The second edition of the National Congress of Interoperability and Security - CNIS 2012 was held at the National Mint (FNMT), Madrid, on 22 and 23 February 2012, gathering more than six hundred attendees. The event presents each year awards to the best practices regarding the National Interoperability and Security Frameworks, one of which was awarded to the Intermediation Service Platform.

Fourteen speeches and nine panel discussions were held in two days of intensive work, while public administrations, sponsors and partners also had their space to present their experiences. The comprehensive program allowed participants to exchange knowledge and experiences regarding the implementation of the National Interoperability and Security Frameworks.

CNIS 2012 was organised by 'Club de Innovación' in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, which had a special presence in the Congress with a broad range of initiatives and solutions. Moreover, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), the National Mint (FNMT), the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and the National Cryptologic Centre (CCN) took part as collaborators contributing with their initiatives. CNIS 2012 finally ended with the CNIS Awards to best practices in relation to the National Interoperability and Security Frameworks in eight different categories with nine winners.

The Intermediation Service Platform developed by the Directorate General of Administrative Modernisation, Procedures and Promotion of Electronic Administration of the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration received the award of the reference project about interoperability in the General State Administration.

The objective of this Platform is to relieve citizens from the continuous delivery of documents already held by public administrations, substituting this delivery by a query of data, through the Platform. A noteworthy aspect of the Platform is that it has managed to overcome organisational interoperability problems within the government, with agencies interchanging data between them, aiming at their full re-use. More than 100 application systems from various government entities use the Platform and more than 17 million data transmissions have been completed in 2011. Thus, the Platform contributes to the goal set in the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 6 June 2011 concerning the elimination of 40% of the requests for documentation by Central Government to the citizens, aiming to reach 100 % by the end of 2012.

Background Information

The National Interoperability Framework of Spain (NIF) is a legal text, the Royal Decree 4/2010, which develops provisions about interoperability stated in the eGovernment Law 11/2007 and is applicable to all Public Administrations in Spain. This legal approach embeds interoperability requirements in the legal framework of administrative procedure and eGovernment, thus configuring an integrated, coherent and comprehensive approach. The NIF takes into account the relevant European recommendations and systematically refers to the linking of the interoperability instruments of Spain with the equivalent ones in the EU.

Further Information:

• Original news article - CNIS 2012 website
• Intermediation Service Platform
• National Interoperability Framework of Spain