Base registries are trusted and reliable sources of basic information on data items such as citizens, corporations, vehicles, driver licences, buildings, and locations. They are the cornerstone  of public services and essential entities for public administration management.

To interconnect European base registries it is  essential to have a Europe-wide  understanding of their connection potential. The development of a European Registry of Base Registries (ERBR), a pan-European registry of base registries, aims to enhance the interoperability of individual base registries and harmonise the existing registries of base registries. This will enable a one-stop-platform for citizens, business and public bodies to access and manage base registries across the European Union and across different domains.

BRegDCAT-AP is the semantic specification that facilitates the creation of ERBR. It interconnects public services with base registries and their associated services. By conforming to this specification, Base Registries will becomes easier to find and subsequently, with the provision through the Once Only Hub,  be more interoperable. This semantic specification will enable a mechanism for the update of EU base registries reducing technical, organisational and multilingual barriers.

1. What are the benefits of using BRegDCAT-AP?

On top of the benefits presented by DCAT-AP, BRegDCAT-AP introduces several benefits that are unique to base registries:

• Extended classes and properties that are unique to describing metadata of base registries.
• Enabling the interconnection of national base registries across Europe.
• Harmonising existing registries of base registries, creating a one-stop platform for accessing and managing base registries across the EU.

2. Who developed the solution?

BRegDCAT-AP is a joint initiative of:

• The BRegDCAT-AP Working Group;
• the Directorate-General for Digital Services: DG DIGIT - in particular the SEMIC action of the Interoperable Europe programme;
• the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology: DG CONNECT; and
• the Publications Office of the EU.

3. How is BRegDCAT-AP maintained?

All changes in the specification are discussed with the BRegDCAT-AP Working Group to make sure that changes do not negatively impact the operation of implementations and the interoperability across the network of data portals, and publicly communicated.

4. BRegDCAT-AP key milestones

5. Get started 

	Download BRegDCAT-AP latest and previous releases.
	Discover the technical documentation of BRegDCAT-AP.
	Check metadata files for integrity and consistency against the BRegDCAT-AP specification with the BRegDCAT-AP Validator, which is hosted on the Interoperability Test Bed.

6. BRegDCAT-AP users

The list below includes successful, known BRegDCAT-AP implementations, but is not exhaustive.

European Union institutions and bodies:

• Public procurement Data Space

National public administrations across Europe:

• The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Digdir) in their DCAT-AP extension.
• The Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) in their vehicle registry and identity identification system.

7. Get involved!

Do you want to participate in the work of our BRegDCAT-AP Working Group? Share your comments and change requests via the GitHub BRegDCAT-AP repository.

8. Any questions? 

Contact the SEMIC team.

9. About SEMIC

Visit the SEMIC collection on Joinup.