Collaboration makes the testing of eDelivery easier, enabling open and, at the same time, secure digital ecosystems.

CEF Digital, a programme under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), is the main EU programme supporting the establishment of trans-European digital infrastructures that contribute to the Digital Single Market. CEF Digital has begun collaboration in the area of generic enablers / building blocks with FIWARE, an open cloud-based platform for the creation and execution of smart applications and services. A first practical result of this collaboration is that a first CEF building block, namely eDelivery, will become integrated as Generic Enabler of the FIWARE Platform. This means developers, service providers and experimenters are now able to deploy and run eDelivery on the FIWARE Lab. They will also be able to download and locally deploy the Docker image of an eDelivery Access Point from the FIWARE Catalogue. An introductory course about CEF eDelivery is available on FIWARE Academy.

Why is this collaboration important?

In just a few years, CEF Digital successfully implemented one of the most ambitious digital initiatives of the European Commission. Today, different sectors (eJustice, eHealth, eProcurement, etc.) are using the same basic building blocks to enable innovative cross-border digital interactions among public administrations, businesses and citizens: eDelivery is one of these generic enablers/ building blocks alongside eID, eSignature, eInvoicing and eTranslation. Consequently, further collaboration between the FIWARE initiative and the CEF programme is expected in the near future.

eDelivery is an essential element of any digital ecosystem where the exchange of data over the internet must be secured according to the provisions of Electronic Registered Delivery Service set in the eIDAS Regulation. CEF eDelivery interconnects different systems through eDelivery Access Points. The software industry already provides different messaging solutions compliant with eDelivery Access Point specifications. Given the growing popularity of eDelivery, public administrations and businesses across Europe are looking to test eDelivery Access Points at low cost and at speed. With FIWARE, testing of eDelivery can be done quickly and for free. The instances deployed on FIWARE support both experimentation and testing. Therefore, these instances will be created from the Open Source sample software offered by CEF, i.e. Domibus. True to FIWARE’s goal “to build an open sustainable ecosystem around public, royalty-free and implementation-driven software platform standards”, CEF eDelivery also supports Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMEs) in the context of the digital era. SMEs can participate in this process by creating eDelivery software or offering eDelivery services as an alternative to email technology. This is why CEF eDelivery, and the other CEF building blocks, are collaborating with the Enterprise Europe Network, the EU’s foremost SME Network. The addition of CEF eDelivery to FIWARE’s catalogue of generic enablers will expand its offering in key areas such as Smart Cities.

Collaboration in Practice

This collaboration will both enable and accelerate the testing of secure message exchange in different sectors. The easiest way to start is to create an account on FIWARE Lab, the working instance of FIWARE available for experimentation, and launch an eDelivery Access Point.

Further collaboration is explored between the FIWARE initiative and the CEF program, both in the direction of contributing CEF building blocks as FIWARE Generic Enablers, and exploring the adoption of some FIWARE GEs as CEF Building Blocks, with the intention of accelerating the development of trans-border digital services.

It is also important to mention that CEF makes available up to EUR 300 million in grants until 2020. These grants are used for digital enablement projects, many of which use CEF eDelivery. All information about the grants: requirements, deadlines, instructions on how to apply and documentation are available on the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) website.

Developers, service providers and other experimenters may contact the CEF team to know more about the CEF building blocks, or visit the CEF Digital Portal.