Channelling Government Digital Transformation through APIs
Application programming interfaces (APIs) are a 50-year-old technology that can be applied to many fields and that,
for some years, the public sector has used to implement its digital transformation (e.g. for the publication of public sector
information and for public service provision in different areas), although this technology is not yet fully used
to support government policies. Recently, the European Commission has produced a series of policy instruments that
require or suggest the adoption of APIs in governments and in some specific areas in particular. These initiatives include
the Open Data EU Directive 2019/1024, which requires the use of APIs for ‘high-value’ and dynamic datasets and the
European Commission ‘European strategy for data’ Communication COM/2020/66 that reports on future investment in
‘the establishment of EU-wide common, interoperable data spaces’.
The goal of this report is to present the main results of a 2-year study on the adoption of APIs in governments, which also
supports the adoption of the abovementioned policy instruments. Even though the cohesive and coordinated adoption of
APIs in the public sector is still in its early stages, the results of this study demonstrate that APIs present many benefits
for the public sector, including fostering innovation in governments and related public services, improving efficiency,
improving access to government open data, increasing economic opportunities for private companies using government
APIs and enabling the creation and facilitation of interactions between governments (G2G) and between governments and
businesses (G2B) in relation to digital ecosystems. However, these benefits also carry technical and organisational costs.
In adopting APIs, governments can also encounter risks and challenges. These include cybersecurity issues, missing API
governance structures, the difficulty in adopting proper legal instruments to adhere to current regulation, the lack of an
API culture and the need for agile platforms to adapt digital public services provision to a rapidly evolving society. To
tackle these issues, this study has developed a basic API framework for governments. It provides a cohesive, coordinated
approach to APIs that deals with the problems and complexity that result from ad hoc implementation of APIs. It frames
existing efforts within a more coordinated suite of activities including (i) the alignment of API adoption with policy goals,
(ii) the creation of platforms and ecosystems based on APIs, (iii) the organisation of teams and the development of an
API culture and (iv) designing processes based on API best practices.
The recommendations and actions outlined in this framework, to be performed in policy priority areas, should also
be followed. APIs need to be explicitly adopted to support the new Commission priorities and EU and Member State
policies; this adoption should be accompanied by the creation of shared best practices and guidelines to implement an
API culture in governments. In addition, the proposed framework should be adopted, further validated and continuously
refined to guide government API strategies and digital government strategies, and governments should be more digital ecosystems
aware, engaging multiple stakeholders to co-create and co-design API-based systems.
VACCARI Lorenzino;
POSADA SANCHEZ Monica;
BOYD Mark;
GATTWINKEL Dietmar;
MAVRIDIS Dimitrios;
SMITH Robin;
SANTORO Mattia;
NATIVI Stefano;
MEDJAOUI Mehdi;
REUSA Isabelle;
SWITZER Shelby;
FRIIS-CHRISTENSEN Anders;
European Commission: Joint Research Centre, VACCARI, L., POSADA SANCHEZ, M., BOYD, M., GATTWINKEL, D., MAVRIDIS, D., SMITH, R., SANTORO, M., NATIVI, S., MEDJAOUI, M., REUSA, I., SWITZER, S. and FRIIS-CHRISTENSEN, A., Application Programming Interfaces in Governments: Why, what and how, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/429805, JRC120429.
2020-09-15
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC120429
978-92-76-18982-4 (online),
978-92-76-18981-7 (print),
978-92-76-40806-2,
1831-9424 (online),
1018-5593 (print),
1831-9424,
EUR 30227 EN,
OP KJ-NA-30227-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-NA-30227-EN-C (print),
OP KJ-NA-30227-EN-E,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC120429,
10.2760/58129 (online),
10.2760/429805 (print),
10.2760/285300,
