Open_Letter_Second_Reading - Public Geo Data

This is a slight revision of the Open_Letter sent to members of the ENVI committee before the Vote in ENVI, 2006-03-21

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We are writing to convey our concerns regarding the proposed INSPIRE directive on establishing a common framework for sharing geographic information in Europe. This is an important issue as it is estimated that fully 80% of all information collected by government has a spatial component and geographic information is needed for environmental, census, and transport purposes among many others. Moreover state-collected geographic information is a public good and, as demonstrated by several studies, open access to it is the only way to realize its full social and commercial potential for Europe.

However since the first draft of INSPIRE, a set of amendments have been introduced which restrict the rights of the public to access, view, or even know about the existence of, geographic information that they have paid to collect. The Council's common position on the Directive not only fails to promote open access but risks doing the very opposite.

This would be a disastrous outcome and one which runs against the very purpose of INSPIRE. The Commission itself stated in this regard: "the common position could have the effect of reducing rather than increasing the availability of spatial data. ... The text of the common position leaves too much scope for data providers to refuse to give public access to their data and share it with other authorities."

The ENVI Committee of the Parliament voted against many of the Council's amendments to the original wording. ENVI's Rapporteur recommended "intellectual property rights to be deleted from the list of exceptions that would restrict access to environmental information... access free of charge, must be guaranteed not only for search services but also for view services."

We urge you to support amendments that promote open access and the sharing of geographic information. More than 5,500 European citizens who work with geographic information have signed a petition to amend or reject INSPIRE, viewable at http://petition.publicgeodata.org/

We also suggest that rejection be considered should it prove impossible to remove the obstacles to open access that currently exist in the text. Such an outcome would be better than the adoption of a flawed directive and, should the Commission reintroduce the proposal, would allow for the development of a new draft which adequately considered the broader implications for access and reuse of spatial and environmental data, and included more of the local government, academic, business and civil society interests who will be deeply affected by INSPIRE's terms.

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