Brussels: 16 October 2008

The European Commission (EC) has announced that the Commission has launched infringement proceedings against Poland and Sweden. The press release (IP/08/1524) states:

“An infringement case has today been opened against Poland because the Commission considers that several key provisions of the PSI Directive have not been transposed into Polish law. These include rules about individuals' rights to re-use certain public sector information, charging for such use, non-discrimination between users, transparency about what information is available for re-use, licensing conditions, prohibition of exclusive arrangements (awarded by public organizations to companies for exploiting public sector information) and processing of requests to re-use the information.”

“The Commission has also launched infringement proceedings against Sweden because a number of crucial provisions of the PSI Directive have not been, or have been incorrectly, transposed into national law. These mainly relate to charging, nondiscrimination, prohibition of exclusive arrangements, processing of requests to reuse public sector information and the formats in which it should be made available.”

“Both Poland and Sweden now have 2 months to reply to the letters of formal notice. If the Commission receives no reply, or if the observations presented by the Member State are not satisfactory, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion (the second stage in an infringement proceeding) and after that, if the Member State fails to fulfil its obligations, refer the case to the European Court of Justice.”