The current Directive 2019/1024 on open data and re-use of public sector information, adopted in June 2019, was established to replace and improve the former Directive 2003/98/EC. Among its objectives was to boost the availability of public sector data for re-use by establishing some minimum harmonisation rules that favour its use as a raw material for innovation in all economic sectors. It should be noted that this directive has been incorporated into Spanish law through Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, of 2 November, transposing several European Union directives.

Among the most significant changes introduced by Directive 2019/1024 was the drawing up of a list of high-value datasets to be highlighted among those held by public bodies.

High-value data: definition and characteristics

The Directive describes high-value data as "documents whose re-use is associated with considerable benefits for society, the environment and the economy, in particular because of their suitability for the creation of new, decent and quality value-added services, applications and jobs, and the number of potential beneficiaries of value-added services and applications based on such datasets".

This definition provides some clues as to how such high-value datasets can be identified. Identification can be carried out through a series of indicators including:

• Potential to generate:
  
  • Significant social or environmental benefits
  • Economic benefits and new revenues
  • Innovative services
• Potential in terms of number of users benefited, with a particular focus on SMEs.
• Ability to be combined with other datasets.

How should high-value data be published?

According to the Directive, the publication of these datasets has to meet the following requirements:

• Be reusable free of charge.
• Available through application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Available in a machine-readable format.
• Feature a bulk download option, where possible.

In addition, they should be compatible with open standard licences.

Which thematic categories are considered high-value data?

The European Data Strategy incorporates high-value data as a common data layer that facilitates, together with data from the private sector, the deployment of sectoral data spaces in strategic areas.

Originally, the directive included in its annex a number of priority themes that could be considered high-value data: geospatial data, earth observation and environmental data, meteorological data, statistical data, business registers or transport data.

However, these categories were very broad. The EU has therefore launched an initiative to establish a list indicating more precisely what types of data are considered high-value and how they should be published. Following an extensive consultation of stakeholders and taking into account the outcome of the impact assessment, the Commission identified, within each of the six data categories, a number of datasets of particular value and the arrangements for their publication and re-use.

The list takes the form of a binding implementing act. The granularity and modality of publication varies from one dataset to another, trying to strike a balance between the potential socio-economic and environmental benefits and the financial and organisational burden to be borne by public data holders. Existing sectoral legislation governing these datasets should also be taken into account.

Open comment period on the draft law "Open Data: Availability of public datasets".

The next step is to get citizens' feedback on the proposed datasets. The European Commission currently has a specific section open on its website, at the end of which any citizen of the European Union can provide their comments to help improve and enrich this initiative. The public consultation will run for four weeks, from 24 May to 21 June 2022.

In order to submit your comments, you need to register using your email address or popular social networks such as Twitter or Facebook.

Remember that in order to express your opinion and for it to be taken into account by the public body, your comment must comply with the established rules and standards. In addition, you can consult the comments already made by other citizens from different countries and which are offered publicly. The website also includes a visualisation that presents data on the number of opinions offered per country or the category to which the participants belong (private companies, academic institutions, research institutions, NGOs, citizens, etc.).

This list will be a really important milestone as, for the first time in many years, it will be possible to establish an explicit and common guide on what are the minimum datasets that should always be available and what should be the conditions for their re-use throughout the European Union.

At the Spanish level, the Data Office, in collaboration with stakeholders, will be in charge of landing this list and specifying other additional datasets, both public and private, based on what is indicated in Royal Decree-Law 24/2021.

In June 2019, the European Union published the Directive (EU) 2019/1024 on open data and the re-use of public sector information. This Directive incorporated some new developments in the universe of open data in Europe, such as

• The extension of obligations to the public services, transport and research sector that is totally or partially financed by the public sector.
• Promoting real-time access to dynamic data, using appropriate technical means, incorporating the concept of high-value data.
• The reduction of exceptions to the establishment of tariffs based on marginal costs.
• The increase of transparency in the establishment of exclusive agreements, reducing even more the conditions to carry out this type of agreements.

The incorporation of novelties to the Spanish legal framework

Once the directive has been published, each member country has to transpose it into its own legal system. The deadline for this action is 17 July 2021.

In Spain, work is already underway in this process. In this sense, a public consultation has been launched to find out the opinion of citizens and organizations affected by the future regulation on different aspects:

• The problems that the initiative is intended to solve.
• The need and opportunity for its approval.
• The objectives of the regulation.
• The possible alternative regulatory and non-regulatory solutions.

The full text of the consultation is published on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. Those citizens who wish to do so have until 31 July to make their comments.

The aim of this action is to promote public participation in the process of drafting Spanish legislation, a step prior to the preparation of the draft law

Earlier this year the World Bank announced that its next annual World Development Report would focus on the role of data in development. Each annual report of the World Bank has always been an important milestone in the world of development, but the next report, scheduled for next year, will be even more special because it is the first one focus on the world of data.

We already know that the main theme guiding the development of the report will be "Data for Better Lives", and it will be based on the premise that, while recent years have shown that high-quality data are indispensable tools for effective public policy formulation, the availability of the data needed for proper decision-making is still too low today. As a consequence, a large part of the value of data remains untapped.

Thus, the final objective of the report is to understand the barriers to the proper exploitation of data in the developing world and to explore two possible avenues that together would lead to the solution needed to unlock the full potential of these data:

• On the one hand, addressing data governance considerations and making the necessary changes in the way data is collected, managed, analysed and used in the current global environment.
•     On the other hand, by considering how combining public and private data could lead to better results, with public data offering better coverage of populations of interest and private data with greater frequency, timeliness and granularity.

To this end, the World Bank team has been working on an initial draft as a proof of concept, explaining their vision of how data could have a positive impact on development, while introducing us to the other issues to be addressed by the report, including: "the use of data in public policy, data in the private sphere, synergies triggered by data, and the various challenges in terms of infrastructure, regulatory systems, economic policies and data management systems that we will have to face in the process".

In addition, the World Bank has prepared a round of consultations that will run until the end of this month and which aim to deeply understand the scope of the challenges outlined by answering a number of questions:

How can data contribute to development? 

It seeks to understand how data can contribute to improving people's lives in the context of global development, as well as the role of governments and data markets in making more effective use of data. It will also discuss how data can be used to understand the impact of public policies and improve services while mitigating potential risks associated with their intensive use, and how data must be managed to make this possible.

What are the current gaps in national data systems? 

To explore what types of resources and investments will be needed, both financially and humanly, to realize the long-term vision of a large data system that can unify data management. This system will be managed by a fully resourced government agency. In this aspect, it is also fundamental to understand what barriers managers and users face through the different layers of the infrastructure.

What are the legal and regulatory challenges? 

The objective is to establish the legal basis and the necessary actors to establish and regulate reliable data flows, maximizing their benefits while minimizing the possible associated risks. Here the key will probably lie in finding the right balance between sometimes conflicting concepts such as openness, transparency, right to information, interoperability, accountability, privacy and security.

What are the economic policy challenges? 

The report will analyse what is the real impact on less developed countries of an economy that is increasingly driven by data, resulting in a large market concentration in a rather limited number of companies that in turn have the largest capitalization values in the world today. Enabling appropriate policies to ensure competitive markets, adequate trade rules and a fair taxation scheme will be crucial for those countries that are currently disadvantaged by large private players.

This initial round of consultations will remain open until the end of the month and during this time anyone can provide comments on the general concept of the report through this form. The authors of the report are also particularly interested in good practices and examples of how the data has helped improve the lives of those most in need to date, and encourage anyone who want to share a case directly through WDR2021@worldbank.org. 

The next stages in the development of the report will also be announced through the website they have prepared to coordinate all work until the final version is made public early next year.