One confidential diplomatic source has informed us that the work of the Council of the EU on the reuse of public sector data is progressing well and could produce an agreement “earlier than expected”. According to several sources, the second compromise presented during the working party meeting on 20 September by the rotating Presidency received a very positive welcome.
It should be recalled that the draft directive presented in April 2018 aims to facilitate the reuse of public sector information and documentation in the member states (see EUROPE 12009). It amends the directive of the same name (2003/98/EC) in order to provide a greater contribution to strengthening the European data economy. At this stage, neither Parliament nor the Council have reached their respective positions: the European Parliament's industry committee published its report last week and this is expected to go to a vote on 3 December. The Council is planning another possibly decisive meeting for 4 October. One Austrian diplomatic source indicated "the objective is to have a general approach by December but things could go more swiftly”. This source also suggested that the working party meeting on 4 October could possibly be the last one.
State of Council discussions
The telecommunications working party meeting on 20 September focused on a compromise prepared by the Austrian Presidency. One of the amendments Austria is proposing includes article 13, which calls on the Commission to identify high-value data by way of an implementing act and not by delegated act, as proposed by the Commission.
According to the information we have received, the delegations reacted relatively positively to the Austrian proposals. They discussed the opportunity of replacing the term “document” with “data” and although the delegations were divided, it did appear that a slight majority was found in keeping the status quo.
On the question of prices, a small number of member states expressed misgivings about the idea of capping the costs for the reuse of marginal costs for reproduction, availability and distribution as well as, if needs be, the anonymisation of documents containing personal data.
Free availability of high-value datasets was also questioned by a couple member states but the vast majority of them expressed their support for the proposals contained in the compromise text. The text of the second Austrian compromise can be seen at the following link: https://bit.ly/2DCzkTh. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)