EU PSI Re-use Directive implementaiton survey

16 September 2010, 9:52am

This autumn brings the start of a series of actions related to the review of Europe’s PSI Re-use Directive 2003/98/EC. Since all geospatial information created by public sector bodies in Europe is also PSI, proper implementaiton of the PSI re-use Directive is of crucial importance to further development of the European information matker.

The first stage is the Europe wide public consultation process on the policy and legislative framework for the re-use of public sector information and the opening up of government data for re-use with the European Commission announcing an online survey.

* Do you have ideas, information, experience or views on Europe’s current Public Sector Information Re-use framework and Directive?

* Everyone is invited to ‘Have Your Say and Participate’: Citizens, Researchers, Open Data Entrepreneurs, Digital Activists, Re-users and PSI Holders.

* Now is the time to express your views, if you think the current framework needs to be changed.

Access Online Survey on the PSI Directive at the link below.

The online survey:

* Short - only takes a few minutes to complete
* Results will be published online by the European Commission
* The consultation is open until the 30 November 2010

The European Commission announcement about the survey comments:

“9 September 2010 - Today the Commission launched a public consultation on the PSI Directive. All interested parties – public sector bodies, re-users, developers, researchers and citizens – are invited to participate in the consultation which includes questions on the PSI re-use context and possible action to consider, substantive issues regulated by the PSI Directive, practical measures, changes that have taken place and barriers that still exist, and other issues. The consultation will feed into the debate on possible policy options that should be considered for the review, and will contribute to the impact assessment that will be carried out subsequently, associated with proposals for possible legislative or other measures.”

In the European Commission Press Release (IP/10/1103) on the consultation entitled: “Digital Agenda: Commission consults on re-use of public sector data” Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes encourages participation in the consultation and comments:

“Better and more use of public sector information has great potential to generate new businesses and jobs and to provide consumers with more choice and more value for money. The mobile apps market, partly based on PSI-generated data, could grow to € 15 billion by 2013. However, much of Europe's PSI is insufficiently or even sometimes not exploited. We cannot lose out on this opportunity. We need to consider whether and how the EU rules on re-use of PSI should be amended to fully unlock PSI's economic potential."

Background Information from the Press Release (Excerpt)

“A revision of the PSI Directive is one of the key actions of the Digital Agenda for Europe Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200). In its policy strategy, the Commission highlighted that governments can stimulate content markets by making public sector information available on transparent, effective and non-discriminatory terms. This is an important source of potential growth of innovative on-line services.

In 2009, the Commission reviewed the way in which EU PSI rules were being applied, which confirmed that PSI-re use has been on the rise and that Member States and public sector bodies have taken measures to facilitate this. The 2003 Directive had a positive impact in several fields such as geographical and meteorological sectors. However, the Commission also warned that to realise the full potential of PSI for the EU economy, EU Member States must remove remaining barriers to re-use. These include discrimination between potential users, excessive charges for public sector information re-use and complex licensing policies. It also pointed to practical problems such as lack of awareness of what public sector information is available, and public sector bodies failing to realise the economic potential of their data.

The Commission concluded that the 2003 Directive in its present form has not yet achieved its full impact and decided to run a further review at the latest in 2012, when more evidence on the impact, effects and application of EU rules on public sector information will be available. This review is one the Key Actions of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The results of the consultation will feed into the review.”

* Related News Story published by the ePSIplatform: European Commission Launches Digital Agenda: Consultation on PSI Policy and Directive

* Follow the European Commission Unit responsible for policy framework on the re-use of Public Sector Information... or open data policy @infsoe4

* Please pass this message about the survey on to your colleagues and networks.


Information provided by Robert Davies, Co-ordinator, ePSIplatform
Follow us on Twitter at the link below.

Access Online Survey on the PSI Directive

PSI Re-use Directive 2003/98/EC

Twitter @ePSIplatform

Follow the Public Sector Information (PSI) Platform work here

Geo: International