International outlook

In the past years, different international public institutions and bodies have taken many initiatives to foster the re-use of public sector information.

Up to date, the most relevant work geared to have a positive impact on the economy by re-using information generated and managed by Administrations and public bodies is that conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU).

•     Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

•     European Union

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

In the OECD Ministerial Meeting about the Future of the Internet Economy, held in June 2008 in Seoul, the Member States adopted the Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy, in which they express their will of promoting Internet Economy with the aid of innovation and investments in the ICT sector, working jointly with the private sector and the civil society.

In view of this objective, the Conference adopted the Recommendation for Enhanced Access and More Effective Use of Public Sector Information geared to facilitate the re-use of public sector information by society, increasing its benefits and creating added-value products and services.

This recommendation, based upon the work conducted by the OECD Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy, recommends to following to the member States:

• Promoting the availability of public sector information for use and re-use, developing an access scheme based upon the presumption of openness to public information.

• Encouraging non-discriminatory re-use of public sector information, eliminating exclusive arrangements and removing unnecessary restrictions on the ways in which it can be accessed, improving access to information over the Internet and in electronic form.
• Making available to end users the procedures required to access public sector information.

• Implementing mechanisms to protect intellectual property without prejudice to preventing the re-use of information.

• Ensuring that pricing strategies are transparent and fair in the case of those contents that may be at the end user's expense.

• Ensuring methodological data collection and curation practices to enhance quality and reliability, including through cooperation of various government bodies involved in the creation, collection, processing, storing and distribution of public sector information.
• Fostering the use of new technologies to access public sector information, improving storing, search and election technologies.

• Encouraging the wide sharing of best practices on re-use.

European Union

The European Union has also worked intensely to foster the re-use of public sector information. In 1998, after a long consultation process, the European Union drafted the Green Paper on Public Sector Information in the Information Society.

The Green Paper proposals led to Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 November 2003, about public sector information.

This Directive puts forward a common European framework relating to the re-use of public sector information to ensure the creation of an internal market, highlighting, as in the Green Paper, the need to consider public sector information as an important source of job creation and private sector invigoration through its re-use.

Directive 2003/98/EC pursues the following main objectives:

• To facilitate the creation of Community-wide services based on public sector information and promote the development of the digital content sector with the ultimate goal of boosting economic growth and job opportunities.
• To enhance the cross-border use of public sector documents by private companies for added-value information products and services.
• To limit distortions of competition on the Community market.

To achieve these objectives, the Directive establishes a minimum set of rules to harmonise Member States' standards and practices regarding the exploitation of public sector information and overcomes the main hindrances in the internal market for the re-use of this information: discriminatory practices, exclusive arrangements and lack of transparency.

All EU 27 Member States have already implemented the Directive to their national laws, although differences exist regarding their degree of implementation.

It should be noted that, as a result of the 2008 review of the Directive application, the European Commission developed a series of recommendations set out in a Communication published in May 2009 and addressed to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Re-use of Public Sector Information, with a detailed working document.

The Communication and the working document attached review the status of implementation of Directive 2003/98/EC in the different EU States, making reference to possible improvements and highlighting many positive changes such as:

• Approval of new national rules that favour re-use.
• Elimination of exclusive arrangements executed by public bodies.
• Application of reduced rates to re-use.
• Development of clearer licensing models for information re-use.
• Creation of mechanisms to settle conflicts regarding the re-use of public sector information.
• Creation of public websites on available public sector information.