The European Commission unveiled Dec. 12 an Open Data Strategy for Europe--a revision to its 2003 directive on the re-use of public sector information that adds legislative, deployment and funding elements. These actions build upon open government strategies in the United Kingdom and France, and position the European Union as the global leader in the re-use of public sector information, according to an E.U. statement.

E.U. member states have 18 months to implement the directive into their national legislation, according to a Dec. 12 memo.

In addition to the rules laid out in the 2003 directive, the Open Data Strategy says all documents accessible by the public sector can be reused for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, unless protected by a third party copyright. The directive also instructs member states to keep data request charges as low as possible--"in practice this means most data will be offered for free or virtually for free, unless duly justified."

The directive also specifies that open data should be in a commonly-used, machine-readable format. It also introduces regulatory oversight to enforce the principles and expand the directive to include libraries, museums and archives for the first time.

The European Commission also said it just contracted to have its own public data portal set up. The portal is now in development and testing and is expected to launch in spring 2012. Eventually, the commission portal will be the "single-access point for re-usable data from all E.U. institutions, bodies and agencies and national authorities," according to the statement.

A screen shot of the beta version of the website is viewable in a blog post by Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes.

The union sees open data as a catalyst for innovation and says it expects open data to boost the E.U. economy by €40 billion each year. By "opening up this resource fully" the union could reap around €70 billion per year, estimated Kroes in her blog post.

The Dec. 12 memo pegs the "total direct and indirect economic gains" from public data access and reuse to be about €140 billion annually. The commission plans to spend around €100 million from 2011 through 2013 to fund the technology behind the initiative.

"Your data is worth more if you give it away," said Kroes Dec. 8. "The least we can do is give it back to those who want to use it in new ways that help people and create jobs and growth."

For more:
- see the press release
- see the E.C. memo

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