Accessibility and reuse of public and publicly funded data

EESC opinion: Accessibility and reuse of public and publicly funded data

Key points

  • The EESC has evaluated the consistency of the planned changes to the directive on data re-use with the aims for improvement. The Committee generally welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a revised directive as it is sure that the proposed changes will have a beneficial effect on the general aims for improvement.
  • However, the proposed changes are not sufficient to effectively improve the problematic areas of existing directive. If one of the main reasons for amending the directive and one of the main goals is to prevent the problems identified in the assessment of the directive’s current application, a more active and targeted approach is needed and a "high legislative intensity" options must be chosen in order to solve specific problems.
  • The impact assessment insufficiently reflects the views of stakeholders on the choice between high or lower legislative intensity options. A further evaluation should be conducted of the position of the stakeholder groups concerning the choice of solutions for preventing existing problems and assessing the overall weight and impact of the various stakeholder groups, leading to a more objective and more informed choice of options for every of issues.