Press Release - Commission welcomes Member States' endorsement of EU Open Data rules

The proposed new rules now need to be formally approved by the European Parliament.

Background

Public Sector Information refers to non-personal data produced, stored or collected by public sector bodies. Studies show that wider availability of public data could boost economic activity by tens of billions of euros per year across the EU.

When fully implemented, proposed new rules would:

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  Create a genuine right to re-use public information, not present in the original 2003 Directive;

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  Expand the reach of the Directive to include libraries, museums and archives;

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  Establish that public sector bodies can charge at maximum the marginal cost for reproduction, provision and dissemination of the information. In exceptional cases, full cost recovery (plus a reasonable return on investment) will remain possible;

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  Oblige public sector bodies to be more transparent about charging rules;

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  Encourage the availability of data in open machine-readable formats

Useful links

Public Sector Information

@EC_opendata #opendata

Digital Agenda

Neelie Kroes

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