Steel is a commodity that makes it harder for companies in the industry to stand out from the crowd. Because of the similarity of the products, the market is highly sensitive to price fluctuations and usually dominated by the lowest bidder. INAD Industrie Software BV helps steel stockholders to get lean and mean in order to drive down costs and remain competitive.

Using technologies such as barcodes, and its proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, custom-made for the steel industry, INAD's aim is to digitise entire factories.

The ERP system collects data to track resources and enables the running of smooth, low-cost operations, but a lot of information still needs to be entered manually. Traceability is not only a question of good management practices. There are also legal requirements to match an incoming steel beam with its respective product certificate (CE marking as per relevant ISO standards). It takes on average one full-time employee to input product certificates manually. Process other traditional business documents, such as purchase orders, usually require several full-time staff.

For decades, INAD awaited Electronic Data Interchange technologies (EDI) which could safely facilitate the digital exchange of official documents. When it realised the industry still lacked a solution in 2019, a decision was made to look for answers elsewhere. 

As a result, INAD helped set up the EDI4Steel Consortium, which oversees the specifications and the technical architecture for the electronic exchange of business documents. EDI4 Steel is open for membership to all entities operating in the steel sector. INAD itself is the solution provider for EDI4Steel and operates the technical infrastructure using CEF's eDelivery. 

Seamless digital exchange of documents

The European Commission’s eDelivery Building Block is a solution for the secure electronic exchange of documents, regardless of content and industry. It is provided free by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, and it is based on European standards and a thriving user community. With eDelivery, it eliminates manual data input when documents are exchanged in structured, digital (UBL) formats. This is done via an integration between business partners’ ERP systems based on a standardised message exchange protocol called AS4.

Learn more about eDelivery  

A win-win for all

The eDelivery support team from CEF helped EDI4STEEL in designing its solution’s technical architecture by providing training and validation. eDelivery identifies key standards and specifications for the exchange of documents and provides a list of software alternatives, which allowed EDI4STEEL to choose software components that fit its existing technology stack and skills. 

The EDI4STEEL consortium received a CEF grant (2019-EU-IA-0005) to support the implementation of eDelivery's infrastructure. Furthermore, eDelivery's readily available services and solutions helped the consortium save a year in technical product development. For EDI4STEEL customers, the benefits are significant. On average, steel stockholders can do without one full-time employee by automating the input of product certificates alone.

By extending automation to other document types, manual labour costs can be further reduced by up to € 60,000 per year. Computer-to-computer document exchange is also faster and less prone to mistakes than when conducted by humans. In the end, the increased efficiency has a positive effect on competitiveness through lower costs and higher profits.

The illustration below shows how digital message exchange with eDelivery increases efficiency by eliminating manual data input to revolutionise document exchange.

Solution architecture

Before eDelivery could exchange documents, the content of the documents had to be defined. To do so, EDI4STEEL engaged TNO, a Dutch R&D organisation, to standardise the structure of purchase orders, dispatch advice and product certificates in a way that supports the steel industry, while still conforming with the documents respective generic UBL standards.

eDelivery provides a list of AS4 conformant software alternatives for the Access Point (AP), which makes it easy to integrate ERP systems using the AS4 message exchange protocol. For the AP, EDI4STEEL chose EESSI AS4. NET, because it matched well with INAD’s existing skills in Microsoft technologies. EDI4STEEL also adopted the Commission-provided software for the Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) and the Service Metadata Locator (SML). Together, both software-enabled Access Points discover the IP addresses of destination Access Points.

From pilots to production

At the end of June 2020, EDI4Steel accomplished two pilot projects in Luxembourg with real data using INAD's help and eDelivery's infrastructure. 

INAD is currently active in Benelux countries, but EDI4 Steel has the potential to open doors, many more doors in other markets all across Europe and beyond.

How can CEF help you?

At the Connecting Europe Facility, we give you access to free tools, support, and funding to help you build your digital services. Here are some other Building Blocks you might be interested in. 

Collect data from original sources and support smart decisions at the right time

Context Broker

A free and secure translation tool to break language barriers in the EU

eTranslation

Offers digital services capable of electronically identifying users from all across Europe

eID

Public administrations get key insights on designing blockchain pilots at EBSI webinar

On 22 October, the CEF Digital team held a ‘Design your pilot’ webinar for the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) building block.

This webinar was the first of a series aiming to help public administrations design, build and launch blockchain pilots with the EBSI building block. As more Member States are starting their pilots, EBSI is expanding the practical applications of blockchain technology across borders in a secure, cohesive manner, contributing to a pan-European network of decentralised, trustworthy and user-centric public services.

These webinars are available to public administrations deploying EBSI nodes (which form the EBSI network), further developing use cases already connected to the EBSI network, or simply those otherwise involved in the wider Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) project or interested in using EBSI in the future.

In this introductory webinar, which had around 50 participants, the CEF EBSI team talked in depth about:

• The potentials of blockchain technology for public services in Europe, and how to realise them through the EBSI building block;
• How to design and plan the scope of your EBSI pilot, integrating different digital systems and applications into the EBSI network via EBSI nodes;
• Learning from other Member States and the wider EBSI community to shape the future of blockchain technology in Europe.

However, the dynamic nature of the webinar, which included various interactive portions, also gave us at CEF Digital very interesting insights: 

1. 80% of participants are requesting that we reinforce practical collaboration by providing examples, links to documentation, demo cases, and workshops to make EBSI operational;
2. Most of the participants are interested in starting a pilot with EBSI. For those who already started a pilot project, 70% of them would like to connect to the EBSI network;
3. More than 40% of participants would like to launch a pilot addressing students and the education domain in order to facilitate the sharing of educational credentials;
4. Participants are particularly interested in enabling the free mobility of students and making the process of diploma management more efficient and trust-worthy;
5. ESSIF (+50% of the votes) and Diploma (33%) are therefore the most popular use cases for participants. 

The results of the webinar and the level of participation are very encouraging signs for the future of the EBSI. The majority of participants would like to take part in the interactive workshop portion to roadmap various pilots in detail at the following webinar, 'Roadmap your Pilot', taking place on 19 November. 

If you would like to pre-register for the second webinar, you can do so here. Official registration will open soon on the 'Piloting with EBSI, explained' page. 

You can find the slides from the first webinar below.

CEF Context Broker and Big Data tool shine at SEMIC 2020

The first ever Semantic Interoperability Conference (SEMIC) to be held fully online took place on 15 October, with a total of 327 participants. The theme of this year’s annual SEMIC conference, organised by the European Commission’s ISA² programme, was ‘Sustainable Data Services’.

Over the last decade, more and more public administrations have been looking to unleash the potential of big data. This conference was a great chance to explore the role interoperable solutions play in helping public administrations maintain, analyse and share big open datasets across sectors and borders, particularly in the area of sustainable development, which is fast becoming a key priority for the EU.

At this year’s virtual conference, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital team presented the Context Broker and Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) building blocks at virtual booths during a morning networking session.

The participants, including policymakers, IT practitioners and researchers, could take their digital avatars to the virtual booths to learn more about each solution through brochures, flyers, news articles and success stories. If they needed more information about a specific solution, they could simply interact with that building block’s exhibitor to find out more.

Following the opening sessions and a keynote speech on sustainable API platforms for public administrations, there were four parallel sessions exploring cross-border data exchange in various contexts, from the fight against COVID-19 to optimising open data portals for end-users.

The BDTI team were proud to present two exceptional case studies in the ‘Fighting COVID-19 through data sharing’ parallel session, demonstrating how the BDTI building block helped European public administrations in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

An afternoon session looked at the success of the EU Datathon 2020. This competition challenged competitors to come up with new, innovative ways of using big, open data across sectors and borders to address the following priorities: 

• An European Green Deal; 
• An economy that works for the people;
• A new push for European democracy; 
• A Europe fit for the digital age. 

More than 36 countries were represented in the competition, and on the same day as SEMIC 12 shortlisted teams, three per priority, presented their open data applications to a jury and over 300 open data professionals and enthusiasts. Proposals varied from platforms tracking waste circulation through Europe to an application helping SMEs to assess their financial viability during the coronavirus pandemic, and to identity suitable investment and grant funding opportunities. You can find out more about all the finalists here. 

SEMIC 2020 left organisers and participants alike confident that open datasets and data interoperability across borders will be a key asset to Europe, not only in overcoming the current health crisis, but also in growing together as a continent in the future.

See our success stories to learn more about how the building blocks are connecting Europe. 

The CEF Building Blocks at European Week of Regions and Cities 2020

As countries all over Europe strive to recover, adapt and grow in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, the 'Cohesion and Cooperation' European Week of Regions and Cities, 12-16 October 2020, was an opportunity to reflect on the vital role digital technology can play in the sustainable transformation of regions and cities.

Cities are key platforms for digital transformation, providing fertile terrain for new digital services and infrastructures to flourish. The European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) building blocks and ISA² programme provide open, ready-to-use digital solutions that help accelerate digital innovation, with open standards and specifications ensuring interoperability across borders and sectors.

The ‘Digital for cities, 13/10’ session explored how digital technologies can be harnessed to create 'smart cities' for the benefit of citizens. It included presentations on how the CEF Context Broker building block empowered the cities of Saint-Quentin in France and Eindhoven in the Netherlands to come up with ‘smart’ solutions for managing their cities. 

• In Saint-Quentin, Context Broker’s data aggregation and analysis capabilities made it possible to manage with greater efficiency the watering and irrigation of the city’s green spaces in real-time, reducing waste and costs;
• In Eindhoven, Context Broker enabled Internet of Things (IoT) -based smart applications to predict and prevent antisocial behaviour in party hotspots in the city.

You can find a recording of the event here.

The ‘My Multilingual Services – Powered by AI, 13/10’ session looked at the landmark success achieved in machine translation by the EU Presidency translation tool. PresidencyMT is an AI-powered secure translation platform based on the CEF eTranslation building block and Tilde’s machine translation platform. It makes all public communications related to the Presidency of the Council, currently held by Germany, automatically available in any EU language, as well as providing text, document and website translations. 

You can find a recording of the event here.

‘How can regions boost digital services?, 14/10’ saw representatives from the Campania Regional Council in Italy give emphatic testimonies explaining how ISA²’s solutions have helped them quickly and inexpensively develop digital services for citizens in the Campania region. Participants also had the chance to give feedback on the new European Interoperability Framework (EIF), the legal framework helping public administrations and businesses to develop digital public services that are fully interoperable and on how the CEF Building Blocks realise digital transformation. This interactive session focused on how to streamline the user-journey, making it as quick, easy and accessible as possible for those developing digital systems.

You can find a recording of the event here.

With data going back a century, it took Swedish Customs officials almost five years to find a digital archiving system that met their needs.

Back in 2015, the Swedish Customs Agency embarked on a unique project to digitally archive all of its records. This agency is in charge of collecting custom duties and monitoring international traffic across the Swedish border. It is also responsible for facilitating commercial links between Sweden and non-EU countries, while stopping criminals from smuggling illegal goods in and out of the country. Therefore, finding a digital archiving solution that met all of its needs without exceeding the budget proved to be a protracted process. Until they looked into eArchiving, that is.

"We didn't have a functioning digital archiving [system] to be able to archive digital information," Magnus Wåhlberg, Swedish Customs Information Architect, told CEF. "We did an internal analysis, and compared different approaches, and the conclusion was that it was much better to use open-source."

The CEF eArchiving Building Block, one of the many digital resources developed under the auspices of the European Commission's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), made it much easier for the Swedish Customs to implement a new digital archiving system. In addition to providing a range of open-source software systems and components, eArchiving also comes with tangible benefits, such as lower maintenance costs, and the option to increase or lower the number of functionalities (depending on the project's needs). Also a plus for Swedish officials, is the fact that eArchiving wasn't created for financial gain.

"Many IT companies have short-term goals," said Mr Wåhlberg. "They want to earn money, say, for the next three years, so they really don't care about long-term preservation. They want to give you some type of quick-fix and say 'ok, this is a digital archiving solution'. But we are dealing with data that goes back 100 years."

With data going back a century, it took Swedish Customs officials almost five years to find a digital archiving system that met their needs.

Back in 2015, the Swedish Customs Agency embarked on a unique project to digitally archive all of its records. This agency is in charge of collecting custom duties and monitoring international traffic across the Swedish border. It is also responsible for facilitating commercial links between Sweden and non-EU countries, while stopping criminals from smuggling illegal goods in and out of the country. Therefore, finding a digital archiving solution that met all of its needs without exceeding the budget proved to be a protracted process. Until they looked into eArchiving, that is.

"We didn't have a functioning digital archiving [system] to be able to archive digital information," Magnus Wåhlberg, Swedish Customs Information Architect, told CEF. "We did an internal analysis, and compared different approaches, and the conclusion was that it was much better to use open-source."

The CEF eArchiving Building Block, one of the many digital resources developed under the auspices of the European Commission's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), made it much easier for the Swedish Customs to implement a new digital archiving system. In addition to providing a range of open-source software systems and components, eArchiving also comes with tangible benefits, such as lower maintenance costs, and the option to increase or lower the number of functionalities (depending on the project's needs). Also a plus for Swedish officials, is the fact that eArchiving wasn't created for financial gain.

"Many IT companies have short-term goals," said Mr Wåhlberg. "They want to earn money, say, for the next three years, so they really don't care about long-term preservation. They want to give you some type of quick-fix and say 'ok, this is a digital archiving solution'. But we are dealing with data that goes back 100 years."

eArchiving and its interoperability 

All government agencies need to update their digital records at some point. Data stored over time either needs to be disposed of or preserved according to laws, regulations and the agency's own internal needs. If not done properly,  this process can be both cumbersome and complex. In the worst case scenario, digital records can be disseminated in an uncontrolled manner, hard to find, or even lost. Those can be the undesired consequences, if there isn't a clear process in place for digital archiving.

Preserving digital records at government level involves a number of databases and registries. Using RODA, one of the common-specifications-based end-to-end systems from the eArchiving Sample Software Portfolio ensures that by default, all the archives and records are interoperable with each other.

Learn more about eArchiving

The EU being home to some of the strictest data protection laws in the world also made a difference when it came to Swedish Customs opting for eArchiving. "One of our main concerns was over the legal aspect," said Mr Wåhlberg. "We need to preserve a certain type of information, and we need to destroy another types of information according to [GDPR] rules and regulations."

Bringing data from the past into to future with eArchiving

CEF's eArchiving Building Block was crucial in creating a secure digital archiving platform, tailored to the project's needs. This particular Building Block has enabled Swedish Customs to preserve its digital records in a secure manner, while making the interoperability between different IT systems and digital archives a reality. The Swedish Customs’ electronic archive is now able to look after the digital records from all the departments within the agency. In the future, more and more digital records will be stored and managed in the Swedish Customs electronic archiving system. This digital transformation is expected to take years, mostly because of the large number of out-of-date IT systems still in operation. But with the use of the eArchiving Building Block, the Swedish Customs can rest assured that the integrity of its old digital data will remain intact.

How can CEF help you?

At the Connecting Europe Facility, we give you access to free tools, support and funding to help you build your digital services. Here are some of the other Building Blocks you might be interested in. 

Supports EU-wide cross-border public services using blockchain technology 

Blockchain (EBSI)

Facilitate the preservation, migration, reuse and trust of your information 

eArchiving

Exchange data and documents securely and reliably

eDelivery

Digital innovations are redefining the energy sector, encouraging a move away from large-scale and centralised power plants to more local and personalised sources of energy.

All around the world, governments are building more solar parks, wind farms, and hydroelectric plants to generate power. In Europe, the EU is aiming to become the first climate-neutral economy by 2050, one of the cornerstones of the European Green Deal.

Over the last few years, Member States have been striving to integrate Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into their national energy grid. But doing so is no simple task. Before solutions can be rolled out onto the mass market, many challenges, both at the commercial and scientific level, need to be overcome.

Because renewable energy is one hundred percent dependent on the elements (sun, wind, rain, biomass), supply fluctuation is a common problem. Imagine a drought rendering a dam useless and taking away a whole country's energy supply? Or intermittent energy from wind or solar sources. What then? That's where innovation and new technologies kick in.

Solar panels and wind turbines are the most obvious signs a major change is afoot in the energy sector. But behind the scenes there is a whole digital architecture in place, making renewable energy sources work more effectively for both consumers and producers. CEF's Context Broker Building Block is at the heart of that digital architecture.

So, what exactly does Context Broker do?

Acting as a data aggregator, Context Broker gathers data from various sources and packages it in a way that allows public administrations and private organisations to work with information that's already filtered, organised, and labelled. In the context of the energy sector, data from power-plants, electricity "smart-meters," weather forecasts, and other sources are sent to Context Broker, which then provides the most up-to-date intel to those producing and consuming electricity. That way, energy consumers know how much to use, when, and from where. Context Broker offers a range of functionalities, such as updates, queries, registrations, subscriptions, and notifications, helping users retrieve, discover and access information as needed. One of Context Broker's key features is the publish and subscribe system. This system allows Context Producers (entities managing Internet of Things devices) to publish data by invoking update operations and to send out notifications when any of the monitored conditions change. By providing energy retailers with the tools to act according to their energy demands, the service's quality significantly improves.

Learn more about Context Broker

FINESCE Marketplace Solution - the electronic marketplace for electricity

All over the continent, there are now a number of projects underway, focusing not only on maximising the benefits of RES, but making sure both consumers and energy producers are not left at the mercy of nature's whims. One of the projects taking full advantage of Context Broker is the FINESCE Marketplace. A consortium composed of dozens of energy companies, R&D centres, and universities from all over Europe, it essentially aims to provide an electronic marketplace for electricity. The project's goal is to enable customers to consume energy and electricity closer to where it's produced, resulting in the reduction of energy waste and a more efficient way of matching supply with demand. In order for it to work, the project requires a large amount of data coming from a variety of sources. From the information provided, researchers gain an insight into the different factors impacting energy consumption, such as weather conditions, social events, contract regulations, and energy dynamics. And that's where Context Broker comes in.

The eDREAM Project

Another promising effort being made at European level in the pursuit of smarter energy solutions is the eDREAM project. Using blockchain technology, the eDREAM Project is trying to figure out how to provide a secure, decentralised, tamper-proof and transparent pool for energy data. Due to the rapid growth of Distributed Energy Sources (DRES) across the globe, the need for a visionary, decentralised approach towards clean energy production and distribution is now widely recognised in the European Union. Just like with the FINESCE Marketplace, Context Broker is at the centre of this process.

In this particular case, a specific component called the smart-meter aggregator communicates with Context Broker to retrieve, translate and store the data into “BigchainDB” (blockchain database). With those components in place, the eDream Project aims to achieve three things:

• attain near real-time control and supervision of grid management and operation on all voltage levels.
• turn traditional, centralised market approaches and smart grid operations into novel, decentralised and community-driven energy systems.
• introduce new marketplace models, leading the way in adopting distributed ledger technologies for near real time closed loop ecosystems, making optimal use of block-chain based Demand Response processes.

The Context Broker's role is to inject near real-time data into the big data layer used to develop the clustering techniques for load, profiling and customers segmentation. The project is now in its third year, and an advanced prototype has already been delivered. Furthermore, the use of FIWARE open source technologies allows developers to rely on effective support, and reduce the cost of technological infrastructure.

The SOFIE Project

SOFIE stands for Secure, Open Federation For Internet Everywhere, and it is also trying to create a marketplace where consumers can search for offers on clean electricity, as well as monetise their spare electricity. A consortium of enterprises, research centres and universities, SOFIE is working on finding ways to use Electrical Vehicles to decarbonise cities. The goal is to turn electrical cars into “mobile rechargeable batteries”, as opposed to relying on recharging stations.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a trustworthy marketplace that enables data exchange between different parties, by setting the framework for connecting the Network of Things, and enabling automatic discoveries of other things.

In Internet of Things (IoT) platforms need to be connected via SOFIE-specified software adaptors. For that, Context Broker integrates and enhances the interoperability of these different software, creating a standardised platform (“system of systems") to manage, process, and analyse the energy data received.

The proposed solution is being validated in a pilot involving two potential customers in Italy: a Distribution Systems Operator (DSO - ASM Terni) and a Fleet Manager (Emotion), with a user base of circa 100 end users. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

What does the future hold? 

For the past five years, the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) has played a key role in implementing the Commission's objectives in the areas of energy and climate policy. Indeed, CEF is a key instrument to facilitate the Union’s commitment under the Paris Agreement to reach a zero-emission society.

Last year, the CEF Building Blocks were introduced at the UN Climate Change Conference. It was an opportunity to learn about how smart software solutions are helping mitigate the effects of climate change in urban areas. It also showed how open source, standard-based, Data Models and APIs have a key role to play in achieving the EU's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At the moment, CEF's Building Blocks are helping a number of regions across Europe to address their environmental needs. For instance, in the province of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, Context Broker is being used to gather data from air quality sensors mounted on bicycles. Based on the gathered data, officials are able to identify specific locations where the air quality needs to be improved; in Barcelona, Context Broker was also used to address the city's air pollution.

The speed of change in the energy sector is constantly increasing. Aside from the European-wide effort to minimise carbon emissions, digital tools are also now in place to facilitate the implementation of smarter energy solutions. The advent of blockchain will play a major role in democratising and decentralising energy markets. The use of data, digital platforms, and increasingly interoperable systems in the sector have started unlocking innovation and tailor-made, value-added energy solutions for both consumers and energy companies. The CEF Building Blocks, and Context Broker in particular, will be at the heart of this energy revolution. By helping both energy consumers and traders use energy more efficiently, it will also be making a key contribution to the EU's effort to become the world's first climate neutral economy.

How can CEF help you?

At the Connecting Europe Facility, we give you access to free tools, support and funding to help you build your digital services. Here are some of the other Building Blocks you might be interested in. 

Supports EU-wide cross-border public services using blockchain technology

Blockchain (EBSI)

Facilitate the preservation, migration, reuse and trust of your information

eArchiving

Exchange data and documents securely and reliably

eDelivery

Discover CEF Monitoring's brand new project dashboards

©Adobe Stock

With the latest release of the CEF Monitoring Guidebook, which gives a comprehensive overview of how we track the performance of digital services and initiatives funded under the CEF Telecom programme, the CEF Monitoring team has extended its scope. Our monitoring dashboards now cover all sector-specific Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs), Building Blocks and Connectivity Initiatives, such as the WiFi4EU initiative to provide more free, high-quality internet access to citizens across the EU. 

The extended scope of current CEF monitoring efforts was the perfect opportunity to revamp the layout of all our dashboards. For an overview of all the project dashboards, please visit this page. 

This revamped layout brings three new features that will vastly improve the user experience: 

One stop shop

• • Each dashboard now consists of a “one-stop shop”. This means that a single dashboard provides all the monitored indicators for a given project, such as uptake of the solution in question and funding monitoring;
  • “Overview” and “Highlights” sections help the user better contextualize the data monitored. (see Figure 1).

Latest information at a glance 

• The dashboard front page provides an “at a glance” overview of the latest figures for each indicator group. 
• If you want more information on the “Uptake” and “Reuse” indicator groups, you can simply click on the corresponding card (see Figure 1) for a more detailed view (see Figure 2).               

Enhanced user navigability

• You may now easily switch between different dashboards using the vertical navigation menu, or between sections of the same dashboard by using the horizontal navigation menu (see above). The user can easily return from the detailed view of a single indicator to the overview page by clicking on the yellow button, as illustrated below. 

New CEF Monitoring Guidebook and programme-wide dashboard for digital services are now available

A new version of the CEF Monitoring and Reporting framework (the CEF Monitoring Guidebook) was published in October 2020.

What is the Guidebook for? 

The Guidebook gives an overview of how the CEF Monitoring Team tracks the performance of the digital services (including the CEF Building Blocks) and connectivity initiatives financed by the CEF Telecom programme. To download the Guidebook, please visit the “Monitoring Explained” page on the CEF Digital website. 

What’s new? 

1. CEF Monitoring has broadened its scope to cover all the sectorial Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs), Building Blocks and Connectivity Initiatives (WiFi4EU, Broadband) under the CEF Telecom programme.
2. There are now two levels of reporting. As well as reporting on the various kinds of projects mentioned above (see our article on project dashboards), there is a brand-new programme-level dashboard. For more information on our new programme-level dashboard, see below.
3. Wording has been made more accessible for interested readers. 
4. Each project is now monitored for both its Core Service Platform (general maintenance of the service/infrastructure) and its Generic Services Projects (grant funding) when applicable. 
5. The different indicator groups (criteria that are monitored) have been updated. For an overview of those groups, refer to the “Monitoring Explained” page.

The CEF Telecom programme dashboard

This new dashboard gives a financial overview at programme level. While the dashboards for digital services (such as Building Blocks) and connectivity initiatives (such as WiFI4EU, an initiative to give more EU citizens access to free public wifi) provide fascinating insight into specific projects, our new CEF Telecom programme dashboard lets you see the bigger picture.

Figure 1. Top part of the CEF Telecom programme dashboard. 

This dashboard, available on the CEF Telecom overview page of the CEF Digital platform, offers cross-cutting insights on the CEF Telecom programme financials at various levels of granularity, giving you quick and easy access to:

• a breakdown of grant funding (Generic Services), as well as the number of grant projects, per digital service and country;
• a breakdown of Core Service Platforms (funding for the maintenance of a service or solution for use) per digital service;
• a breakdown of the WiFi4EU funding and the number of WiFi4EU vouchers (€15,000) per country. 

DIGIT shares knowledge and resources at UN webinar to accelerate recovery and digital growth after COVID-19

On 13 October 2020 the Director of Digital Services at DIGIT, Emanuele Baldacci, will speak on behalf of the European Commission at a webinar on accelerating digital transformation after COVID-19, co-organised by the UN and the Government of the Republic of Korea.

Digital transformation during and beyond the pandemic

During the coronavirus pandemic, digital technology has taken even greater prominence in policy discussion, with data-sharing and analysis directly informing policies to contain the virus. Key digital infrastructure has also allowed governments around the world to continue delivering essential public services remotely and ensured the possibility of teleworking.

This webinar, ‘Accelerating Digital Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from COVID-19’, is a platform for various countries and international institutions to share knowledge on effective e-government practices. Knowledge-sharing will help countries around the world to develop and consolidate robust, sustainable digital economies beyond the pandemic, easing the transition to a ‘new normal’.

You can find out more about the webinar here.

How can the European Commission help?

Digitalisation is one of the main priorities of the EU’s coronavirus recovery strategy. The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and ISA² programmes, as well as the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), provide various open and reusable digital solutions, which are the foundation of interoperable digital public services across Europe. They have also enjoyed ample success in the private sector, with SMEs integrating them into exciting new digital services in the Digital Innovation Challenge.

Such solutions save national governments the trouble of building from the ground up, and are based on a flexible legislative framework that turns interconnection with other public and private sector players from a complex but necessary challenge to a very achievable reality.

CEF eTranslation: EU Council Presidency Translator Disrupts Language Technology Landscape

Romania, Finland and Croatia, the recently concluded Trio Presidency of the Council of European Union, see their experience with EU Presidency Translator (PresidencyMT) as a successful proof of concept to further explore the capabilities of language technologies.  

During the 18-month Council programme, the trio shared a common challenge of dealing with massive amounts of multilingual information and faced a daunting demand for quick translations. With the help of European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eTranslation Building Block and Tilde, the trio was able to tackle these challenges with Presidency MT - an AI-powered secure translation platform which provides text, document, and website translations in all 24 official EU languages. The EU Presidency Translator quickly became a go-to source for Presidency staff, delegates, translators, journalists and visitors, who collectively translated over 79 million words in 6.5 million sentences. For a single human translator, such a workload would take more than 150 years to complete. 

In an era of constant content creation, there is an urgent need for machine translation that stretches beyond the scope of EU Presidency. People from all three countries are continuing to actively use the tool even today. For instance, the European Institute of Romania, operating under the authority of the Government and coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is responsible for translation as well as linguistic and legal revision of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. They are relying on Presidency MT to process large volumes of translations while ensuring consistent use of correct terminology, which is crucial in such cases where coordination of the translations is carried out at a national level.

Dan Tufis, head of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of the Romanian Academy noted that “research in Machine Translation (MT) in Romania has been boosted by the PresidencyMT project and the MT Kit is now included in the National Platform for Romanian language processing, thus extending the translation services to academic parties. Together with the European Institute of Romania, we have generated an increased interest of Machine Translation in the public sector, which is great, because language technologies can really open up new possibilities in overcoming language barriers and providing multilingual information inclusiveness.”

Translators in Finland were also quick to adapt Presidency MT in their daily workflow, and many have expressed their hopes that MT will continue to emerge beyond translation industry. Since Finnish Presidency, there has been an increased interest from public sector in this technology. For example, the Statistics Finland, Finnish Public authority, which produces the vast majority of Finnish official statistics, have fully integrated MT into their workflow, which has helped them to optimize and improve efficiency.  

Kaisa Kuhmonen, Head of Language Services Unit for the Prime Minister’s Office of Finland said that “since the Translation and Language Division at the Prime Minister’s Office is the biggest public administration translation service in Finland, I believe that our translators’ experience and their positive attitude has also inspired and encouraged other parties in the Finnish public administration to test MT. In addition to being a useful tool for translators, MT is also a huge opportunity for a bilingual country such as Finland to create an ecosystem of secure multilingual information access and exchange. In order to take full advantage of MT capabilities, we are about to launch a new project to expand the use of MT in the Finnish ministries.” 

EU Presidency Translator was also highly appreciated in Croatia, as it was the first-ever custom neural machine translation (NMT) solution for the Croatian language. Translation volumes were increasing every month, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic which forced many to stay at home, thereby increasing the need for services provided by the platform.

 Marko Tadić,  Ph.D. from the  Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb observed that “the media coverage of our EU Presidency Translator in Croatia was extensive and it certainly raised the interest in Language Technologies (LT) and Machine Translation (MT) in particular, not just in public administration but also in the general public. All that happened in spite of the COVID-19 outbreak that disrupted many of our plans, so we had to adapt on the run. However, the Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, a governmental agency responsible for eGovernment development in Croatia has joined forces with my research team from the Faculty in an EU-project proposal in order to contribute to the building of the Croatian national LT portal. It will be publicly available and serve not just the public administration, but also education, business, and any other area of activity in need of LT and MT. The magnitude of these needs we can’t even entirely predict yet, but we are confident that we are setting the proper foundations to meet them in the future.”

Neural machine translation technology has proved itself as one of the driving forces in powering multilingualism in the digital age by providing efficient and quality cross-lingual communication. The Presidency MT has helped to fast-track language technology uptake in the public sector and this trio is taking the lead in further implementing language technologies in their public administration to drive innovation and ensure multilingual information inclusiveness.

Artūrs Vasiļevskis, Head of Machine Translation Solutions at Tilde said that “there is an undeniable need in the public sector for secure language technologies which foster and enrich language diversity while providing instant translation support. We take great pride in supporting EU Council Presidencies and helping to connect multilingual Europe with AI-Powered language technologies.” 

The EU Council Presidency is currently held by Germany, which has followed the footsteps of Romania, Finland and Croatia by adapting the best practices of EU Presidency Translator. Germany has also expanded PresidencyMT offering, by implementing on the fly website translation functionality in the official website of the German Council Presidency, which allows visitors to browse the site in any of the 24 official EU languages. The EU Presidency Translator has and continues to strengthen linguistic diversity by providing effective and highly appreciated tools to cross language barriers. 

Pre-Release of CEF eIDAS-Node software v2.5

The European Commission is pleased to announce the pre-release of the CEF eIDAS-Node software version 2.5 on 29 September 2020. 

Electronic identification (eID) and electronic Trust Services (eTS) are key enablers for secure cross-border electronic transactions and prerequisites for both online public services and the digital economy. The eIDAS Regulation is a foundation for a predictable regulatory environment for secure and seamless electronic interactions between businesses, citizens and public authorities.

The eIDAS Network consists of a number of interconnected eIDAS nodes, which can either request or provide cross-border authentication. It is the responsibility of each country to implement their eIDAS node.

Pre-release 2.5 of the eIDAS sample implementation for Member States is an all-in-one package for the Java platform. It is based on version 1.2 of the eIDAS technical specifications. The pre-release has been provided in order to validate the implementation of the Technical Specifications 1.2.

Most notably, the following changes have been introduced:

• Technical Specifications 1.2:
  • Extension of Connector’s and Proxy-Service LOA validation to non-notified scheme LOAs
  • Extension of  Simple Protocol request to allow support to non-notified scheme LOAs
  • Implementation of support for 1.1 and 1.2 eIDAS specification for Gender attribute
  • Align allowed signature algorithms to eIDAS specification 1.2
  • Appropriate extensions to support RequesterID
  • Restriction of the node configuration to the use of TLSv1.2
  • Publication of the NodeCountry
  • Remove “No Specified” from Gender possible values
  • Add SP Country Code to Light Request interface
  • Extend Light Response to allow support of SAML consent values
• eIDAS Default parameters configuration
• Jcache support for the eIDAS Node
• Logging of messages eIDAS Node 2.x branch
• Member States specific node (migration )
• Bug fixes
• Security fixes

This release has been successfully tested for interoperability with previous releases of eIDAS-Node versions v2.4.0 and v1.4.5. The final release will be tested with Middleware version 2.0

For a more detailed description of the changes introduced with this release please consult the release notes and section 3 "Changes” found in the eIDAS-Node Migration Guide.

Member States are asked to provide feedback on the eIDAS-Node Pre-release v2.5 by 27 Oct 2020  . They can do so by raising a ticket at the CEF eID service desk.

eIDAS-Node Pre-release v2.5

CEF eInvoicing VATEX and validation artefact update, Autumn 2020

The European Commission is happy to announce the publication of updated validation artefacts for the European standard on eInvoicing and VATEX code list.

The European standard on eInvoicing (EN 16931) defines rules that allow people using the standard to check that an invoice complies with this standard, which are expressed in technical validation artefacts. The CEF eInvoicing team manages these validation artefacts and their releases. This release is scheduled to become effective on 15 November 2020, meaning compliant implementations of EN 16931 shall have the new version in operation.

The CEF team is also happy to announce an update to the VATEX code list. The European standard defines which code lists may be used for each business term that has the data type "code", such as electronic address, VAT number, etc. This release is subsequent to the recent EAS code list update.

The Commission provides a Registry of supporting technical resources (validation artefacts, code lists, etc.) to implement the European standard on eInvoicing. You can receive email notifications for each update to the items included in the registry (such as these code lists) directly on the dedicated page in the CEF eInvoicing User Community (simply follow the instructions at the bottom of the page).

CEF eInvoicing

The European Commission supports public administrations comply with Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement with the CEF eInvoicing Building Block.

Discover CEF eInvoicing

Learn how to benefit from Europe's blockchain infrastructure with 'Piloting with EBSI, explained'

The European Commission is excited to announce the launch of the “Piloting with EBSI, explained” learning package and the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) user community.

The “Piloting with EBSI, explained” learning package aims to further facilitate and accelerate the implementation of EBSI. It features a set of five, friendly, funny and unmissable video tutorials, a toolkit, and a series of webinars (registration form is available on the website) designed for EBP members and EBP-endorsed public administrations. The materials will guide you through the piloting journey with a carefully structured framework.

watch the videos

Additionally, the Commission has published a revamped the EBSI user community. This inclusive and receptive environment will enable stakeholders to engage in open discussions relating to the EBSI project. Members will be able to provide comments and input on available consultations and participate in community-driven events. Please note that members are required to register to access the space.

We have just announced all of this in our latest newsflash, if you have not done so yet, please subscribe to get your monthly dose of EBSI updates!