Legislative Actions - PSI Directive

The Council and the European Parliament have adopted The Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PDF file; EN language) which deals with the way public sector bodies should enhance re-use of their information resources (the Directive 2003/98/EC of 17 November 2003 was published in the Official Journal (L345/90) on 31 December 2003).
The Directive is built around two key pillars of the internal market: transparency and fair competition. It sets minimum rules for the re-use of PSI throughout the European Union. In its recitals it encourages Member States to go beyond these minimum rules and to adopt open data policies, allowing a broad use of documents held by public sector bodies.
Quick Guide Through the Directive (PDF file, 1 page).
Member States had to implement the Directive into national law by 1 July 2005. The Commission is monitoring to see if the Member Sates have adopted transposition measures and whether these measures correctly transpose all the provisions of the Directive. You can consult the implementation status in MS on the Implementation of the PSI Directive page.
Because of the need for auditable and knowledge based policy making, the Commission ordered a benchmark study, called the MEPSIR, on Exploitation of PSI which will allow Europe to take further steps towards wider re-use of PSI. For more information you can consult the MEPSIR Study page.

Related topics (INSPIRE Directive)