INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe) is a new EC Directive which sets obligations on what the public authorities of the Member States do with the data they collect. Public authorities holding data covered by the directive will have to share their data with other public authorities (e.g. EU institutions). They must allow the public to view data for free, buy the data for download and use over the Internet, and must comply with technical implementing rules to improve consistency.
The INSPIRE Directive therefore creates a legal framework for the establishment and operation of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe, for the purpose of formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Community policies at all levels and providing public information. INSPIRE will not set off an extensive programme of new spatial data collection in the Member States. Instead, it is designed to optimise the scope for exploiting the data that are already available, by requiring the documentation of existing spatial data, the implementation of services aimed at rendering the spatial data more accessible and interoperable and by dealing with obstacles to the use of the spatial data. It does therefore have the potential to provide large demands on infrastructure and resources required within organisations to format existing data to defined INSPIRE standards and make those data available.
The data themes to be considered within the spatial infrastructure are detailed in 3 Annexes of the directive and contain references to the data being collected under the Water Framework Directive and the Birds and Habitats Directives. Further reference is given to oceanographic geographical features, habitats and biotopes, and species distributions. Implementing rules laying down the harmonised spatial data specifications for data themes in Annex 1 should be implemented two years after the entry into force of the directive and five years for data themes specified in Annexes 2 and 3.
The directive will be implemented by rules that are drawn up by drafting teams which are due to report in 2007. To provide comments on the draft implementation rules, or participate in the process, organisations or communities may register as a Legally Mandated Organisations (LMO) or Spatial Data Interest Community (SDIC).
As part of the MEDAG work plan for 2007 we will be providing updates and summaries on outputs from the INSPIRE drafting teams. |
