The corpus of interoperability assets in the repository of the Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe (SEMIC.EU) has doubled in the 2nd semester of 2009, thus bringing the count of these building blocks for meaningful data exchange at 402.

With 42 countries, 850 registered users and 11 related repositories, SEMIC.EU as a service for interoperability and its network for pan-European cooperation are arguably a success story in the strive for real pan-European eGovernment collaboration.

Among the latest contributions to the repository are a number of Norwegian, Spanish and Italian code lists, the latter from the INTERPRANA catalogue.

Other examples available on the repository are:

• The NACE classification of economic activities as well as different national implementations;
• SDMX (Eurostat's Statistical Data Exchange Formats);
• eOrdering and eInvoicing (by the IDABC programme - now "ISA", Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations);
• eTendering and eAwarding (by the IDABC programme - now ISA);
• HR-XML, e.g. Competency types, Assessment catalogue, Enrollment, Military history;Several "mature" data models for natural persons (from different countries);
• MoReq2 (generic requirements catalogue);
• The data model for the European Arrest Warrant;
• The European financial reporting taxonomies COREP and FINREP;
• The subjects classification from the PLOTEUS portal. 

Cooperation in research and implementation

Based on the growing body of interoperability assets, several new cooperations are currently emerging between the pan-European service and Member States initiatives, among them Spain, the Netherlands and Estonia.

The development, analysis and assessment of interoperability tools and assets have also attracted interest from academic institutions in Europe, as well as Asia and North America. SEMIC.EU is planning to maintain and extend these collaborations in order to identify and provide the best semantic interoperability solutions available in eGovernment contexts. Support by the academic community is sought in order to create suitable pan-European, if not universal, solutions. Another measure serving this cause is the linking of Related Repositories to the European centre which is SEMIC.EU.

Focus topics and the single point of contact

Aldo Laudi, the Project Officer in charge of the services and support of the SEMIC.EU network, states: "We developed a roadmap and we have started our work. The interest we experience is broad, and there's a lot of exchange with experts from all Member States. SEMIC.EU has moved forward and is right on track to becoming a reference point for issues of semantic interoperability in Europe which it is set out to be."

The current emphasis in asset acquisition and debate is laid on taxonomies (a "focus topic" of the Semantic Interoperability Centre). Contributions and questions on the topic are welcome and should be addressed to contact@semic.eu. Proposals for future focus topics should also be sent to this address.

 Further information:

• Original news article - SEMIC.EU website