Unión Europea

The European Union was created to facilitate commercial transactions between its member states, eliminating barriers and ensuring the free movement of goods, people and services. With the rise of data and the digital economy, the institution had to expand its scope beyond physical assets, and include among its functions the creation of a Digital Single Market that promotes the exchange of information in a secure way.

The public organisms do not stop generating data, which are a valuable raw material to favour economic growth. The power of public open data is evident according to European Union studies: more than 50% surveyed companies use open data to create new products and services; and a third of start-ups supported by ODINE would not exist without open data.

In order to facilitate the reuse of information from the public sector, Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (PSI Directive) was created. It introduced provisions on non-discrimination, cost, exclusive agreements, transparency and licenses, among other aspects. In 2013 this directive was amended by Directive 2013/37/EU. The 2013 Directive incorporated the need to carry out a review of the initiative on accessibility and reuse of public information before July 18th, 2018, with the aim of increasing the amount of public sector data available for reuse, ensuring fair competition and easy access to markets based on public sector information, and enhancing cross-border innovation.

To carry out this review, a thorough analysis of other current directives (INSPIRE or Database Directive) has been carried out in order to be aligned. Likewise, a public hearing and an analysis of the impact on the economy of the changes introduced in 2013 has been carried out. During the hearing process, all interested parties, including public authorities and reusers (public, private, commercial and non-commercial) were invited to contribute

The conclusions have confirmed that the Directive has helped to stimulate the European economy, achieving its objectives. In addition, it has had a favourable impact on transparency, citizen empowerment, and public sector efficiency. However, they also indicate that there are still challenges to overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of public sector information for the European economy and society. Some of these challenges are related to the following aspects:

• Limited real-time access to data. More dynamic data should be provided in real time and more technical solutions developed to facilitate data usability.
• Charges about cost. Charge for reusing public sector data should not cost more than “the marginal costs for reproducing, making available and dissemination the open data”. However, a widespread practice of demanding much higher amounts has been found. This create market entry barriers for SMEs and startups.
• The lack of availability of high interest data, because they are in the hands of private operators. For example, data generated by companies providing public services (utilities, transport, etc.) or research data from public funding.
• The need to avoid exclusivity agreements. Public-private agreements can lead to situations in which public sector information is blocked.
• The relationship between the PSI Directive and certain related legal instruments.

Given these challenges, the Commission is in the revision process of the PSI Directive, regarding the following aspects:

• Stimulate the publishing of dynamic data and the uptake of APIs.
• Limit the exceptions allowing public bodies to charge for the reuse of their data more than the marginal costs of dissemination.
• Enlarge the scope of the Directive, including data held by public undertakings – in this case, charges for the reuse of such data can be above marginal costs for dissemination- and research data resulting from public funding.
• Strengthen the transparency requirements for public–private agreements involving public sector information, avoiding exclusive arrangements.

Until July 3th, the deadline is open for those who wish to provide their opinion on the different aspects included in the review.

In summary, the revision of the PSI Directive aim to continue promoting an open data ecosystem that allows a further step towards the creation of a Digital Single Market. With the new PSI Directive as a driver for the cross-border reuse of open data, it will be easier to start new data-based businesses, as well as to improve existing ones, with the consequent value for society, as shown in the following figure.

Under the Horizon 2020 framework, the CLARITY project will support European Member States in their pursuit for greater trust, transparency and efficiency within their open eGovernment initiatives, fostering good practices in this field in conjunction with e-government, especially within local government sectors, SMEs and self-employed, general medicine and disability. This initiative is formed by a team of seven members, who combine experience in several areas: from public administration, open government, data science, computer science and engineering, social sciences, humanities, business and economics.

Perfectly integrated on the current open Government networkds, the CLARITY Project members keep bringing together stakeholder networks across Europe into an engaged and mobilised community that supports innovation in open eGovernment applications in order to reach the following global goals: 

The CLARITY project, through its online platform (https://clarity-csa.eu/), makes available to the community a set of open reports of this sector in Europe and invites those interested in contributing to the evolution towards an open electronic government to share its vision, collaborating in the improvement of the previous guide  (http://clarity.oeg-upm.net/blueprint/) and the application market that shows the open electronic government services channels in the EU (https://clarity-csa.eu/portfolio-clean-2cols).

In addition, it provides users with information and access to the European Futurium platform (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/egovernment4eu), which contributes to the 2016-2020 Electronic Government Action Plan.

CLARITY Conference, the Open Government of the future

In 2018, from 14 to 15 February, the CLARITY Conference will take place in the Swedish city of Skellefteå: two days during which the technologies, regulations and knowledge needed to carry out open government initiatives will be explored and discussions on digital transformation and its benefits will be held. 

The European Union is committed to open science, ensuring that all investigations carried out in its territory are available without any technical, legal or financial restriction as agreed in the Competitiveness Council that took place on May 27^th in Brussels and attended by the ministers of Industry, Competitiveness and Research of the EU.

According to the general principles of Horizon 2020 Program, which guarantee open access to scientific publications and to the data resulting from the research financed with public funds in the EU, there is a recognition that open science is not only an opportunity to improve the quality and benefits of science itself; it also contributes to the progress, efficiency and reliability of the common European knowledge.

Thus, through the Council, ministers committed their governments to implement an action plan within the next four years. In the transition to an open system of scientific results, member states and stakeholders are asked to take appropriate measures to ensure that open science is a reality at national level and to defend the program in the European and international forums.

Chaired by the Secretary of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, Sander Dekker, European ministers decided unanimously to take appropriate action to ensure that all scientific publications from 2020 are open and accessible, except for those data that should be restricted for safety or privacy purposes.

Thanks to this decision, not only the re-use of scientific information will be possible, but the member states are also calling on the research world to no longer judge scientists and researchers only on the number of publications, but more attention should be paid to the societal impact of their work.

Additionally, to boost the European economy and make the EU more attractive for foreign start-ups and businesses, member states are looking into introducing a unique European visa for foreign start-up founders so that they will not have to apply for a separate visa in each member state.

The Commission Communication on May 6^th recognized the importance of science and research to drive innovation, while aiming at improving the conditions of science-based data. Promoting growth and innovation by re-using scientific results provides a more favourable environment for investment and new business. For these reasons, governments, businesses and institutions are working together to eliminate legal, organizational and economic barriers to access to scientific results and innovation, achieving an optimum level of knowledge sharing in Europe.