PSI Leadership
The APORTA III meeting considered amongst other topics the need for greater PSI Leadership and the role of Member States in order to address the lack of awareness on the opportunities and benefits of the re-use of public sector information within Europe and the need for PSI leadership from Member States.
The European Commission Communication that was published in 22 European languages on the 7th May 2009 marked the end of phase 1 of the implementation of the PSI Re-use Directive within Europe.
The Communication reported that a further review of the application of the Directive will be undertaken during 2012 and as such defined the timeframe for Phase 2 of the implementation of the Directive as May 2009 through to July 2012 within Europe. By 2012 Member States will have had seven years (1st July 2005 through to 1st July 2012) to implement the Directive effectively.
The challenge during Phase 2 is to facilitate the re-use of PSI in the shortest timeframe feasible and that the first step would be for all Member States to implement a PSI re-use information portal that is maintained and informative. The Member States that are leading the way on this particular aspect are Belgium, France, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, which between them are now beginning to provide a wealth of information and practical experience and guidance. The provision of such portals not only enables a one-stop-shop to be provided to all PSI stakeholders but also as a reference point for other web sites to link too rather than replicate and as such helping the public sector information holders to implement the PSI re-use cost effectively. The natural follow on is for the Member State information portals to be linked to form a conceptual network at the pan European level that has a focus on the re-use of PSI.
The second step would be for the Member States that are demonstrating leadership work together to establish one Public Sector body that proactively leads with respect to the re-use of PSI.
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