The Commission presented a Communication on Open data: an engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance.
Information produced, collected or paid for by public organisations across the European Union is a key resource in the information economy. At the moment, its full potential is far from being realised.
However, the existing regulatory tools and their implementation, the lack of awareness of administrations and businesses and the slow uptake of innovative technologies are holding back the development of a true market for the re-use of public data and do not allow the maximum benefits to be reaped from the new opportunities that data and evolving technologies offer.
These considerations have led the Commission to revise and strengthen its public data strategy by targeting the legal framework for re-use and available support tools.
In this Communication, the Commission proposes concrete steps to unlock the potential of Europe's public sector resources, ranging from a review of the Directive on the re-use of public sector information to the creation of a pan-European portal. This Communication presents a package of measures to overcome existing barriers and fragmentation across the EU, as part of the Digital Agenda for Europe. It consists of three strands that reinforce each other:
Strand 1: Adapting the legal framework for data re-use: (i) a proposal for a revised Directive on the re-use of public sector information and a revised Commission Decision on the re-use of its own information are adopted together with this Communication (December 2011); (ii) work to expand the regime to other European Institutions and Agencies, 2012; (iii) open data to be taken up in sector-based legislative and policy initiatives.
Because of the specificities of research data, the Commission will set out in detail and in separate documents its strategy for scientific and research data and associated infrastructures. It intends to adopt in 2012 a Communication and Recommendation on the accessibility and preservation of scientific information.
Strand 2: Mobilising financing instruments in support of open data, and deployment actions such as the creation of European data-portals: the Commission will continue to support R&D in data-handling technologies, e.g. data mining, analytics or visualisation. In the period 2011-2013 the Commission will spend around € 100 million on R&D in these fields. Information management is also one of the priority areas envisaged for ICT in Horizon 2020.
- The Commission will support technology innovation and uptake through pilot actions, testing and showcasing innovative applications such as geographical information systems and location-based services (GIS) and creative content applications in education, culture or fashion.
- In order to facilitate the development of information products and services combining data from across the European Union, the Commission will work together with Member States, public sector bodies and regional aggregators to establish two pan-European data portals. The Portal giving access to Commission data and data from other EU institutions and agencies, spring 2012; launch of a pan-European data portal, giving access to datasets from across the EU, spring 2013, following preparatory work with Member States from 2011.
- The Commission supports in FP7, and envisages continued support in Horizon 2020 for the development of a persistent and robust service infrastructure for scientific data in Europe that responds to the needs of the data-intensive science and research of 2020. It will allow access to and interaction with a continuum of information, from raw observational and experimental data to publications in all areas of science. The Commission will work together with our international partners to develop standards for global data access and interoperability.
Strand 3: Continue facilitating coordination and experience sharing across the Member States, in particular through:
- the PSI group, a Member States’ expert group for the exchange of good practices and initiatives supporting public-sector information re-use,
- the Public Sector Information platform. This web portal provides news on European developments, good practices, examples of new products and services, and legal cases concerning PSI re-use,
- the LAPSI network, which analyses legal issues related to public sector information and fosters debate among researchers and stakeholders. It will produce a set of guidelines for access and re-use policies and practices.
The work with the Member States should lead to:
- the formulation and implementation of open public data policies in all Member States by early 2013.
- 1/3 of all available structured government data in the Member States searchable through the pan-European data-portal by 2015.
Overall envisaged impact: by 2017 (three years after the expected transposition date of the Directive on the re-use of public sector information), the overall gains of PSI re-use to reach € 100 billion per year in the EU, including new business development and efficiency gains in public sector services.