Sector público

The 2024 Best Cases Awards of the Public Sector Tech Watch observatory now have finalists. These awards seek to highlight solutions that use emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence or blockchain, in public administrations, through two categories:

• Solutions to improve the public services offered to citizens (Government-to-Citizen or G2C).
• Solutions to improve the internal processes of the administrations themselves (Government-to-Government or G2G).

The awards are intended to create a mechanism for sharing the best experiences on the use of emerging technologies in the public sector and thus give visibility to the most innovative administrations in Europe.

Almost 60% of the finalist solutions are Spanish.

In total, 32 proposals have been received, 14 of which have been pre-selected in a preliminary evaluation. Of these, more than half are solutions from Spanish organisations. Specifically, nine finalists have been shortlisted for the G2G category -five of them Spanish- and five for G2C -three of them linked to our country-.The following is a summary of what these Spanish solutions consist of.

Solutions to improve the internal processes of the administrations themselves.

• Innovation in local government: digital transformation and GeoAI for data management (Alicante Provincial Council).

Suma Gestión Tributaria, of the Diputación de Alicante, is the agency in charge of managing and collecting the municipal taxes of the city councils of its province. To optimise this task, they have developed a solution that combines geographic information systems and artificial intelligence (machine learning and deep learning) to improve training in detection of properties that do not pay taxes. This solution collects data from multiple administrations and entities in order to avoid delays in the collection of municipalities.

• Regional inspector of public infrastructures: monitoring of construction sites (Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Interbiak).

The autonomous road inspector and autonomous urban inspector help public administrations to automatically monitor roads. These solutions, which can be installed in any vehicle, use artificial or computer vision techniques along with information from sensors to automatically check the condition of traffic signs, road markings, protective barriers, etc. They also perform early forecasting of pavement degradation, monitor construction sites and generate alerts for hazards such as possible landslides.

• Application of drones for the transport of biological samples (Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technologies -CTTI-, Generalitat de Catalunya).

This pilot project implements and evaluates a health transport route in the Girona health region. Its aim is to transport biological samples (blood and urine) between a primary health centre and a hospital using drones. As a result, the journey time has been reduced from 20 minutes with ground transport to seven minutes with the use of drones. This has improved the quality of the samples transported, increased flexibility in scheduling transport times and reduced environmental impact.

• Robotic automation of processes in the administration of justice (Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts).

Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts has implemented a solution for the robotisation of administrative processes in order to streamline routine, repetitive and low-risk work. To date, more than 25 process automation lines have been implemented, including the automatic cancellation of criminal records, nationality applications, automatic issuance of life insurance certificates, etc. As a result, it is estimated that more than 500,000 working hourshave been saved.

• Artificial intelligence in the processing of official publications (Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona and Official Documentation and Publications Service, Barcelona Provincial Council).

CIDO (Official Information and Documentation Search Engine) has implemented an AI system that automatically generates summaries of official publications of the public administrations of Barcelona. Using supervised machine learning and neural networkstechniques, the system generates summaries of up to 100 words for publications in Catalan or Spanish. The tool allows the recording of manual modifications to improve accuracy.

Solutions to improve the public services offered to citizens

• Virtual Desk of Digital Immediacy: bringing Justice closer to citizens through digitalisation (Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts).

The Virtual Digital Immediacy Desktop (EVID) allows remote hearings with full guarantees of legal certainty using blockchain technologies. The solution integrates the convening of the hearing, the provision of documentation, the identification of the participants, the acceptance of consents, the generation of the document justifying the action carried out, the signing of the document and the recording of the session. In this way, legal acts can be carried out from anywhere, without the need to travel and in a simple way, making justice more inclusive, accessible and environmentally friendly. By the end of June 2024, more than 370,000 virtual sessions had been held through EVID.

• Application of Generative AI to make it easier for citizens to understand legal texts (Entitat Autònoma del Diari Oficial i Publicacions -EADOP-, Generalitat de Catalunya).

Legal language is often a barrier that prevents citizens from easily understanding legal texts. To remove this obstacle, the Government is making available to users of the Legal Portal of Catalonia and to the general public the summaries of Catalan law in simple language obtained from generative artificial intelligence. The aim is to have summaries of the more than 14,000 14,000 existing regulatory provisions adapted to clear communication available by the end of the year. The abstracts will be published in Catalan and Spanish, with the prospect of also offering a version in Aranesein the future.

• Emi - Intelligent Employment (Consellería de Emprego, Comercio e Emigración de la Xunta de Galicia).

Emi, Intelligent Employment is an artificial intelligence and big data tool that helps the offices of the Public Employment Service of Galicia to orient unemployed people towards the skills required by the labour market, according to their abilities. AI models make six-month projections of contracts for a particular occupation for a chosen geographical area. In addition, they allow estimating the probability of finding employment for individuals in the coming months.

You can see all the solutions presented here. The winners will be announced at the final event on 28 November. The ceremony takes place in Brussels, but can also be followed online. To do so, you need to register here.

Public Sector Tech Watch: an observatory to inspire new projects

Public Sector Tech Watch (PSTW), managed by the European Commission, is positioned as a "one-stop shop" for all those interested - public sector, policy makers, private companies, academia, etc. - in the latest technological developments to improve public sector performance and service delivery. For this purpose, it has several sections where the following information of interest is displayed:

• Cases: contains examples of how innovative technologies and their associated data are used by public sector organisations in Europe.
• Stories: presents testimonials to show the challenges faced by European administrations in implementing technological solutions.

If you know of a case of interest that is not currently monitored by PSTW, you can register it here. Successful cases are reviewed and evaluated before being included in the database.

In this episode we will delve into the importance of three related categories of high-value datasets. These are Earth observation and environmental data, geospatial data and mobility data. To tell us about them, we have interviewed two experts in the field:

• Paloma Abad Power, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG).
• Rafael Martínez Cebolla, geographer of the Government of Aragón.

With them we have explored how these high-value datasets are transforming our environment, contributing to sustainable development and technological innovation.

Listen to the full podcast (only available in Spanish)

Summary of the interview

1. What are high-value datasets and why are their important?

Paloma Abad Power: According to the regulation, high-value datasets are those that ensure highest socio-economic potential and, for this, they must be easy to find, i.e. they must be accessible, interoperable and usable. And what does this mean? That means that the datasets must have their descriptions, i.e. the online metadata, which report the statistics and their properties, and which can be easily downloaded or used.

In many cases, these data are often reference data, i.e. data that serve to generate other types of data, such as thematic data, or can generate added value.

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: They could be defined as those datasets that represent phenomena that are useful for decision making, for any public policy or for any action that a natural or legal person may undertake.

In this sense, there are already some directives, which are not so recent, such as the Water Framework Directive or the INSPIRE Directive, which motivated this need to provide shared data under standards that drive the sustainable development of our society.

2. These high-value data are defined by a European Directive and an Implementing Regulation which dictated six categories of high-value datasets. On this occasion we will focus on three of them: Earth observation and environmental data, geospatial data and mobility data. What do these three categories of data have in common and what specific datasets do they cover?

Paloma Abad Power: In my opinion, these data have in common the geographical component, i.e. they are data located on the ground and therefore serve to solve problems of different nature and linked to society.

Thus, for example, we have, with national coverage, the National Aerial Orthophotography Plan (PNOA), which are the aerial images, the System of Land Occupation Information (SIOSE), cadastral parcels, boundary lines, geographical names, roads, postal addresses, protected sites - which can be both environmental and also castles, i.e. historical heritage- etc. And these categories cover almost all the themes defined by the annexes of the INSPIRE directive.

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: It is necessary to know what is pure geographic information, with a direct geographic reference, as opposed to other types of phenomena that have indirect geographic references. In today's world, 90% of information can be located, either directly or indirectly. Today more than ever, geographic tagging is mandatory for any corporation that wants to implement a certain activity, be it social, cultural, environmental or economic: the implementation of renewable energies, where I am going to eat today, etc. These high-value datasets enhance these geographical references, especially of an indirect nature, which help us to make a decision.

3. Which agencies publish these high-value datasets? In other words, where could a user locate datasets in these categories?

Paloma Abad Power: It is necessary to highlight the role of the National Cartographic System, which is an action model in which the organisations of the NSA (National State Administration) and the autonomous communities participate. It is coordinating the co-production of many unique products, funded by these organisations.

These products are published through interoperable web services. They are published, in this case, by the National Center for Geographic Information (CNIG), which is also responsible for much of the metadata for these products.

They could be located through the Catalogues of the IDEE (Spatial Data Infrastructure of Spain) or the Official Catalogue of INSPIRE Data and Services, which is also included in datos.gob.es and the European Data Portal.

And who can publish? All bodies that have a legal mandate for a product classified under the Regulation. Examples: all the mapping bodies of the Autonomous Communities, the General Directorate of Cadastre, Historical Heritage, the National Statistics Institute, the Geological and Mining Institute (IGME), the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, etc. There are a multitude of organisations and many of them, as I have mentioned, participate in the National Cartographic System, provide the data and generate a single service for the citizen.

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: The National Cartographic System defines very well the degree of competences assumed by the administrations. In other words, the public administration at all levels provides official data, assisted by private enterprise, sometimes through public procurement.

The General State Administration goes up to scales of 1:25,000 in the case of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) and then the distribution of competencies for the rest of the scales is for the autonomous or local administrations. In addition, there are a number of actors, such as hydrographic confederations, state departments or the Cadastre, which have under their competences the legal obligation to generate these datasets.

For me it is an example of how it should be distributed, although it is true that it is then necessary to coordinate very well, through collegiate bodies, so that the cartographic production is well integrated.

Paloma Abad Power: There are also collaborative projects, such as, for example, a citizen map, technically known as an X, Y, Z map, which consists of capturing the mapping of all organisations at national and local level. That is, from small scales 1:1,000,000 or 1:50,000,000 to very large scales, such as 1:1000, to provide the citizen with a single multi-scale map that can be served through interoperable and standardised web services.

4. Do you have any other examples of direct application of this type of data?

Rafael Martínez Cebolla:  A clear example was seen with the pandemic, with the mobility data published by the National Institute of Statistics. These were very useful data for the administration, for decision making, and from which we have to learn much more for the management of future pandemics and crises, including economic crises. We need to learn and develop our early warning systems.

I believe that this is the line of work: data that is useful for the general public. That is why I say that mobility has been a clear example, because it was the citizen himself who was informing the administration about how he was moving.

Paloma Abad Power: I am going to contribute some data. For example, according to statistics from the National Cartographic System services, the most demanded data are aerial images and digital terrain models. In 2022 there were 8 million requests and in 2023 there were 19 million requests for orthoimages alone.

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: I would like to add that this increase is also because things are being done well. On the one hand, discovery systems are improved. My general feeling is that there are many successful example projects, both from the administration itself and from companies that need this basic information to generate their products.

There was an application that was generated very quickly with de-escalation - you went to a website and it told you how far you could walk through your municipality - because people wanted to get out and walk. This example arises from spatial data that have moved out of the public administration. I believe that this is the importance of successful examples, which come from people who see a compelling need.

5. And how do you incentivise such re-use?

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: I have countless examples. Incentivisation also involves promotion and marketing, something that has sometimes failed us in the public administration. You stick to certain competences and it seems that just putting it on a website is enough. And that is not all.

We are incentivising re-use in two ways. On the one hand, internally, within the administration itself, teaching them that geographic information is useful for planning and evaluating public policies. And I give you the example of the Public Health Atlas of the Government of Aragon, awarded by an Iberian society of epidemiology the year before the pandemic. It was useful for them to know what the health of the Aragonese was like and what preventive measures they had to take.

As for the external incentives, in the case of the Geographic Institute of Aragon, it was seen that the profile entering the geoportal was very technical. The formats used were also very technical, which meant that the general public was not reached. To solve this problem, we promoted portals such as the IDE didactica, a portal for teaching geography, which reaches any citizen who wants to learn about the territory of Aragon.

Paloma Abad Power: I would like to highlight the economic benefit of this, as was shown, for example, in the economic study carried out by the National Centre for Graphic Information with the University of Leuven to measure the economic benefit of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Spain. It measure the benefit of private companies using free and open services, rather than using, for example, Google Maps or other non-open sources..

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: For better and for worse, because the quality of the official data sometimes we wish it were better. Both Paloma in the General State Administration and I in the regional administration sometimes know that there are official data where more money needs to be invested so that the quality of the data would be better and could be reusable.

But it is true that these studies are key to know in which dimension high-value datasets move. That is to say, having studies that report on the real benefit of having a spatial data infrastructure at state or regional level is, for me, key for two things: for the citizen to understand its importance and, above all, for the politician who arrives every N years to understand the evolution of these platforms and the revolution in geospatial information that we have experienced in the last 20 years.

6. The Geographic Institute of Aragon has also produced a report on the advantages of reusing this type of data, is that right? 

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: Yes, it was published earlier this year. We have been doing this report internally for three or four years, because we knew we were going to make the leap to a spatial knowledge infrastructure and we wanted to see the impact of implementing a knowledge graph within the data infrastructure. The Geographic Institute of Aragon has made an effort in recent years to analyse the economic benefit of having this infrastructure available for the citizens themselves, not for the administration. In other words, how much money Aragonese citizens save in their taxes by having this infrastructure. Today we know that having a geographic information platform saves approximately 2 million euros a year for the citizens of Aragon.

I would like to see the report for the next January or February, because I think the leap will be significant. The knowledge graph was implemented in April last year and this gap will be felt in the year ahead. We have noticed a significant increase in requests, both for viewing and downloading.

Basically from one year to the next, we have almost doubled both the number of accesses and downloads. This affects the technological component: you have to redesign it. More people are discovering you, more people are accessing your data and, therefore, you have to dedicate more investment to the technological component, because it is being the bottleneck.

7. What do you see as the challenges to be faced in the coming years?

Paloma Abad Power: In my opinion, the first challenge is to get to know the user in order to provide a better service. The technical user, the university students, the users on the street, etc. We are thinking of doing a survey when the user is going to use our geographic information. But of course, such surveys sometimes slow down the use of geographic information. That is the great challenge: to know the user in order to make services more user-friendly, applications, etc. and to know how to get to what they want and give it to them better.

There is also another technical challenge. When the spatial infrastructures began, the technical level was very high, you had to know what a visualisation service was, the metadata, know the parameters, etc. This has to be eliminated, the user can simply say I want, for example, to consult and visualise the length of the Ebro river, in a more user-friendly way. Or for example the word LiDAR, which was the Italian digital model with high accuracy. All these terms need to be made much more user-friendly.

Rafael Martínez Cebolla: Above all, let them be discovered. My perception is that we must continue to promote the discovery of spatial data without having to explain to the untrained user, or even to some technicians, that we must have a data, a metadata, a service..... No, no. Basically it is that generalist search engines know how to find high-value datasets without knowing that there is such a thing as spatial data infrastructure.

It is a matter of publishing the data under friendly standards, under accessible versions and, above all, publishing them in permanent URIs, which are not going to change. In other words, the data will improve in quality, but will never change.

And above all, from a technical point of view, both spatial data infrastructures and geoportals and knowledge infrastructures have to ensure that high-value information nodes are related to each other from a semantic and geographical point of view. I understand that knowledge networks will help in this regard. In other words, mobility has to be related to the observation of the territory, to public health data or to statistical data, which also have a geographical component. This geographical semantic relationship is key for me.

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Interview clips

The Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration has launched a grant for the development of Data Spaces for Intelligent Urban Infrastructures (EDINT). This project envisages the creation of a multi-sectoral data space that will bring together all the information collected by local authorities. The project will be carried out through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and will receive a subsidy of 13 million euros, as stated in the Official State Gazette published on Wednesday 16 October.

A single point of access to smart urban infrastructure data

Thanks to this action, it will be possible to finance, develop and manage a multisectoral data space that will bring together all the information collected by the different Spanish municipalities in an aggregated and centralized manner. It should be recalled that data spaces enable the voluntary sharing of information in an environment of sovereignty, trust and security, established through integrated governance, organisational, regulatory and technical mechanisms.

EDINT will act as a single neutral point of access to smart city information, enabling companies, researchers and administrations to access information without the need to visit the data infrastructure of each municipality, increasing agility and reducing costs. In addition, it will allow connection with other sectoral data spaces.

The sharing of this data will help to accelerate technological innovation processes in smart city products and services. Businesses and organisations will also be able to use the data for the improvement of processes and efficiency of their activities.

The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) will implement the project.

The EDINT project will be articulated through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.The FEMP reaches more than 95% of the Spanish population, which gives it a deep and close knowledge of the needs and challenges of data management in Spanish municipalities and provinces.

Among the actions to be carried out are:

• Development and implementation of the data infrastructure and platform, which will store data from existing Smart City systems.
• Incorporation of local entities and companies interested in accessing the data space.
• Development of three use cases on the data space, focusing on the following areas: "smart mobility", "managed cities and territories" and "mapping the economic and social activity of cities and territories".
• Definition of the governance schemes that will regulate the operation of the project, guaranteeing the interoperability of the data, as well as the management of the complex network of stakeholders (companies, academic institutions and governmental organisations).
• Setting up Centres of Excellence and Data Offices, with physical workspaces. These centres will be responsible for the collection of lessons learned and the development of new use cases.

It is a ongoing and sustainable long-term project that will be open to the participation of new actors, be they data providers or data consumers, at any time.

A project aligned with Europe

This assistance is part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union-Next Generation EU. The creation of data spaces is envisaged in the European Data Strategy, as a mechanism to establish a common data market to ensure the European Union's leadership in the global data economy. In particular, it aims to achieve the free flow of information for the benefit of businesses, researchers and public administrations.

Moreover, data spaces are a key area of the Digital Spain 2026 Agenda, which is driving, among other issues, the acceleration of the digitalisation processes of the productive fabric. To this end, sectoral and data-intensive digitalisation projects are being developed, especially in strategic economic sectors for the country, such as agri-food, mobility, health, tourism, industry, commerce and energy.

The launch of the EDINT project joins other previously launched initiatives such as funding and development grants for use cases and data space demonstrators, which encourage the promotion of public-private sectoral innovation ecosystems.

Sharing data under conditions of sovereignty, control and security not only allows local governments to improve efficiency and decision-making, but also drives the creation of creative solutions to various urban challenges, such as optimising traffic or improving public services. In this sense, actions such as the Data Spaces for Smart Urban Infrastructures represent a step forward in achieving smarter, more sustainable and efficient cities for all citizens.

A digital twin is a virtual, interactive representation of a real-world object, system or process. We are talking, for example, about a digital replica of a factory, a city or even a human body. These virtual models allow simulating, analysing and predicting the behaviour of the original element, which is key for optimisation and maintenance in real time.

Due to their functionalities, digital twins are being used in various sectors such as health, transport or agriculture. In this article, we review the benefits of their use and show two examples related to open data.

Advantages of digital twins

Digital twins use real data sources from the environment, obtained through sensors and open platforms, among others. As a result, the digital twins are updated in real time to reflect reality, which brings a number of advantages:

• Increased performance: one of the main differences with traditional simulations is that digital twins use real-time data for modelling, allowing better decisions to be made to optimise equipment and system performance according to the needs of the moment.
• Improved planning: using technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the digital twin can analyse performance issues or perform virtual "what-if" simulations. In this way, failures and problems can be predicted before they occur, enabling proactive maintenance.
• Cost reduction: improved data management thanks to a digital twin generates benefits equivalent to 25% of total infrastructure expenditure. In addition, by avoiding costly failures and optimizing processes, operating costs can be significantly reduced. They also enable remote monitoring and control of systems from anywhere, improving efficiency by centralizing operations.
• Customization and flexibility: by creating detailed virtual models of products or processes, organizations can quickly adapt their operations to meet changing environmental demands and individual customer/citizen preferences. For example, in manufacturing, digital twins enable customized mass production, adjusting production lines in real time to create unique products according to customer specifications. On the other hand, in healthcare, digital twins can model the human body to customize medical treatments, thereby improving efficacy and reducing side effects.
• Boosting experimentation and innovation: digital twins provide a safe and controlled environment for testing new ideas and solutions, without the risks and costs associated with physical experiments. Among other issues, they allow experimentation with large objects or projects that, due to their size, do not usually lend themselves to real-life experimentation.
• Improved sustainability: by enabling simulation and detailed analysis of processes and systems, organizations can identify areas of inefficiency and waste, thus optimizing the use of resources. For example, digital twins can model energy consumption and production in real time, enabling precise adjustments that reduce consumption and carbon emissions.

Examples of digital twins in Spain

The following three examples illustrate these advantages.

GeDIA project: artificial intelligence to predict changes in territories

GeDIA is a tool for strategic planning of smart cities, which allows scenario simulations. It uses artificial intelligence models based on existing data sources and tools in the territory.

The scope of the tool is very broad, but its creators highlight two use cases:

1. Future infrastructure needs: the platform performs detailed analyses considering trends, thanks to artificial intelligence models. In this way, growth projections can be made and the needs for infrastructures and services, such as energy and water, can be planned in specific areas of a territory, guaranteeing their availability.
2. Growth and tourism: GeDIA is also used to study and analyse urban and tourism growth in specific areas. The tool identifies patterns of gentrification and assesses their impact on the local population, using census data. In this way, demographic changes and their impact, such as housing needs, can be better understood and decisions can be made to facilitate equitable and sustainable growth.

This initiative has the participation of various companies and the University of Malaga (UMA), as well as the financial backing of Red.es and the European Union.

Digital twin of the Mar Menor: data to protect the environment

The Mar Menor, the salt lagoon of the Region of Murcia, has suffered serious ecological problems in recent years, influenced by agricultural pressure, tourism and urbanisation.

To better understand the causes and assess possible solutions, TRAGSATEC, a state-owned environmental protection agency, developed a digital twin. It mapped a surrounding area of more than 1,600 square kilometres, known as the Campo de Cartagena Region. In total, 51,000 nadir images, 200,000 oblique images and more than four terabytes of LiDAR data were obtained.

Thanks to this digital twin, TRAGSATEC has been able to simulate various flooding scenarios and the impact of installing containment elements or obstacles, such as a wall, to redirect the flow of water. They have also been able to study the distance between the soil and the groundwater, to determine the impact of fertiliser seepage, among other issues.

Challenges and the way forward

These are just two examples, but they highlight the potential of an increasingly popular technology. However, for its implementation to be even greater, some challenges need to be addressed, such as initial costs, both in technology and training, or security, by increasing the attack surface. Another challenge is the interoperability problems that arise when different public administrations establish digital twins and local data spaces. To address this issue further, the European Commission has published a guide that helps to identify the main organisational and cultural challenges to interoperability, offering good practices to overcome them.

In short, digital twins offer numerous advantages, such as improved performance or cost reduction. These benefits are driving their adoption in various industries and it is likely that, as current challenges are overcome, digital twins will become an essential tool for optimising processes and improving operational efficiency in an increasingly digitised world.

The strong commitment to common data spaces at European level is one of the main axes of the European Data Strategy adopted in 2020. This approach was already announced in that document as a basis, on the one hand, to support public policy momentum and, on the other hand, to facilitate the development of innovative products and services based on data intelligence and machine learning.

However, the availability of large sectoral datasets required, as an unavoidable prerequisite, an appropriate cross-cutting regulatory framework to establish the conditions for feasibility and security from a legal perspective. In this regard, once the reform of the regulation on the re-use of public sector information had been consolidated, with major innovations such as high-value data, the regulation on data governance was approved in 2022 and then, in 2023, the so-called Data Act. With these initiatives already approved and the recent official publication of the Artificial Intelligence Regulation, the promotion of data spaces is of particular importance, especially in the public sector, in order to ensure the availability of sufficient and quality data.

Data spaces: diversity in their configuration and regulation

The European Data Strategy already envisaged the creation of common European data spaces in a number of sectors and areas of public interest, but at the same time did not rule out the launching of new ones. In fact, in recent years, new spaces have been announced, so that the current number has increased significantly, as we shall see below.

The main reason for data spaces is to facilitate the sharing and exchange of reliable and secure data in strategic economic sectors and areas of public interest. Thus, it is not simply a matter of promoting large datasets but, above all, of supporting initiatives that offer data accessibility according to suitable governance models that, ultimately, allow the interoperability of data throughout the European Union on the basis of appropriate technological infrastructures.

Although general characterisations of data spaces can be offered on the basis of a number of common notes, there is a great diversity from a legal perspective in terms of the purposes they pursue, the conditions under which data are shared and, in particular, the subjects involved.

This heterogeneity is also present in spaces related to the public sector, i.e. those in which there is a prominent role for data generated by administrations and other public entities in the exercise of their functions, to which, therefore, the regulation on reuse and open data approved in 2019 is fully applicable.

Which are the European public sector data spaces?

In early 2024, the second version of a European Commission working document was published with the dual objective of providing an updated overview of the European policy framework for data spaces and also identifying European data space initiatives to assess their maturity and the main challenges ahead for each of them.

In particular, as far as public administrations are concerned, four data spaces are envisaged: the legal data space, the public procurement data space, the data space linked to the technical "once only" system in the context of eGovernment and, finally, the security data space for innovation. These are very diverse initiatives which, moreover, present an uneven degree of maturity, so that some have an advanced level of development and solid institutional support, while other cases are only initially sketched out and have considerable effort ahead for their design and implementation.

Let us take a closer look at each of these spaces referred to in the working paper.

1. Legal data space

It is a data space linked to legislation and jurisprudence generated by both the European Union and the Member States. The aim of this initiative is to support the legal professions, public administrations and, in general, to facilitate access to society in order to strengthen the mechanisms of the rule of law. This space has so far been based on two specific initiatives:

• One concerning information on officially published legislation, which has been articulated through the European Legislation Identifier-ELI. It is a European standard that facilitates the identification of rules in a stable and easily reusable way as it describes legislation with a set of automatically processable metadata, according to a recommended ontology.
• The second concerns decisions taken by judicial bodies, which are made accessible through an European system of unique identifiers called ECLI (European Case Law Identifier) that is assigned to the decisions of both European and national judicial bodies.

These two important initiatives, which facilitate access to and automated processing of legal information, have required a shift from a document-based management model (official gazette, court decisions) to a data-based model. And it is precisely this paradigm shift that has made it possible to offer advanced information services that go beyond the legal and linguistic limits posed by regulatory and linguistic diversity across the European Union.

In any case, while recognising the important progress they represent, there are still important challenges to be faced, such as facilitating access by specific precepts and not by normative documents or, among others, the availability of judicial documents on the basis of the rules they apply and, also, the linking of the rules with their judicial interpretation by the various judicial bodies in all States. In the case of the latter two scenarios, the challenge is even greater, as they would require the automated linking of both identifiers.

2. Public procurement data space

This is undoubtedly one of the areas with the greatest potential impact, given that in the European Union as a whole, it is estimated that public entities spend around two trillion euros (almost 14% of GDP) on the purchase of services, works and supplies. This space is therefore intended not only to facilitate access to the public procurement market across the European Union but also to strengthen transparency and accountability in public procurement spending, which is essential in the fight against corruption and in improving efficiency.

The practical relevance of this space is reinforced by the fact that it has a specific official document that strongly supports the project and sets out a precise roadmap with the objective of ensuring its deployment within a reasonable timeframe. Moreover, despite limitations in its scope of application (there is no provision for extending the publication obligation to contracts below the thresholds set at European level, nor for contract completion notices), it is at a very advanced stage, in particular as regards the availability of a specific ontology which facilitates the accessibility of information and its re-use by reinforcing the conditions for interoperability.

In short, this space is facilitating the automated processing of public procurement data by interconnecting existing datasets, thus providing a more complete picture of public procurement in the European Union as a whole, even though it has been estimated that there are more than 250,000 contracting authorities awarding public contracts.

3. Single Technical System (e-Government)

This new space is intended to support the need that exists in administrative procedures to collect information issued by the administrations of other States, without the interested parties being required to do so directly. It is therefore a matter of automatically and securely gathering the required evidence in a formalised environment based on the direct interconnection between the various public bodies, which will thus act as authentic sources of the required information.

This initiative is linked to the objective of addressing administrative simplification and, in particular, to the implementation of:

• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1463 of 5 August 2022 laying down the technical and operational specifications of the technical system for the automated cross-border exchange of evidence and the implementation of the "only once" principle.
• Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 laying down measures to ensure a high level of public sector interoperability throughout the Union (the Interoperable Europe Regulation), which aims to establish a robust governance structure for interoperability in the public sector.

4. Security data space for innovation

The objective here is to improve law enforcement authorities' access to the data needed to train and validate algorithms with the aim of enhancing the use of artificial intelligence and thus strengthening law enforcement in full respect of ethical and legal standards.

While there is a clear need to facilitate the exchange of data between Member States' law enforcement authorities, the working paper emphasises that this is not a priority for AI strategies in this area, and that the advanced use of data in this area from an innovation perspective is currently relatively low.

In this respect, it is appropriate to highlight the initiative for the development of the Europol sandbox, a project that was sponsored by the decision of the Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) to create an isolated space that allows States to develop, train and validate artificial intelligence and machine learning models.

Now that the process of digitisation of public entities is largely consolidated, the main challenge for data spaces in this area is to provide adequate technical, legal and organisational conditions to facilitate data availability and interoperability. In this sense, these data spaces should be taken into account when expanding the list of high-value data, along the lines already advanced by the study published by the European Commission in 2023, which emphasises that the data ets with the greatest potential are those related to government and public administration, justice and legal matters, as well as financial data.

Content prepared by Julián Valero, Professor at the University of Murcia and Coordinator of the "Innovation, Law and Technology" Research Group (iDerTec). The contents and points of view reflected in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author.

Local public bodies, such as county councils and municipalities, play a crucial role in opening their data to the public. Making data available to citizens not only builds trust in institutions, but also drives innovation, facilitates citizen participation and promotes informed decision-making. Through open data, these entities can contribute to a more efficient, collaborative and accountable management that is more responsive to the needs of society.

To find out about their activities and the most popular datasets, a survey was carried out last May in which more than 65 representatives of local authorities took part. Some of the conclusions drawn are summarised below.

Strategies to boost open data

Some municipalities have designed specific open data strategies tailored to their needs. This is the case of the city councils of Barakaldo, Pinto, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Valencia, among others. 

Other municipalities include the promotion of open data within broader strategic plans, such as Granada and its Strategic Plan for Innovation and SmartCity. In its strategic line number eight, the Granada City Council includes actions related to data governance and its data platform, focusing on the application of Open Data principles in the City Council and the public availability of municipal databases.

In addition, some city councils are going a step further, such as Alcobendas City Council, which is updating its open data strategy with a Data Governance strategy, focused on three axes (people, processes and technology), with which they seek to promote the data culture. Vitoria Gasteiz, for its part, is working on the constitution of a data office and the necessary infrastructure to support it, which will allow them to design a more general data strategy.

This is a path where the Provincial Councils have a lot to say, helping local councils to make progress in making data of interest available to citizens. One example is the Cordoba Provincial Council, which has launched a Public Sector Information Re-use Plan to promote the opening of data in a homogeneous way through its provincial smart platform and automated uploading.  The provincial councils also promote open data through training, giving courses to public employees in the province. This has been done by the Salamanca and Cáceres Provincial Councils.

Provincial Council

Publishing open data is not enough if it is not updated in a continuous and timely manner. As a result, all respondents agree that updating their datasets is one of the most time and resource consuming tasks. Keeping open data up to date allows citizens, businesses and other stakeholders to access relevant and timely information, facilitating planning, research and the development of new solutions in a changing environment.

To this end, many respondents confirm that they carry out regular audits as well as inventories of databases - as, for example, the municipality of Quart de Poblet. These inventories are also being carried out in order to identify high-value data. This is the case of Valencia City Council, which is cataloguing current data and classifying them according to whether or not they belong to the so-called high-value categories.

In order to ensure that the data provided are up to date, many organisations are also promoting automation processes, such as the Diputación de Salamanca. By implementing automated systems, public bodies can ensure that data are continuously updated, reducing human error and optimising resources. In addition, it ensures that the information is the same on all of the organisation's portals.

In addition to continuous updating and improvement audits, the use of geospatial data enables local authorities to better understand their environment and make informed decisions. Publishing this type of data makes it possible to visualise the distribution of services, infrastructures, resources and problems in a territory, facilitating urban planning, environmental management and mobility, among other key aspects. In this sense, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) continue to be developed at local level, such as the SDI of the Provincial Council of Guipuzcoa, or Geoportals such as that of the Provincial Council of Cordoba.

Another priority, indicated by Sant Feliu Town Council, is the incorporation of the gender perspective in data publications, whenever and wherever possible, with a double objective: to adequately highlight the differences and inequalities in the situation of women and, above all, to help define corrective public policies.

On the other hand, among the challenges, agencies highlight the technical difficulties in standardising and normalising data at the corporate level, often because information is isolated in silos. For this reason, they see the need to establish coordination mechanisms between areas and structures of data governance.

In addition, the organisations surveyed consider it necessary, in the first place, to promote the data culture within the organisation, by increasing human and technical resources and training.

Most popular datasets

The ultimate goal of open data portals is the re-use of data. In this sense, some of the mechanisms used by local authorities to monitor the use of their data are:

• View statistics on the most downloaded datasets. In this sense, the creation of interactive dashboards is being promoted, such as this one with access to all the datasets of the portals of local councils that use the AOC (Administració Oberta de Catalunya) consortium solution.
• Consultation of feedback and implementation of a rating system.
• Use of software observability platforms , based on artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, to monitor, analyse and optimise the user experience.
• Implementation of tools that generate popularity indexes.
• Creation of forms so that re-users can report on the products and services they develop using the portal's data, such as this example from the Cabildo de Tenerife.

Of all the datasets, the categories highlighted by the local authorities participating in the survey are the following:

Access the accessible version here

In short, local bodies' open data initiatives represent an invaluable opportunity to strengthen open data. Challenges remain, but the commitment to open data is a reality.

Data has great power to transform society. Its capacity to generate knowledge, drive innovation and empower citizens is undeniable. In particular, open government data is a resource with which to address major environmental, social and economic challenges from an innovative perspective.

In this sense, public administrations, including the autonomous communities, are organising competitions to promote the data culture. To tell us about these initiatives we have interviewed:

• Sonia Gómez Martín, Head of the Transparency and Information Re-use Service of the Government of Castilla y León.
• Imanol Argüeso Epelde, Head of Projects at the Basque Government's Directorate for Citizen Services and Digital Services.

Listen to the podcast (only available in Spanish)

Summary of the interview

1. To begin with, you can briefly present your data initiatives. What kind of data and contents can we find in the Open Data Euskadi platform? And on the Junta de Castilla y León's Open Data platform?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: In OpenData Euskadi, the Basque Government's open data initiative, there is a catalogue of around 12,000 datasets from the Basque Government, the three provincial councils of the Autonomous Community of Euskadi - which are Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa and Álava - and the three capitals of these territories. By means of a federation system, all your datasets are displayed in the catalogue.

In addition, there is a community section, where we show news that we consider relevant to the world of open data. We also have a section for competitions and examples of products that have been made with our data.

Sonia Gómez Martín: All of this is similar to what can be found on the Junta de Castilla y León's open data platform. In our case, the open data catalogue only includes data from the Autonomous Community administration itself, not from the different provincial councils or provincial capitals.

In addition to the data catalogue, we have a visualisations portal, where we accommodate data with a large volume of information and where visualisations and API queries can be made. These data are thematic: there are up to 21 categories such as health, public sector, culture, leisure, rural environment and fisheries, and so on.

2. What activities are you carrying out to promote the re-use of this data?

Sonia Gómez Martín: The main activity in recent years has been the organisation and the annual Open Data Competition, through which we encourage reusers to use at least some dataset from our catalogue to create products, services and teaching resources.

There are also a number of other internal activities. For example, courses are run with our training school for internal staff of the Junta, so that they know the importance of reusing information generated within the public sector and making open data available to citizens and businesses.

In addition, there is a news section on the portal and we also receive requests for the dissemination of applications or the opening of data.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: We also give courses within the Basque Government and to other administrations. For example, this year we have given one to the Provincial Council of Alava. We also have an initiative called Aula Open Data at the University of the Basque Country, located at the School of Engineering in Bilbao. It is a business classroom designed for students to use open data, make applications, visualisations and services derived from the data, and learn about this tool for their future professional activity.

We also participate in any event, conference, talk, etc. When an event related to open data comes up, we usually participate.

3. You have already introduced us to the data contests you organise. Can you tell us a bit more about each of them?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: In the case of the Basque Country, there are two calls: one for applications and the other for ideas. The registration period for the 5th edition of the two calls is now open, and ends on 10 October.

In the case of the applications competition, any product derived from the open data of any of the catalogues of the Basque Government, provincial councils and the three capitals of the Basque Country will be awarded. It is mandatory to use some dataset from these catalogues. All that is requested is a URL with the service or product to be developed and a short document describing the project.

In the case of the call for ideas, a document explaining an idea for an open data product is needed.

We distributed around €34,000 in prizes in different categories.

It is also important to note that, although it is organised by the Basque Government as such, the three provincial councils and the three town councils of the Basque capitals collaborate: they participate in the jury, help us with promotion, etc.

Sonia Gómez Martín: In our case, it is a single call, but there are four categories. A category of ideas is also established, similar to that of the Basque Government. Another one for products and services that is also similar to the one Imanol mentioned: we are looking for an application or URL where a website is developed that uses some dataset from our catalogue. And then there are two additional categories. One for teaching resources, which seeks to encourage the creation of new and innovative open teaching resources using datasets from our portal to support classroom teaching. And another category of data journalism, which seeks to reward journalistic pieces published or updated in a relevant way in any written or audiovisual medium, where the information takes into account open datasets from our catalogue.

We give away €12,000 in prizes in total. And well, right now we have the 8th edition open until 23 September 2024.

4. What are the requirements for participation?

Sonia Gómez Martín: Entries must not have previously been awarded prizes in other competitions. In all categories it is necessary to use at least one data source from the catalogue of the Junta de Castilla y León's open data portal. And the same person can submit several nominations in different categories.

In the case of data journalism, it is sought to have been published as of the last day on which nominations could be submitted the previous year, which in this case is 3 October 2023.

In the case of the products and services category, there are awards for students, where the applicant must be a student enrolled in the 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 academic year.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: The case of the Basque Country is similar. It is requested that some dataset from the public open data catalogues we have discussed be used: from the three provincial councils, the three capitals or the Basque Government. In the case of applications, it is also necessary to develop some kind of application, visualisation or website based on this open data.

Both competitions are open to any private individual, professional or even any company.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage people. The deadline is 10 October and anyone interested still has time to submit an idea or generate a product.

5. And what has been the impact of these competitions? can you give us some examples of solutions, ideas or products that have been submitted to the competition?

Sonia Gómez Martín: There are very interesting things, especially in what the students bring to the table. In the editions in which I have been part of the jury, I have seen, for example, an application, a website, which included the entire offer of vocational training in Castilla y León. Also an analysis of energy data which I found very interesting. In addition, some institutes have submitted and won awards for initiatives based on agricultural information catalogues. They made a small analysis of the peculiarities of our territory.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: The truth is that most of the products that are generated are not still active. But there are some very interesting examples that still work today. To cite an example, the last edition presented a website called Openslot, which offers information on gaming and recreational machines in the Basque Country: manufacturers, machine models and makes predictions. It is a very sector-specific application.

Another example: last year, a Telegram group that relied on open data to provide information on which time slots are best for energy consumption was the winner and is still active. There are some products that last over time and others that are developed only for competitions.

6. What advice would you give to other public bodies wishing to launch such initiatives?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: Above all, I would stress the importance of dissemination, of promoting the competitions in training centres, in universities related to information technologies.

It has also worked for us to include a voting system so that people can vote on the nominations. And this year we have included different categories by theme, in the case of ideas. In the case of applications, it is assessed whether access to the data is via an API or the SPARQL point. What we want to do is diversify and make more people eligible for the prize.

Sonia Gómez Martín: I would like to insist on what Imanol said about promotion. It is very important to make universities aware of the competitions and to encourage them to participate. You can also publicise it on social networks, on your portal datos.gob.es, etc. Everything little by little is helping to make them known and to increase the number of participants.

7. These competitions are a window to listen to the needs of re-users, have you taken any concrete action as a result of this feedback?

Sonia Gómez Martín: We have, on the open data portal itself, a section where we receive requests from re-users on what types of open data they would like to have. We receive them and we pass them on, but it is true that internally we sometimes have problems for the data they demand to materialise. It is not always easy for the management centre on which these data depend to convert them into open or even structured data formats.

On social media we also have an account on X, @transparencia, where we also receive requests, evaluate them and study them.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: Yes, it is true. Normally, open data areas are often mere transmitters and it is sometimes difficult to materialise requests. I think that one of the great advantages of the competitions is that, internally, it is a very interesting source of information to listen to the reusers, to see what problems they have, what tools they use, what characteristics they have... and this allows us to focus our efforts.

Following this source of information, we have opened up certain datasets. The example I mentioned, Openslot, uses data that was not open and that we opened as a result of this participant. We have also developed several REST APIs based on the most demanded data: meteorological data, air quality, water quality, etc

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Interview clips

The digital revolution is transforming municipal services, driven by the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that also benefit from open data. These developments have the potential to redefine the way municipalities deliver services to their citizens, providing tools to improve efficiency, accessibility and sustainability. This report looks at success stories in the deployment of applications and platforms that seek to improve various aspects of life in municipalities, highlighting their potential to unlock more of the vast untapped potential of open data and associated artificial intelligence technologies.

The applications and platforms described in this report have a high potential for replicability in different municipal contexts, as they address common problems. Replication of these solutions can take place through collaboration between municipalities, companies and developers, as well as through the release and standardisation of open data.

Despite the benefits, the adoption of open data for municipal innovation also presents significant challenges. The quality, updating and standardisation of data published by local authorities, as well as interoperability between different platforms and systems, must be ensured. In addition, the open data culture needs to be reinforced among all actors involved, including citizens, developers, businesses and public administrations themselves.

The use cases analysed are divided into four sections. Each of these sections is described below and some examples of the solutions included in the report are shown.

Transport and Mobility

One of the most significant challenges in urban areas is transport and mobility management. Applications using open data have proven to be effective in improving these services. For example, applications such as Park4Dis make it easy to locate parking spaces for people with reduced mobility, using data from multiple municipalities and contributions from volunteers. CityMapper, which has gone global, on the other hand, offers optimised public transport routes in real time, integrating data from various transport modes to provide the most efficient route. These applications not only improve mobility, but also contribute to sustainability by reducing congestion and carbon emissions.

Environment and Sustainability

Growing awareness of sustainability has spurred the development of applications that promote environmentally friendly practices. CleanSpot, for example, facilitates the location of recycling points and the management of municipal waste. The application encourages citizen participation in cleaning and recycling, contributing to the reduction of the ecological footprint. Liight gamifies sustainable behaviour by rewarding users for actions such as recycling or using public transport. These applications not only improve environmental management, but also educate and motivate citizens to adopt more sustainable habits.

Optimisation of Basic Public Services

Urban service management platforms, such as Gestdropper, use open data to monitor and control urban infrastructure in real time. These tools enable more efficient management of resources such as street lighting, water networks and street furniture, optimising maintenance, incident response and reducing operating costs. Moreover, the deployment of appointment management systems, such as CitaME, helps to reduce waiting times and improve efficiency in customer service.

Citizen Services Aggregators

Applications that centralise public information and services, such as Badajoz Es Más and AppValencia, improve accessibility and communication between administrations and citizens. These platforms provide real-time data on public transport, cultural events, tourism and administrative procedures, making life in the municipality easier for residents and tourists alike. For example, integrating multiple services into a single application improves efficiency and reduces the need for unnecessary travel. These tools also support local economies by promoting cultural events and commercial services.

Conclusions

The use of open data and artificial intelligence technologies is transforming municipal management, improving the efficiency, accessibility and sustainability of public services. The success stories presented in this report describe how these tools can benefit both citizens and public administrations by making cities smarter, more inclusive and sustainable environments, and more responsive to the needs and well-being of their inhabitants and visitors.

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Podcast video

ELISA: The Plan in figures is a tool launched by the Spanish government to visualise updated data on the implementation of the investments of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). Through intuitive visualisations, this tool provides information on the number of companies and households that have received funding, the size of the beneficiary companies and the investments made in the different levers of action defined in the Plan.

The tool also provides details of the funds managed and executed in each Autonomous Community. In this way, the territorial distribution of the projects can be seen. In addition, the tool is accompanied by territorial sheets, which show a more qualitative detail of the impact of the Recovery Plan in each Autonomous Community.

The recent Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on harmonised rules for fair access to and use of data (Data Act) introduces important new developments in European legislation to facilitate access to data generated by connected products and related services. In addition to establishing measures to boost interoperability in data spaces, data processing services and smart contracts, the new regulation also incorporates an important novelty by regulating data sharing with public entities in exceptional situations.

A new orientation in European regulation?

The main aim of the regulation on the re-use of public sector information was to facilitate access to data generated by public sector entities in order to foster the development of value-added services based on technological innovation. In fact, as expressly stated in the 2019 Directive, the reform it carried out was largely justified by the need to update the applicable regulatory framework to the new challenges posed by digital technology and, in particular, Artificial Intelligence or the Internet of Things.

Subsequently, under the European Data Strategy, a regulation on governance was approved, data spaces have been promoted and the Data Act was published only a few months ago. The latter implies an important shift from the point of view of the subjects concerned since, unlike the previous regulations focused on the obligations of public sector entities, on the one hand, it disciplines relations between private parties and, on the other hand, it establishes an important measure aimed at private entities providing data to public bodies under certain singular conditions.

In which situations should data be provided?

First of all, it is necessary to emphasise that the Data Act is not intended to extend the cases in which private entities have to hand over data to public bodies in compliance with their supervisory and enforcement powers, such as in the case of prevention, investigation and imposition of criminal or administrative sanctions. Thus, it does not affect the obligations that private parties already have to fulfil in order that, on the basis of the data requested, public bodies may carry out their usual activities in the exercise of a public service mission such as those indicated.

On the other hand, it is a regulation intended to deal with exceptional, unforeseeable and time-limited situations that may arise:

• or to the need to obtain data to respond to a public emergency that are not available by alternative means under equivalent conditions, such as the provision of data in existing environments and platforms that have already been deployed for another purpose (e.g. provision of a service, implementation of a collaborative project...);
• or, as the case may be, the impossibility for the public body to dispose of specific data in order to fulfil a task assigned by law and performed in the public interest when all other means at its disposal have been exhausted, such as the purchase of non-personal data on the market by the public body, the consultation of a public database or their collection on the basis of previously existing obligations for private subjects.

In the latter case, i.e. when the need for the data is not justified by the requirement to respond to emergency situations, the subject of the request may not refer to personal data unless, by the very nature of the request, it is essential to be able to know at some point in time the identity of the data subject. In this case, pseudonymisation will be necessary. Consequently, given that the data would not be anonymised, the guarantees established by data protection regulations must be taken into account. Specifically:

• Data must be separated from the data subject so that the data subject cannot be identified by another unauthorised person
• Technical and organisational measures must be taken to prevent the re-identification of the data subject, except by those entitled to do so where necessary.

For which purposes may the data not be used?

Unless expressly authorised by the private entity providing the data, public bodies may not use the data for a purpose other than that for which they were made available. However, in the field of official statistics or when it is necessary to carry out scientific research or analytical activities which cannot be carried out by the public bodies requesting the data themselves, it is permitted that the data may be transferred to other bodies for the purpose of carrying out such activities. However, there are important limitations to this possibility, as such activities must be compatible with the purposes for which the data were obtained, which would prevent for example using the data to train algorithms that can then be used for the exercise of other functions or competences of the public body not related to research or analysis. Furthermore, the data may only be made available to non-profit or public interest entities such as universities and public research organisations.

Nor may the data be used to develop or improve products and services related to the entity providing the data, or shared with third parties for such purposes. This would prevent, for example, the use of the data to train Artificial Intelligence systems by the public entity or one of its contractors that would negatively affect the object of the normal business of the entity that provided the data.

Finally, the data obtained in application of this regulation cannot be made available to other subjects under the open data and public sector re-use regulation, so its application is expressly excluded.

what safeguards are provided for the data subject obliged to hand over the data?

The request for the data must be made by the public body by means of a formal request in which it is necessary to identify the data needed and to justify why it is addressed to the entity receiving the request. In addition, it will be essential to explain the exceptional reasons supporting the request and, in particular, why it is not possible to obtain the data by other means.

As a general rule, the data subject has the right to lodge a complaint against the request for the data, which must be addressed to the competent authority designated by each State to ensure the application of the Regulation and which will be included in the register to be set up by the European Commission.

Finally, in certain cases, the data subject has the right to request reasonable compensation for the costs and a reasonable margin necessary to make the data available to the public entity, although the latter may challenge the requested compensation before the authority referred to above. However, where the request for access to the data is justified by the need to respond to public emergencies or the safeguarding of a significant public interest, no compensation to data subjects is envisaged. This would be the case of an event of natural origin (earthquakes, floods, etc.) or unforeseen and serious situations affecting the normal functioning of society in essential areas such as health or public order.

In short, the obligation of private parties to provide data to public entities in these cases goes beyond the objective of promoting a single market for data at the level of the European Union, a goal that had largely underpinned the progress in data regulation in recent years. However, the seriousness of the situation generated as a result of COVID-19 has highlighted the need to establish a general regulatory framework to ensure that public entities can have the necessary data at their disposal to deal with exceptional situations in the public interest. In any case, the effectiveness of these measures can only be verified as of September 2025, when they are expected to be effectively implemented.

Content prepared by Julián Valero, Professor at the University of Murcia and Coordinator of the Research Group "Innovation, Law and Technology" (iDerTec). The contents and points of view reflected in this publication are the sole responsibility of its author.