Luxembourg, 28/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - In two rulings issued on 27 September, the European Court of Justice found Spain and Luxembourg guilty of failing to transpose Directive 2003/98/EC on access to public sector information (Cases C-165/06 and C-529/06). Both countries had said that some provisions on access already existed in their legal systems and that full transposition was under way, but the Court rejected this argument on the grounds that transposition had not been fully completed by the 1 July 2005 deadline. On 22 December 2006, the European Commission took five member states to the Court of Justice for failing to transpose the directive, and the Court has already found Austria guilty (Case C-517/06). The cases against Belgium and Portugal are still pending.
Directive 2003/98/EC allows economic advantage to be made from information held by public bodies such as meteorological data, digital maps, traffic information and the like. The Commission believes there is a market potential of between €10 million and €50 million in services connected with such information, but development of such a market is hindered by member states' legislative and administrative restrictions on private companies gaining access to the information. The directive in question rules that these barriers to access must be lifted in the interests of economic growth. Further info: http: //ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm (cd)