Streamlining Cross-Border Data Exchange from Spain in a Layered Administrative Landscape
Spain’s public sector explores Harmony eDelivery Access as a secure and flexible access point for cross-border data exchange within the Once-Only Technical System framework.
Europe’s national public sectors are becoming increasingly interconnected, answering citizens’ need for location-independent availability of government services. Countries’ administrative structures differ, though, and that might pose an additional layer of challenges.
Take Spain, with its federated administrative model. The country’s decentralized governance structure requires flexible data-sharing solutions that can connect national, regional, and local entities while integrating with broader EU networks. Adopting Harmony eDelivery Access, in this case, represents the government’s response to meet these demands.
Harmony eDelivery Access is conformant to the EU’s eDelivery Digital Building Block, designed to enable secure, asynchronous communication across sectors. As an open-source solution, Harmony eDelivery Access aligns with Spain’s objective of providing accessible and flexible digital services to citizens, especially within the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) framework. Through OOTS, the EU aims to facilitate citizens' and businesses' access to essential public services across borders, removing barriers to data exchange and simplifying access to documentation for everyday processes, from academic records to pension verification.
In this case study, Ana Rosa Guzmán, from the Secretariat-General for Digital Administration at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, guides us through the ins and outs of shaping it all up to make the Spanish public sector ‘interoperability-ready’.
“With Harmony, we had a fully operational test environment set up in hours, not days. Plus, the support from NIIS during deployment was invaluable – open-source software is only effective when there’s a reliable team to help navigate any issues that arise.”
Spain’s Administrative Structure and Cross-Border Data Needs
Spain operates a federated system where administrative responsibilities are shared between national, regional, and municipal levels. This decentralised structure supports an extensive internal data exchange ecosystem known as the Platform for Intermediation of Data (PID).
Created in 2010, the PID acts as a central broker for secure data exchanges across Spanish authorities, offering controlled access based on predefined legal criteria. “Our existing data exchange model is centralised and well-suited to our national framework,” says Ana Rosa Guzmán, “but it doesn’t inherently support the level of cross-border interoperability required by the Single Digital Gateway initiative.”
The SDG mandates that all EU member states make essential public services accessible across borders, providing citizens and businesses with simplified access to government documents. For Spain, implementing this system means expanding beyond the PID to address use cases requiring seamless and secure connections with EU counterparts, such as educational records, proof of residence, pension verification, and more.
Selecting a User-Friendly Access Point for OOTS Compliance
Spain’s existing systems are structured around a national broker model and do not necessarily accommodate the EU’s specifications for eDelivery. “We needed a solution that could enable this broader reach while maintaining our commitment to security and data governance,” Guzmán explains. But to comply with the OOTS architecture and technical specifications, Spain’s administration required a secure, scalable access point that could connect to the EU’s interoperable data-sharing framework.
While the European Commission recommended Domibus as its reference implementation for eDelivery, Guzmán’s team found that Domibus required complex installation and a high degree of technical configuration, making it less than ideal for their operational needs. “Domibus is robust, but it’s not well-suited to our environment – it demands a level of configuration that doesn’t align with our internal processes,” Guzmán notes.
Before turning to Harmony eDelivery Access, Spain had experimented with Phase4, a simplified AS4 open-source solution used during the DE4A project. Although Phase4 provided an introduction to eDelivery specifications, it lacked the level of support and functionality needed for long-term deployment in a national administration. As Guzmán recalls, “We needed a solution that was both sustainable and backed by reliable support. Harmony offered that balance, instead, allowing us to configure a robust access point without the administrative complexity of Domibus.”
The decision to adopt Harmony was influenced by its alignment with open-source principles and its reputation for strong technical support. Developed by the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), Harmony eDelivery Access provides user-friendly deployment options that support rapid configuration, operational stability, and regular updates to align with ongoing developments in the eDelivery landscape.
Harmony eDelivery Access as an Adaptable Cross-Border Gateway
Harmony eDelivery Access offers Spain a streamlined approach to configuring and managing its access point within the OOTS framework. The solution builds on the features offered by Domibus but provides an additional layer of user-oriented tools for configuration and maintenance. Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation adopted Harmony due to its ease of use, rapid deployment process, and ability to operate as a secure access point within the SDG’s data-sharing environment.
“With Harmony, we had a fully operational test environment set up in hours, not days. Plus, the support from NIIS during deployment was invaluable – open-source software is only effective when there’s a reliable team to help navigate any issues that arise,” Guzmán highlights.
The design of eDelivery’s dynamic discovery, which includes SMP (Service Metadata Publisher) and SML (Service Metadata Locator) components, suits Spain's decentralised administrative structure well. Harmony eDelivery Access enables secure connections with EU partners through the SML directory, dynamically locating the relevant access points for cross-border exchanges. “Harmony provides a layer that simplifies the connection between our existing PID structure and the wider EU network,” Guzmán explains.
To implement Harmony, however, Spain’s Ministry had to adapt Harmony’s standard configuration to match enterprise IT standards within the Spanish public sector. This required transitioning Harmony’s Ubuntu and MySQL configuration to align with Red Hat servers, WebLogic application servers, and Oracle database systems used in Spain. “Our system enforces strict controls on data access, which meant we had to carefully configure Harmony to meet our governance protocols,” Guzmán explains. “But the adaptability of Harmony and the support we received from NIIS helped us bridge those gaps.”
Education, Pensions, and More: Enhancing Access to EU-Wide Public Services
Spain’s implementation of Harmony eDelivery Access is still in the pilot phase, but early results indicate a promising improvement in cross-border data accessibility. Once fully operational, Harmony will facilitate the exchange of essential documents and information for Spanish citizens and EU residents alike. “Education and pensions are areas where Harmony’s capabilities will be most visible. These domains require secure, verified data exchanges across borders, and Harmony’s structure provides that ideal framework,” Guzmán highlights.
In the education sector, where students frequently move between EU countries, Harmony enables the seamless transfer of academic records, simplifying the enrolment and credential verification processes. “For university students and academic institutions, Harmony breaks down barriers, ensuring that vital information flows smoothly without adding unnecessary administrative steps,” Guzmán observes.
For pensions, Harmony enables Spanish authorities to verify documents essential for claims across the EU, such as birth and marriage certificates, without duplicating processes. This efficient verification process offers peace of mind for citizens claiming pensions from other EU states and reduces the administrative load on Spain’s public sector staff. “Harmony brings a higher degree of efficiency to how we handle international pension claims, cutting down the time and resources needed for verifications,” says Guzmán.
Harmony’s intuitive configuration system also empowers Spain’s public sector staff to manage the access point efficiently, with minimal risk of setup errors or misconfigurations. This ease of management is particularly beneficial given the bureaucratic complexity of Spain’s public sector, as Guzmán highlights: “In that sense, Harmony is a bridge that simplifies the task of managing secure data exchanges across national and EU borders.”
In the longer term, Harmony may extend to other domains within Spain’s public sector. For example, if healthcare were to become part of the OOTS framework in the future. “Our current focus is on education and pensions, but Harmony’s versatility gives us room to expand if new cross-border data needs emerge.”
While not a critical component of Spain’s existing data infrastructure, Harmony serves as a bridge, enabling Spanish citizens and businesses to access essential documents from their EU counterparts. Its open-source nature and effective support system make it an attractive choice for public administrations, offering the adaptability and ease of use needed to manage complex cross-border interactions. As Guzmán concludes, “Harmony’s true value lies in its flexibility – giving us the tools to connect with the EU’s digital infrastructure without compromising the principles of our own data governance.”