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Geographic information in support of Environmental Policy
The Sixth Environmental
Action programme identifies better information as one of the keys to
improve Environmental policy in the next decade. Geographic information
plays a special role here, because of its potential to present information
in a lively and understandable way to citizens and stakeholders. The
Commission is currently preparing two new initiatives to stimulate the
availability of environmental information: INSPIRE (INfrastructure for
SPatial InfoRmation in Europe) and GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security). Implementation of these initiatives will represent an
important support to some of the key approaches avocated in the sixth
Environmental Action Programme:
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reserved.
- Ensure the implementation of existing environmental legislation;
- Integrate environmental concerns into all relevant policy areas;
- Ensure better and more accessible information on the environment for
citizens;
- Develop a more environmentally conscious attitude towards land use.
Both initiatives are broader than environment only, but for both,
support to environmental policy is one of the key objectives.
The INSPIRE initiative will make available relevant,
harmonised and quality geographic information for the purpose of
formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Community
environmental policy-making and for the citizen. Furthermore, by
establishing from the onset cross-sectoral co-ordination mechanisms,
INSPIRE will provide access to compatible information across sectors such
as environment, transport and agriculture. It will also help the
integration of environmental considerations in other sectors and
supporting the new approach to more coherent policy-making advocated by
the EU sustainable development strategy.
On 23 July 2004, the Commission has adopted a Proposal for a Directive on
INSPIRE.
  
   
  
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According to this Proposal, Member States would make accessible their
existing public sector geographical information over the INTERNET. They would
also ensure that the information is shared between public bodies and they would
take steps to make geographical information more coherent. An EU Geo-portal
would in addition provide citizens with a unique access point to this
information. This proposal was accompanied by an extended impact assessment
(pdf~1,2M),
which showed that INSPIRE will allow to save money, will help to improve the
environment and will support sustainable development.
In its communication to the Gothenburg Council in June 2001
the Commission has set the
ambitious goal to achieve by 2008 a European capacity for GMES. GMES is a
joint initiative of the Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA). It
aims to strengthen the Communities capabilities to acquire and integrate
high-quality data derived from spaceborne, terrestrial and marine
observations with geographical and socio-economic information supporting
knowledge-based policy making from local to global level. In an initial
period 2001-2003 policy needs and existing structures will be
assessed to draft a design of the future set-up. It provides also a broad
platform of stakeholder consultation including users and
information service providers that will allow the identification of
obstacles and solutions in relation to the access and use of environmental
and geographical information.
The GMES initiative is/will be supported by several calls for proposals
in the context of the Fifth and Sixth Research Framework Programme. GMES
will as such also contribute to the aims of the INSPIRE initiative.
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