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Workshop on access for public bodies to privately-held data of public interest

This workshop responds to the mid-term review of the Digital Single Market strategy which calls for the need to further explore the issue of public bodies' access to privately held data which are of public interest.

In January 2017 the Commission adopted the 'Building a European Data Economy' Communciation where it addressed, among other issues, the opportunities and challenges related to access and re-use of data. It announced a structured dialogue with stakeholders, which included a public consultation (closed on 26 April) and a series of workshops.

The Mid Term Review of the Digital Single Market Strategy mandated to follow up on the January Communication and explore further the issue of public bodies' access to privately held data of public interest. In a number of scenarios, public sector bodies could significantly improve their decision making if they were able to use commercially-held information, notably for the purpose of public health policy, spatial and urban planning, natural and technological risk management, managing energy supply grids or protecting the environment.

The European Commission organised this workshop in Brussels on 26 June with stakeholders on "Access for public bodies to privately-held data". The objective of the workshop is to discuss with stakeholders from both the demand side (public sector bodies) and supply side (data-holding companies) the needs for access to privately-held data and the conditions under which such access could possibly be granted. This workshop should focus on access for public bodies to privately-held data that do not result from existing reporting obligations companies have vis-à-vis public sector bodies or data that are already stored in public sector's databases.

There were four specific sessions on the agenda to discuss access to data of public interest:

Read the meeting report or access the recording of event's webstreaming for further information on the discussions.