Interoperability in data spaces: Building Europe’s digital future
From silos to synergy, data spaces are there for shared, interoperable data across Europe
As Europe continues its digital transformation, data spaces are emerging as a cornerstone of the EU data strategy. A data space is a federated ecosystem where data is shared securely and efficiently among trusted partners, based on common rules and standards. From health and energy to agriculture and mobility, these shared environments drive interoperability and cross-sector innovation while safeguarding privacy, security, and ethical standards.
Interoperability is important in making these data spaces work across systems, sectors, and countries. It spans technical, semantic, legal, and organisational dimensions, allowing diverse actors to understand, trust, and reuse data consistently. The Commission supports this vision through Common European Data Spaces, sector-specific ecosystems that bring together data infrastructure and governance. For this to work, data spaces must be interoperable to build on shared rules, standards, and open infrastructure. Initiatives such as the SEMIC Support Centre and Interoperable Europe Act provide tools and frameworks to support compatibility. Projects like Simpl and Gaia-X already show how this interoperability enables smarter collaboration.
Platforms like data.europa.eu are not data spaces themselves, but they use similar standards. This alignment helps keep open data and data space ecosystems interoperable. When public sector data is published in structured digital formats and based on common standards, it helps drive innovation, openness, and teamwork across sectors. By making high-quality datasets widely accessible, data.europa.eu supports reuse across borders. If you would like to know more about how open data and data spaces intersect, you can read the data story ‘When open data meets data spaces’.
Do you want to learn more about the different data spaces, or are you interested in different datasets? Visit the Interoperable Europe portal, the SEMIC Support Centre, or data.europa.eu to explore further.
For more news and events, follow us on X/Twitter and LinkedIn, or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also connect with other users through our collaboration channel.