Activites

• 2007/04/25 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2007/2
  • OJ L 108 25.04.2007, p. 0001
• 2007/03/14 Final act signed
• 2007/03/14 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2007/02/13 Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading
  • T6-0028/2007 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution approving the joint text agreed by the Conciliation Committee. (For details of the joint text, please refer to the summary dated 21/11/2006.)

• 2007/02/12 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2007/01/31 Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading
  • A6-0021/2007
• #2777
• 2007/01/29 Council Meeting
• 2007/01/17 Final decision by Conciliation Committee
• 2006/11/21 Formal meeting of Conciliation Committee
• #2753
• 2006/10/10 Council Meeting
• 2006/06/13 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T6-0252/2006 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Frieda BREPOELS and reinstated a number of amendments made at first reading. (Please see the summary of 21/03/2006.) (EPP-ED, BE) amending the Council's common position. In particular, Parliament deleted the Council’s text on intellectual property rights, which allowed public authorities to restrict access to certain geographical and environmental information, and reverted to the Commission’s initial proposal on this issue. It further stated that member states shall ensure that the targeted services are available to the public free of charge. Access to information must be guaranteed, not only to research institutions but also for consultation purposes. Where charges are made, the total income from supplying documents shall not exceed the cost of collection, production, reproduction and dissemination.Finally, Parliament felt that it is crucially important that in federal states, bearing in mind the constitutional distribution of powers, coordination structures should be set up to ensure that the Directive can be implemented effectively.  

• 2006/06/12 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2006/05/02 Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading
  • A6-0081/2006
• 2006/03/21 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
• 2006/02/16 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #2703
• 2006/01/23 Council Meeting
  • 12064/2/2005 summary

    The common position, adopted unanimously, incorporates the majority of the European Parliament’s first reading, either verbatim, in part or in spirit. In particular, it includes modifications to the Commission’s initial proposal regrouping Articles of the text, streamlining the definitions and clarifying the scope. However, the common position includes a number of changes other than those envisaged in the European Parliament's Opinion at first reading and in the Commission’s initial proposal. The following sections describe the changes of substance.General provisions, definitions and scope : the common position does not follow Parliament on this issue. The aim and scope of the Directive correspond with the Commission's initial proposal and its legal basis. The text of the common position does not refer to "direct or indirect" impact on the environment, however, additional recital addresses this issue. The Council agrees with the substance of the EP amendment. However, it accepted the Commission’s view that it would not be legally sound to include obligations for Community institutions and bodies in a directive. The common position states that the Directive would apply without prejudice to Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information and 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information. It introduces additional definitions of the terms "interoperability", "INSPIRE geo portal" and limits the scope of the definition of "public authority". It also clarifies the scope of spatial data sets covered by the Directive and limits the extent of the competence of the committee to adapt the data themes in the Annexes.Metadata, Interoperability of spatial data sets and services : the components of the metadata are clarified in the common position as well as the implementation rules. The time schedule for creation of the metadata is consistent with the timetable proposed by the EP.  It introduces additional conditions for the drafting of the implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for interoperability, particularly the cost-benefit consideration, integration of standards and activities at international level and reference to existing technical means. Cost-benefit and feasibility considerations are backed up which requires the Commission to undertake a cost-benefit analysis prior to developing the proposals for the implementing rules. The adoption of these rules shall not result in excessive costs to a Member State . The common position also clarifies the adaptation of newly collected and other spatial data sets and services and replaces "a common system of unique identifiers" by "solutions to ensure unambiguous identification of spatial objects, to which identifiers under existing national systems can be mapped in order to ensure interoperability between them" in order to avoid the imposition of a particular technical solution.Network services : the extended list of grounds for limiting access is identical to that in Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information to ensure consistence in the implementation. An additional provides that public access to spatial data complies with Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The common position allows Member States to apply charges and/or licences for view services, where this is necessary to maintain the spatial data sets and services or to fulfil requirements of existing international spatial data infrastructures. Data-sharing : the common position clarifies the scope of data-sharing obligations between the public authorities of one Member State, the public authorities of different Member States, the institutions and bodies of the Community and the bodies established by international agreements. It equally seeks to prevent practical obstacles at the point of use (for example, a public authority employee using the data on their computer) while allowing data providers to recover their costs from the public authorities of Member States and Community bodies, thus ensuring that the quality and currency of the data are maintained. Where charging occurs, it is at the public authority level, not at the point of use. Protection of intellectual property rights is ensured.Coordination and complementary measures, final provisions : there is no explicit stress on the distribution of powers and responsibilities within the Member States in relation to their structures involved. The new wording of an Article and an additional recital of the common position rationalise the monitoring and reporting requirements of the Directive.Annexes : spatial data themes "distribution of road accidents" and "telecommunications" are not included in the common position as they are not related to the purpose of INSPIRE.

• 2006/01/17 Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs
  • 03685/2006
• #2670
• 2005/06/24 Council Meeting
• 2005/06/07 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T6-0213/2005 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the resolution drafted by Frederika BREPOELS (EPP-ED, BE) and made some amendments to the Commission’s text, many of which are intended to clarify the definitions and the structure of the legislation. There are more precise definitions for many terms such as  "spatial data services.   Furthermore:- a new recital states that the preclusion of restrictions of a financial nature at the point of use does not prevent public authorities that produce spatial data sets and services from receiving financial compensation from the public authorities that use these spatial data sets and services;- in order to protect intellectual property rights held by public authorities in respect of spatial data, the data made available through the view services mentioned in the text may be in a form preventing their re-use for commercial purposes, and a click-licence may be included to restrict the use that can be made of the data;- a new clause provides that the establishment of common licences shall not unnecessarily restrict possibilities for re-use of data and use of services and shall not be used to restrain competition;- some additions are made to Annex III.

• 2005/06/06 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2005/04/26 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
  • A6-0108/2005
• 2005/04/21 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2004/09/15 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2004/07/23 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2004)0516 summary

    PURPOSE : to create a legal framework for the establishment and operation of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE), for the purpose of formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Community policies at all levels and providing public information.PROPOSED ACT : Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.CONTENT : with a view to improving mapping in Europe, the European Commission is launching the INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in the European Union) initiative. A database with consistent geographical information, INSPIRE will support environmental protection policies as well as infrastructure development, agriculture and maritime navigation. This proposal calls on EU Member States to put geographical information on a publicly accessible electronic network and to progressively harmonise it. At present, information on rivers, road networks and other geographical features is collected in an uncoordinated way and based on different methods and specifications, resulting in data gaps and lack of comparability.The proposal states that community policy on the environment must aim at a high level of protection taking into account the diversity of situations in the various regions of the Community. In preparing its policy on the environment, the Community is required to take account of available scientific and technical data, environmental conditions in the various regions of the Community, the economic and social development of the Community as a whole and the balanced development of its regions. Many information themes related to spatial features are required for a broad range of environmental policies.A key objective of INSPIRE is to make more and better spatial data available for Community policy-making and implementation of Community policies in the Member States at all levels.INSPIRE focuses on environmental policy but is open for use by and future extension to other sectors such as agriculture, transport and energy.The proposal focuses specifically on information needed in order to monitor and improve the state of the environment, including air, water, soil and the natural landscape.INSPIRE will not set off an extensive programme of new spatial data collection in the Member States. Instead, it is designed to optimise the scope for exploiting the data that are already available, by requiring the documentation of existing spatial data, the implementation of services aimed at rendering the spatial data more accessible and interoperable and by dealing with obstacles to the use of the spatial data.INSPIRE will pave the road for a progressive harmonisation of spatial data in the Member States.The main beneficiaries of this proposal will therefore be those involved in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies – at the European, national and local level. These are public authorities, legislators and citizens and their organisations. However, other user groups are also expected to benefit, including the private sector, universities, researchers and the media. The proposal will support the formulation and implementation of a wide range of environmental and other policies.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/', 'title': 'Environment'}, DIMAS Stavros

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2004)0516
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0108/2005
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0213/2005
• Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs: 03685/2006
• Council position published: 12064/2/2005
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A6-0081/2006
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T6-0252/2006
• Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading: A6-0021/2007
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading: T6-0028/2007
• : Directive 2007/2
• : OJ L 108 25.04.2007, p. 0001

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)