Sector público

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.

Download here the accesible version of the report

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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.

The unstoppable advance of ICTs in cities and rural territories, and the social, economic and cultural context that sustains it, requires skills and competences that position us advantageously in new scenarios and environments of territorial innovation. In this context, the Provincial  Council of Badajoz has been able to adapt and anticipate the circumstances, and in 2018 it launched the initiative "Badajoz Es Más - Smart Provincia".

What is "Badajoz Es Más"?

The project "Badajoz Is More" is an initiative carried out by the Provincial Council of Badajoz with the aim of achieving more efficient services, improving the quality of life of its citizens and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation through technology and data governance in a region made up of 135 municipalities. The aim is to digitally transform the territory, favouring the creation of business opportunities, social improvement andsettlement of the population.

Traditionally, "Smart Cities" projects have focused their efforts on cities, renovation of historic centres, etc. However, "Badajoz Es Más" is focused on the transformation of rural areas, smart towns and their citizens, putting the focus on rural challenges such as depopulation of rural municipalities, the digital divide, talent retention or the dispersion of services. The aim is to avoid isolated "silos" and transform these challenges into opportunities by improving information management, through the exploitation of data in a productive and efficient way.

Citizens at the Centre

The "Badajoz es Más" project aims to carry out the digital transformation of the territory by making available to municipalities, companies and citizens the new technologies of IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, etc. The main lines of the project are set out below.

Provincial Platform for the Intelligent Management of Public Services

It is the core component of the initiative, as it allows for the integration of information from any IoT device, information system or data source in one place for storage, visualisation and in a single place for storage, visualisation and analysis. Specifically, data is collected from a variety of sources: the various sensors of smart solutions deployed in the region, web services and applications, citizen feedback and social networks.

All information is collected on a based on the open source standard FIWARE an initiative promoted by the European Commission that provides the capacity to homogenise data (FIWARE Data Model) and favour its interoperability. Built according to the guidelines set by AENOR (UNE 178104), it has a central module Orion Context Broker (OCB) which allows the entire information life cycleto be managed. In this way, it offers the ability to centrally monitor and manage a scalable set of public services through internal dashboards. 

The  platform is "multi-entity", i.e. it provides information, knowledge and services to both the Provincial Council itself and its associated Municipalities (also known as "Smart Villages"). The visualisation of the different information exploitation models processed at the different levels of the Platform is carried out on different dashboards, which can provide service to a specific municipality or locality only showing its data and services, or also provide a global view of all the services and data at the level of the Provincial Council of Badajoz.

Some of the information collected on the platform is also made available to third parties through various channels:

• Portal of open dopen data portal. Collected data that can be opened to third parties for reuse is shared through its open data portal. In it we can find information as diverse as real time data on the beaches with blue flags blue flag beaches in the region (air quality, water quality, noise pollution, capacity, etc. are monitored) or traffic flow, which makes it possible to predict traffic jams.
• Portal for citizens Digital Province Badajoz. This portal offers information on the solutions currently implemented in the province and their data in real time in a user-friendly way, with a simple user experience that allows non-technical people to access the projects developed.

The following graph shows the cycle of information, from its collection, through the platform and distribution to the different channels. All this under strong data governance.

Efficient public services

In addition to the implementation and start-up of the Provincial Platform for the Intelligent Management of Public Services, this project has already integrated various existing services or "verticals" for:

• To start implementing these new services in the province and to be the example and the "spearhead" of this technological transformation.

• Show the benefits of the implementation of these technologies in order to disseminate and demonstrate them, with the aim of causing sufficient impact so that other local councils and organisations will gradually join the initiative.

There are currently more than 40 companies sending data to the Provincial Platform, more than 60 integrated data sources, more than 800 connected devices, more than 500 transactions per minute... It should be noted that work is underway to ensure that the new calls for tender include a clause so that data from the various works financed with public money can also be sent to the platform.

The idea is to be able to standardise management, so that the solution that has been implemented in one municipality can also be used in another. This not only improves efficiency, but also makes it possible to compare results between municipalities. You can visualise some of the services already implemented in the Province, as well as their Dashboards built from the Provincial Platform at this video.

Innovation Ecosystem

In order for the initiative to reach its target audience, the Provincial Council of Badajoz has developed an innovation ecosystem that serves as a meeting point for the Badajoz Provincial Council:

• Citizens, who demand these services.

• Entrepreneurs and educational entities, which have an interest in these technologies.

• Companies, which have the capacity to implement these solutions.

• Public entities, which can implement this type of project.

The aim is to facilitate and provide the necessary tools, knowledge and advice so that the projects that emerge from this meeting can be carried out.

At the core of this ecosystem is a physical innovation centre called the FIWARE Space. FIWARE Space carries out tasks such as the organisation of events for the dissemination of Smart technologies and concepts among companies and citizens, demonstrative and training workshops, Hackathons with universities and study centres, etc. It also has a Showroom for the exhibition of solutions, organises financially endowed Challenges and is present at national and international congresses.

In addition, they carry out mentoring work for companies and other entities. In total, around 40 companies have been mentored by FIWARE Space, launching their own solutions on several occasions on the FIWARE Market, or proposing the generated data models as standards for the entire global ecosystem. These companies are offered a free service to acquire the necessary knowledge to work in a standardised way, generating uniform data for the rest of the region, and to connect their solutions to the platform, helping and advising them on the challenges that may arise.

One of the keys to FIWARE Space is its open nature, having signed many collaboration agreements and agreements with both local and international entities. For example, work on the standardisation of advanced data models for tourism is ongoing with the Future Cities Institute (Argentina). For those who would like more information, you can follow your centre's activity through its weekly blog.

Next steps: convergence with Data Spaces and Gaia-X

As a result of the collaborative and open nature of the project, the Data Space concept fits perfectly with the philosophy of "Badajoz is More". The Badajoz Provincial Council currently has a multitude of verticals with interesting information for sharing (and future exploitation) of data in a reliable, sovereign and secure way. As a Public Entity, comparing and obtaining other sources of data will greatly enrich the project, providing an external view that is essential for its growth. Gaia-X is the proposal for the creation of a data infrastructure for Europe, and it is the standard towards which the "Badajoz es Más" project is currently converging, as a result of its collaboration with the gaia-X Spain hub.

The Multisectoral Information Partnership (ASEDIE) has published the twelfth edition of its "Report on the Infomediary Sector", that reviews the initiatives to boost the data economy in the country. In addition, this edition commemorates the 25th anniversary of the association in the sector.

In the 12th Report on the Data Economy in the infomediary sphere, ASEDIE provides accurate figures on the sector in Spain to continue its annual work of highlighting and conveying its size and importance. The presentation of this edition took place at Madrid International Lab's auditorium on 20 March.

The main findings of the study are summarised below.

 Law 37/2007 on the re-use of public sector information makesto have their own data catalogue compulsory for public administrations which, in turn, would contribute to the national catalogue(datos.gob.es). Some regional portals, in addition to hosting datasets, offer content, organise events and sign partnerships to spread the data culture. We analyse the case of Catalonia with its open data portal and its commitment over the last few years.

Open data in Catalonia: history of the last few years

Since the creation of its first open data portal in 2010, the Generalitat de Catalunya has published almost 1,200 open datasets.

It aims to promote the openness and accessibility of the data it holds, collaborating with various sectors of society, including academia, the private sector and civil society, to maximise the value of open data and encourage its use in decision-making and the development of solutions to current societal challenges.

Along these lines, the Generalitat de Catalunya reached a government agreement on open data strategy. This milestone places the openness and reuse of public information at the heart of the relationship between citizens and the Catalan public administration. Among the objectives of this approach, the document highlights the use of collective intelligence and the creation of public policies taking into account the needs of citizens. Since then, the Government of Catalonia has been committed to promoting its open data portal and encouraging its use, always respecting the principles of data governance.

In this sense, in 2022 the Open Data area became part of the Directorate General for Digital Administration, which conceives data as a strategic asset and lever of change for digital administration, with the ultimate aim of improving the public services offered by this administration. It is at this point that the Open Data area is reinforced by the strategic role of data in the framework of this public administration: open data becomes part of the data lifecycle, as an integral and essential element. Data Governance in the Generalitat de Catalunya is carried out through the Data Governance Model, which establishes the guidelines throughout the organisation, promotes the impulse of the data culture and involves all the key agents that must participate in this transformation process.

The document also includes the commitment of the Generalitat de Catalunya to adhere to the principles of the International Open Data Charter promoted by the Open Data Charter (ODC) network, in which more than 170 governments around the world currently participate, and which aims to integrate the culture and practice of open data in governments. Taking into account what ODC states in its International Charter, the data should be:

• Open by default
• Updated
• Accessible and reusable
• Comparable and interoperable
• To improve governance and citizen participation
• For inclusive development and innovation

The Government of Catalonia's commitment to opening up public sector data and promoting reuse was also evident in 2020 when it joined the Open Government Partnership. This organisation, which is committed to transparent, participatory, inclusive and accountable governance, is a global benchmark in terms of highlighting the use of open data for the betterment of society.

The same year in which Open Data Catalunya joins ODC, they also launched the first session of Cafè amb Dades: a series of informative talks in person and online in which a topic related to open data in the Generalitat de Catalunya is addressed.

Cafè amb Dades: a space to spread information about open data

These events organised by the Catalan open data portal are a space designed to share experiences and knowledge about open data and related topics. The lectures last two hours, are held in person and virtually, and the topics addressed depend on the topicality and/or interest of the audience, who can propose their ideas through a contact mailbox. The Àrea de Dades Obertes de la Direcció General d'Administració Digital organises these events based on the following values:

• Pedagogy: to raise awareness of the Catalan Government's open data strategy and its impact in different areas.
• Dynamism: offer short presentations with content that can be understood by everyone.
• Online work: organise participatory, open sessions that invite dialogue to create community.
• Application: to encourage attendees to incorporate the use of open data in their daily lives.

All sessions are recorded and available to the public. The last ones that have been held dealt with such relevant issues as water management using open data or data with a gender perspective.

Facilitating understanding of the data

The Generalitat de Catalunya recognises the importance of publishing data and facilitating searches, as well as promoting understanding of the data. With the aim of facilitating the search for data by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Government of Catalonia has classified the datasets on the portal by each of the SDGs , which can be accessed from a data viewer.

This classification also provides information on how departmental activity is being aligned around the SDGs and facilitates the search and re-use of SDG-related datasets.

Commitment to the dissemination of data culture

The portal of the autonomous community of Catalonia, in addition to hosting more than a thousand open datasets and disseminating face-to-face and virtual events on the application of its datasets in different areas, offers:

• Content that disseminates the data culture:
  
  • Web sessions, with all the digital news of the administration explained in 30-minute videos presented on the first Thursday of each month.
  • Interviews with experts on open data issues.
  • Specialised publications on eGovernment and Open Government.
  • News, which includes the latest news from the sector.
• Participation and representation in activities such as:
  
  • Open Government Week
  •  Open Data Day events
• Awareness-raising projects and collaboration with civil society
• Interaction with the reuser community
  
  • Contact via a request form
  • Information and resources for developers

The Generalitat de Catalunya's inventory of datasets

On the other hand, the Generalitat de Catalunya, in the process of opening up public data, has carried out an inventory of data, the first phase of which ended in 2022. This inventory, conceived as a single, ordered and descriptive register of datasets, aim to coordinate the data opening processes of this administration.

In this first phase, the inventory provided a tool for easy consultation of all available datasets and their descriptive information, as well as a cross-sectional view of the available information and a single language throughout the organisation.

Work is currently underway on a second phase of the project, which involves updating and maintaining the information collected in the inventory, as well as extending it to public sector entities.

If you don't want to miss anything, you can follow the Catalan open data portal on Twitter.

In summary, the Generalitat de Catalunya has a government agreement on open data strategy, a data governance model in place and a presence in international organisations such as the Open Data Charter or the Open Government Partnership. Its commitment to access and reuse of open data makes it one of the leading public administrations in Spain.

At datos.gob.es we echo the good practices in open data and related technologies that exist throughout Spain. If you would like us to discuss your initiative, please write to us at dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.

The Provincial Council of Bizkaia the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the Bilbao City Council collaborate in the Bilbao Bizkaia Open Data Classroom an initiative that aims to develop the use of open data from the two Biscayan institutions (Provincial Council and City Council) for use in university projects. The ultimate goal is that, thanks to this re-use, public services can be improved and new knowledge can be generated to contribute to the resolution of social problems.

The initiative, aimed at university students as well as teaching and research staff, was born as a way to research staff, was born as a a collaboration agreement between the three administrations (Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Bilbao City Council and UPV/EHU). For this purpose, other agreements made with the Bilbao School of Engineering for the creation of Business Classrooms were taken as a reference, but in this case it will be an open data classroom, which will promote the opening of data generated and the reuse of public information.

The Bilbao Bizkaia Open Data Classroom has been in operation since 2022 and its operation is similar to that of the twelve Business Classrooms that were already in operation at the Bilbao School of Engineering. These company classrooms are laboratory-classrooms within the school, created and financed by companies and institutions to promote their innovation activities. In this sense, as the organisers of the Aula state, "they are an effective instrument of collaboration between the Departments of the Bilbao School of Engineering and the business world, both in activities related to research, technological development and innovation and in everything related to training".

Open data for innovation in the classroom

 In addition to developing projects based on the reuse of open data that improve the services provided by the regional and municipal authorities, the Aula also creates data visualisations based on open information processing initiatives proposed by the university community with the aim of improving the welfare of citizens. Another of its areas of work is the implementation of training activities that contribute to the improvement of the digital skills of the university community.

During the first edition of the Bilbao-Bizkaia Open Data Classroom, in the 2022-2023 academic year, the students developed projects on the reuse of data on recycling or outdoor activities, among others. All of them were created using regional data. You can consult the projects here: https://sites.google.com/view/opendatabilbaobizkaia/home?authuser=0.

How can I join Aula Open Data Bilbao-Bizkaia?

The Aula Open data Bilbao Bizkaia has its own space in the headquarters of the Bilbao School of Engineering, in San Mamés. This space has been fitted out thanks to a grant awarded by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the City Council of Bilbao, which also collaborate by financing the management costs of the classroom.

The programme is aimed at engineering bachelor's and master's degree students carrying out their bachelor's and master's degree final projects, respectively. However, it is not necessary to be in the final year of a Bachelor's or Master's degree to participate in the Aula. The initiative is open to anyone with an interest in data.

Training in Power BI and data analysis toolsis provided at the beginning of the course.

The programme is free of charge, and students working under the agreement are paid. The selection process is by CV.

In the following link you can find all the information about the Classroom.

https://www.aulaopendatabilbaobizkaia.eus/aula_es.html