electronic signatures creation/ validation
as well as for time stamping services, @firma.
(3) Cooperation
Strong cooperation has contributed to the development of eGovernment and
to interoperability.
eGov is the result of a collaborative effort with the participation of all
Public Administrations (General State, Regional, Local, Universities, Justice),
plus the opinion of Industry through their main associations.
There is an structure of committees and working groups to articulate this
collaboration.
For instance, during the last five years more than two hundred experts of
Public Administrations have contributed to the elaboration and
development of the NIF, its Interoperability Agreements and the National
Security Framework providing different profiles (ICT, legal, archives, etc...);
together with a wide number of experts who have contributed with their
opinion through the main associations of ICT Industry.
(3) Strong collaboration - The role of our DG
Our DG has the leadership of coordinating eGovernment bodies for
collaboration together with a catalogue of competences in relation to
administrative organization, services, procedures, quality of regulations,
promotion of eGovernment, promotion of the access of the citizens to public
services, and development of systems to support the management of human
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11. resources.
(3) Strong cooperation – European Union
Collaboration also takes part in the EU context where we apply the
following strategies:
• Early alignment with interoperability EU strategies, policies and
actions.
• Contribution and feedback.
• (Re)Use of policies, results and products.
• The NIF foresees the linking of common services of Spain to the
equivalent ones in the EU.
• Participation in services and projects:
◦ Sectorial cross border services
◦ LSP-CIP: STORK, STORK2, GEN6
We can reuse the approaches, architectures and solutions from the EU and
our feedback is interesting in the complex European context.
Alignment with the European Interoperability
Framework
In relation to the alignment with the European Interoperability Framework,
“Spain is fully aligned with the EIF on the ‘Governance’, the ‘Principles’ and
the 'Interoperability Agreements’. It has an almost full alignment on the
‘Conceptual Model’ and a good alignment on the ‘Interoperability levels’.”, as
expressed in the recently factsheet published in the National Interoperability
Frameworks Observatory (NIFO), an action of the Programme ISA.
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12. Conclusions
The three key factors for the development of interoperability for
eGovernment in Spain up till now:
1. a sound and comprehensive legal framework,
2. the development of an ecosystem of common infrastructures and
services with adequate legal basis,
3. and strong cooperation.
The eGovernment Law approved in 2007 has been a major driver for the
development of eGov.
Spain has showed a great commitment to align with EU strategies.
Work is ongoing:
• To achieve full implementation of the NIF in P.A.
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13. • To improve the NIF and provide stronger legal support to:
• code lists and inventories of administrative objects.
• use of common infrastructures and services.
• reuse of applications as products or services through the network.
• With associated interoperability agreements
• To extend and improve common infrastructures and services.
Did you know that … Facts and figures
• 90% of the services provided by the central Government and 78%
by the regional Governments1
are online available.
• Spain also scores high in:
◦ Full available public services
◦ Online sophistication
◦ Usability
◦ User satisfaction
◦ Accessibility
• According to the European Commission, Spain is above the
European average in eGovernment with 95% of full online available
public services (out of 20 measured services). 8Th
of 32 countries.
• Furthermore, the online sophistication of public services reaches
1
Fundación Orange (2011), eEspaña Report
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14. 98% in the European context.
• Spain’s eServices score 91% on usability and 90% on user
satisfaction monitoring.
• We have recently received an UN award; and there are other awards
and recognitions: UN award: 2012 United Nations Public Service
Award, 2nd place, category of “Improving the Delivery of Public
Services” for the initiative “Total Citizen Access to Public Services”.
To know more about eGovernment in Spain
Here we have some references for more information about
eGovernment and Spain:
• The eGovernment legal package is available in English.
• The ePractice factsheet of Spain provides a comprehensive
overview of eGovernment in Spain.
• The eGovernment Portal provides more information.
• OBSAE
• 060 web portal
Thank you very much for your attention
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