Interoperable Europe Board meeting in Warsaw: Croatia actively supports strengthening of digital cooperation in EU

On 20 May 2025, the 2nd meeting of the Interoperable Europe Board took place in Warsaw, where representatives of the Member States of the European Union discussed key strategic topics aimed at enhancing cross-border interoperability

The meeting was organized as part of the Interoperable Europe initiative, and the participation of the Croatian delegation confirms a strong commitment to digital transformation and European cooperation in this area.

The state of play of the development of the Interoperable Europe Agenda and the process of defining solutions that will bear the label "Interoperable Europe solutions" were presented at the meeting. An orientation document and a consultation questionnaire on the Agenda were adopted, as well as a draft statement on the criteria for marking solutions. Croatia supported the proposed documents, but stressed the need to define the criteria more precisely and to reduce the number of catalogues of solutions for better practical application.

In the context of activities aimed at establishing a single European GovTech market, Germany presented its concept paper, and the debate raised key challenges such as a lack of transparency, fragmentation and limited involvement of start-ups. Among the proposed solutions are a European register of GovTech solutions, regulatory flexibility through sandboxes and the establishment of a European GovTech centre. Croatia supported the initiative and it was concluded that an action plan for further activities would be prepared.

Particular attention was paid to the topic of regulatory sandboxes for interoperability, where an exchange of views took place on the need for their establishment and the role of the Board. Croatia highlighted the importance of sandboxes as an instrument to encourage innovation and mentioned its own efforts to develop sandboxes in the context of OOTS and EUDI wallets. The issue of harmonisation of national legislation, in particular with regard to the use of personal identification numbers (OIB), was highlighted as a challenge.

It was suggested that the Board participate in a consultation after the ideas have been elaborated, with the expert support of the Standing Working Group, and that regular reporting to the Board every three to four months on the progress of sandboxes be introduced.
The European Commission reported on the preparation of the first annual report on interoperability in the Union, the work of the independent expert group on the new European Interoperability Framework, which is expected to be drafted by October, and the development of the interoperability assessment template. Croatia took note of the information and expressed support for the initiatives.

The draft work programme of the Board for the period 2025-2026, based on the feedback from a survey among Member States, was also presented. The Croatian delegation agreed with the proposed guidelines and priorities.

In conclusion, the Chair summarised the key action points and the next Board meeting was announced for 4 December 2025 in Brussels.

The Croatian delegation actively participated in all discussions, confirming the compatibility of the European approach to interoperability with national strategic documents such as the Digital Croatia Strategy 2032, the National Identification and Authentication System, the Government Service Bus and the Point of Single Contact.

The importance of the INVEST project and the future role of Croatia as one of the founders of the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium IMPACTS-EDIC was also emphasized.

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