Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 13 June 2013 - Strasbourg

Re-use of public sector information (debate)

  Rafał Trzaskowski, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. − Madam President, it is not always easy to marry transparency with business opportunity. This Directive brings data closer to citizens, while creating a potential for business and growth which we seek in time of crisis.

My general approach to re-use was to keep it as open and user-friendly as possible. I stressed two main issues: the format in which public information is made available for re-use, and charges imposed by the public bodies concerned.

Firstly I insisted that a clear preference was given to machine-readable formats, with other formats possible but exceptional. We also agree that open formats should be promoted, as should the use of electronic means when processing requests for re-use.

My second message was to keep charges for re-use as low as possible. One should realise that lower charges for re-use will only attract business and boost innovation, and also bring benefit to the end consumer who would otherwise be charged more for the reused base products and services.

I want to thank the rapporteur for putting those things into the report.