The European Commission has presented an Open Data Strategy for Europe
In December 2011 - The European Commission has presented an Open Data Strategy for Europe setting out clearer rules on making the best use of government-held information. The proposed Open Data Strategy will make it easier for business and citizens to find and re-use information held by public sector bodies in the Member States and by the Commission itself.
Primarily, the Commission plans to update the 2003 Directive on the re-use of public sector information. The Commission is also updating its own re-use rules so as to make its data available in machine-readable format and to include data from research by the Joint Research Centre. In spring 2012 the Commission will launch a web portal making it easy for industry and citizens to search for Commission data. This is a step towards a single-access point for re-usable data from all EU institutions, bodies and agencies and national authorities.
The Commission presented an Open Data Package consisting of :
• A Communication on Open Data:
• A proposal for a revision of the Directive:
• New Commission rules on re-use of the documents it holds:
The proposal for a revision of the Directive proposes to further open up the market for services based on public-sector information, by
• including new bodies in the scope of application of the Directive such as libraries (including university libraries), museums and archives;
• limiting the fees that can be charged by the public authorities at the marginal costs as a rule;
• introducing independent oversight over re-use rules in the Member States;
• making machine-readable formats for information held by public authorities the norm.
The Directive will now be discussed by the Union legislator composed of the European Parliament and the Council. More information on the proposed revision of the Directive can be found here.
