DIGITAL AGENDA : MEMBER STATES APPROVE RE-USE OF PUBLIC DATA.

Public sector information, such as geographical data and statistics, will soon be available for re-use for a fee in most cases. The permanent representatives of the 27 EU member states (Coreper) endorsed, on 10 April, the compromise reached with the European Parliament on the revision of Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information. The compromise was finally sealed on 25 March.

Parliament must now formally endorse the agreement in plenary session before the Council approves it in turn. Once the directive has been published in the Official Journal of the EU, member states will have 24 months in which to transpose these new rules into national law.

Public sector information includes geographical or meteorological data, maps, statistics and legal data. They can be re-used, for example, in new products and services, such as mobile applications that use such geographical data.

On 12 December 2012, the Commission proposed to revise the text in order to remove the obstacles to their re-use by not only citizens but also companies, developers and programmers.

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said: "Opening up public data means opening up business opportunities, creating jobs and building communities. I welcome the Council's agreement to this culture change". According to the Commission, making such public sector data more widely available could boost economic activity by tens of...