1. Strategy to open Europe's data Eurostat Dissemination Working Group
Luxembourg
Szymon Lewandowski
Legal/Policy officer - "Data Value Chain" Unit
European Commission, DG CONNECT

2. Directorate Media and Data
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The Communication Networks, Content & Technology Directorate General
Directorate Media and Data
G1: Converging Media and Content
G2: Creativity
G3: Data Value Chain
G4: Inclusion, Skills and Youth 
G5: Administration and Finance
As from July 1st 2012

3. Open (public data): why does it matter for Europe?
1. Untapped business and economic opportunities: data is the new gold; possible direct and indirect gains of €140bln across the EU27
2. Better governance and citizen empowerment: open data increases transparency, citizen participation and administrative efficiency and accountability
3. Addressing societal challenges: data can enhance sustainability of health care systems; essential for tackling environmental challenges
4. Accelerating scientific progress: e-science essential for meeting the challenges of the 21st century in scientific discovery and learning.

4. Commission Open Data Policy in EU context
One of the seven flagship initiatives of Europe 2020, set out to define the key enabling role that the use of ICTs will have to play if Europe wants to succeed in its ambitions for 2020.
The overall aim […] is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market […]
Action 3: Open up public data resources for re-use
"The Commission is invited to make rapid progress in key areas of the digital economy to ensure the creation of the Digital Single Market by 2015, including […] the availability of public sector Information."
Conclusions of the European Council (4 February 2011)
 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
 A vision to achieve high levels of employment, a low carbon economy, productivity and social cohesion, to be implemented through concrete actions at EU and national levels.

5. Open Data Strategy: 3 complementary strands
Communication on Open Data
Revision of the Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive & update of Commission decision on re-use of its own information
Financing and support measures: support from FP7, Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020 ( )

6. Virtuous cycle of data

7. Main elements of the data cycle (1)
Creation of "data value chain friendly" policy environment:
Fostering of (Open) Data policy
Adoption of the revised Directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) and the Commission decision on re-use of its own information
Implementation of PSI policy across Europe by ensuring compliance and the development of soft law instruments (e.g. guidelines on licensing and charging)
Stakeholder involvement and engagement

8. Revision of the Commission re-use decision
Since 2006 public Commission information is open, free and re-usable without constraints
Since 2011:
Inclusion of the research data produced by the JRC under the re-use regime
Measures to improve the implementation of the Decision
A provision on the move towards machine-readable formats
The Commission invites other EU institutions to adopt a similar re-use policy

9. PSI Directive: current rules & current problems
A minimal set of rules on fair competition, transparency and practical requirements but no right to re-use public data  Lack of information about available data, about terms of re-use, complicated licensing procedures; data available in formats hindering re-use
A very permissive charging ceiling  instances of prohibitive charging
Since 2003 much improvement but "PSI culture" still in the making

10. Revision of the Directive – main proposed changes
Creation of a genuine right to re-use public data: all public data not specifically excluded from re-use is to be re-usable
Charging rules are amended:
Tariff ceiling lowered to marginal costs
In exceptional cases  possibility to recover costs and claim a reasonable return on investment if duly justified
Burden of proving compliance with charging rules shifts to public bodies
Independent supervision (at MS level) of application of the rules is required
 Limited extension of scope  application of the minimal set of rules of the 2003 Directive with additional safeguards

11. How to re-use government data?
Combination of different types of data (e.g. geo, traffic and tourism)
EU-wide applications and services
Capitalise on the size of the internal market
Apps
Systems that facilitate decision making by companies

12. Main elements of the data cycle (2)
Multilingual (Open) Data infrastructure
Development of European Digital Service Infrastructure and fostering new services in relation to
Open Data portals at local, regional and national and European level
"Multilingual access to online services"
Leading by best practice examples …

13. … the European data portals
European Commission data portal (2012)
Pan-European open data portal (2013)
Multilingual access point to data from across the EU, to be funded through CEF (Connecting Facility for Europe)
Benefits
Scale
Interoperability of datasets
Easy to find across languages
Similar basic use conditions

14. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/open-data/
Screenshot: prototype Commission Open Data Portal (developed by DIGIT) – This was for internal use only. The new release by OP will look differently.
URL: ec.europa.eu/opendata

15. 2012-2020: EU wide Open Data Infrastructures:
progressive
implementation
of the CEF
Open Data Infrastructure
Sustainable model
for financing the
EU public digital
library Europeana
CEF:
Access to digital resources
of European Heritage
“Europeana”
2013:prototype
of a pan-European
Open Data Portal

16. Financing and support measures for open data infrastructures
Hackatons and competitions to foster setting up of data portals and applications: prizes, FP7 and CIP funding
Pan-European data portal: single access point to datasets from across the EU, expected launch 2013 (building upon FP7 funded R&D work)
Support for inception phase ( ): CIP calls
Progressive implementation of Open Data Infrastructure ( ): Connecting Europe Facility

17. CEF* digital service infrastructure for data
“Core service platform”
Distributed system
Query and visualization tools
Open source
Governance model involving the data providers
“Generic services”
Aggregation of datasets
Interoperability of datasets
Interface to open data infrastructures in third countries
Data repositories and long-term preservation services
*expected total funds for ICT/Digital: €9.2 billion

18. Main elements of the data cycle (3)
Supporting Research and innovation which fosters the intelligent use, management and reuse of complex and large amount of data
for
better decision making
efficiency
knowledge management
extraction of embedded intelligence and data insights.
including
R&D in Multilingual data and content analytics
Innovation in Data driven intelligence and knowledge management in data intensive sectors

19. Financing and support measures of R&D
Financing and support measures of R&D enhancing new data-handling technologies:
: ~ € 100 million
one of priority areas envisaged for ICT in Horizon 2020 ( )
Support of community building and exchange
Initiation of European Data Forum and roadmapping to foster the growth of the data economy

20. Outlook - Horizon 2020 Period from 2014 until 2020
40% budgetary increase (Commission proposal)
Administrative simplification: simpler funding rules; Open, light and fast schemes
Higher integration between R&D and innovation
"Data" will have even more importance 20

21. Conclusion ‘Big data’ has the future: OGD is part of it
Applications and services + re-use
Open data strategy: towards a better use of publicly funded data in Europe
European digital service infrastructure for data will help unleashing the potential

22. Thank you!