Trusted Data Transaction - Activity Highlights

Towards understanding the impacts of the future standardization

Monday 23rd September and Tuesday 24th September 2024 marked an important milestone for the CEN Workshop on Trusted Data Transaction (TDT). Key representatives of the Workshop gathered at the European Committee for Standardization’s (CEN) offices in Brussels, for a full day of work, followed by an open event to present to a wider audience progress made on the workshop, discussing also the role and impact of the future standard on building trust and interoperability within and across data spaces.

 

Sept. 23, 2024 - The CEN Workshop on Trusted Data Transaction in Context

The CEN Workshop on Trusted Data Transaction is a pre-standardization workshop that was launched mid 2023 with the goal to prepare for and accelerate the creation of standards.

The CEN Workshop gathers a highly representative group of organizations (institutions, associations, corporations), including workshop co-proposers Fraunhofer ISST, TNO and Dawex, and other participants among which the European Commission, Data Space Support Center, IDSA, Gaia-X, FIWARE Foundation, BDVA, Airbus, EDF, Microsoft, Agdatahub, Hub One DataTrust, Prometheus-X and Connekt.

 

 

During a 15 month process, workshop participants collectively created, agreed upon and signed a first CWA on Trusted Data Transaction (CEN Workshop Agreement - Part 1). The Agreement defines the objectives, scope and deliverables of the workshop, provides terminology, key concepts and mechanisms around the notion of trusted data transaction. The CWA Part 1 is now available for download on CEN-CENELEC Website, free of charge.

The CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) on Trusted Data Transaction will be used as the main input to support the Standardization Request on Trusted Data Transaction, issued by the European Commission, currently in the drafting phase, that will lead to a harmonised European Standard. The Trusted Data Transaction future standard is positioned as a key deliverable at the core of the European Trusted Data Framework. A harmonized European Standard is a powerful instrument, requested by the European Commission to a recognised European Standards Organisation, i.e. CEN, CENELEC, or ETSI, associated with a European regulation (in this case the Article 33 of the Data Act). Conforming to the standard triggers a ‘presumption of conformity' to the regulation.

The future standard will be produced as part of the CEN JTC 25 Joint Technical Committee.

Workshop participants are now working on Part 2 of the workshop, focusing on defining the characteristics of Trust in a data transaction, and the criteria to measure it.

 

Sept. 24, 2024 - The Open Event on Trusted Data Transaction

 

The first public communication on the pre-standardization CEN workshop on Trusted Data Transaction took place in Brussels on September 24th 2024 and was the occasion to present and discuss the initiative, but also to position it in a broader context.

 

Keynote - "European Trusted Data Framework"

Given by Coen Janssen, Policy Officer at the European Commission

 

 

Coen Janssen highlighted during his keynote speech key aspects of the European Strategy for Data, especially the significant efforts undertaken with data legislation, and the financing of the first Common European Data Spaces.

Coen Janssen focused on the EU standardization strategy and its role in establishing the single market for data by enhancing interoperability across member states and across domains.

Mr. Janssen stressed the European Commission’s commitment to international standardization, and referred to the Annual Union Work Program 2024 for Standardization where the “European Trusted Data Framework” is positioned as one of the 8 top priorities among 72 actions listed.

Trusted data transaction is at the core of such Framework, expecting the future standard to bring four key aspects together:

• Legal certainty created by European data legislation and forming the basis for trusted data sharing.
• Trust mechanisms, which are key, especially when talking about non-open data.
• Interoperability allowing data sharing in the European single market to scale.
• Value of the data, especially for achieving fair allocation throughout the data value chain

 

Roundtable - "Building trust and interoperability within and across data spaces: initiatives landscape, complementarities and benefits"

A first roundtable, moderated by Ana Garcia Robles, General Secretary of BDVA, put on stage Silvia Castellvi, Director Research & Standardization at IDSA, Giuditta Del Buono, Technical Product Manager at Gaia-X, and Frédéric Bellaiche, PhD, Vice President Technology & Research at Dawex to discuss several initiatives including Trusted Data Transaction, the Dataspace Protocol and Gaia-X Trust Framework, highlighting complementarities and how they contribute directly to increasing trust and interoperability within and across data spaces.

 

 

Panelists gave a summary of the work done within each of these initiatives, stressing the fact that the CEN Workshop on Trusted Data Transaction:

• Includes participants working on the Dataspace Protocol, Gaia-X Trust Framework, as well as within the Data Spaces Support Centre, which is facilitating a lot the sharing of best practices and relevant contributions to the Trusted Data Transaction Workshop
• Shares common goals and common technicalities with each of those initiatives
• Can therefore focus on the specificities of the CEN Workshop, while leveraging commonalities, to address the trust and interoperability components at multiple levels not only on the technical layer, but also at the business level and regulatory level. This multi-layer approach is probably the most demanding part of the initiative, requiring to look at multiple use cases and contextualizing them, e.g. in the healthcare sector, risks and requirements will be different than in other contexts.

 

Roundtable - "The key role of data intermediation services in building trust within and across data spaces"

A second roundtable, moderated by Didier Navez, SVP Data Policy & Governance at Dawex, gathered Coen Janssen, Policy Officer at the European Commission, Léo Quentin, Head of Data Services and Cloud Unit at Arcep (France’s Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Postal Affairs and Press Distribution) and Sébastien Picardat, President of AID - Association for Data Intermediation, and CEO of Agdatahub to discuss the critical role of the so-called Data Intermediation Services Providers (DISP) in the Data Governance Act, to create trust in the sharing and exchange of data.

The conversation between those key stakeholders took place on the one year anniversary date of the DGA being in application, i.e. September 24, 2023.

 

 

• Coen Janssen reminded that the Data Governance Act was initially proposed to address the question of trust in data intermediation platforms and services emerging on the market, acknowledging also that DISPs, which can take different forms and models, have an important role to play to simplify and accelerate data sharing, fostering value creation through data across Europe.
• Leo Quentin, representing the regulatory authority responsible for operationalizing the DGA in France, which includes monitoring the compliance of DISPs and labeling those who request it, provided valuable insights into Arcep’s work in defining the criteria for assessing DISPs' compliance with the conditions outlined in the Data Governance Act. Mr Quentin emphasized on the importance of striking a balance between encouraging the registration of new DISPs and establishing strict criteria that make the 'Data Intermediary Recognized in the Union' label and logo a distinctive mark of trust.
• Sébastien Picardat, speaking on behalf of the association representing the interests of DISPs and data providers across various sectors, stressed the importance of DISPs in particular within sectors, such as in agriculture where there is a typical imbalance between millions of small farms and a few major agro-suppliers. DISPs acting as neutral intermediaries can make sure that value is not concentrated on the larger firms.

All three panelists shared the same view that the ongoing standardization effort on Trusted Data Transaction will bring clarity, trust and interoperability between data spaces, within a particular industry and across sectors.

 

Keynote - "EU/Japan cooperation on data spaces interoperability and standardisation"

Given by Pr. Noboru Koshizuka, Chairman of the Japan Data Society Alliance (DSA)

 

 

The event concluded with a keynote speech by Professor Noboru Koshizuka, from the University of Tokyo and Chairman of the Japan Data Society Alliance (DSA), presenting key initiatives engaged in Japan around Data Spaces and standardization, emphasizing the active cooperation between Japan and EU, as well as with other Asian countries.

DSA is also at the origin of the creation of the International Open Forum on Data Society where several members of Trusted Data Transaction Workshop participate, including IDSA, Fiware Foundation, Gaia-X and Dawex, demonstrating that the operationalization of Data Spaces supported by data legislations and standardization, is a trend that is truly global.

These two days dedicated to Trusted Data Transaction highlighted the strong involvement and commitment of all key stakeholders working together to build trust and ensure the success of data space development, deployment, and operation, with the support from the European Commission. Enriched by constructive cooperation with ecosystems beyond Europe, this demonstrates the growing maturity of the global economy, which is increasingly driven by data.

Standardization is crucial. Without standards, no business can operate, and no products or services can be sold or used at scale. In a highly digitized and connected world, standardizing trusted data transactions has become a necessity.

Participants in the CEN Workshop on Trusted Data Transaction are eager to continue the already well-progressed work during the Part 2 of the Workshop.