INFORMATION SOCIETY : FIVE COUNTRIES REFERRED TO THE COURT OF JUSTICE.

• Position: European Court of Justice - Brief article

The European Commission, on 22 December, decided to refer Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg to the EU Court of Justice for failing to put into practice the so-calledaPSI Directive on the re-use of public sector information (2003/98/EC). Member states should have notified the Commission of measures for implementing the legislation by 1 July 2005.

According to the Commission, the estimated value of re-used public sector information is in the region of 48 billion. It concerns vast amounts of public sector information, ranging from financial and weather data to tourist and traffic information, which together represent "indispensable raw material for new products and services with high added value," confirmed the Commission.

The aim of the directive is to facilitate the creation of information services and products covering the whole of Europe using this data and to make them available to users, possibly even via mobile...