Europe is digitising. Germany too. Right now, though, mostly individual services. For systems that actually communicate with each other, we need data that can be shared securely and efficiently between authorities and services. And that’s often where it falls short.

This is exactly where so-called data spaces come in. The idea: data isn’t collected centrally, but can be shared between authorities, companies and institutions in a standardised, controlled way. That speeds up processes, avoids duplicate reporting, and enables new digital services.

The European Union is actively pushing this model forward right now — for example with initiatives like the European Health Data Space, which is meant to enable cross-border exchange of health data. The goal is to build sectoral data spaces where data can be used securely without losing control over it.

In the long run, such data spaces could also become decisive for many administrative processes: for permits, register cross-checks, or automated administrative decisions.

In short:

The next phase of digitising government might consist of fewer new portals — and more networked data ecosystems.

What do you think of this new approach?

Sources:

European Commission – European Strategy for Data / European Health Data Space

Gaia-X – initiatives on federated data spaces in Europe

Image: Sara Kurfeß for Unsplash

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