Mailing Address: EC Projects Office, Niehaff, L-9161 Ingeldorf, Luxembourg
E-mail Address:       ral@alum.mit.edu
Telephone Number:  (+352) 818610
Fax Number: (+352) 818610
Project URL: http://www2.echo.lu/gi/en/gihome.html (where all GI2000 programme documents can be found)

Agency/Organization Name: European Commission, DG XIII/E

Mailing Address: EUFO1180, Euroforum Building, 10 rue Robert Stumper, L-2557 Gasperich, Luxembourg
E-mail Address: martin.littlejohn@lux.dg13.cec.be
Telephone Number: (+352) 4301 83187
Fax Number: (+352) 4301 32847
Name of Agency Head or Primary Contact Person: Mr. Martin Littlejohn, DG XIII/E.3 GI Section head

Additional Organization: Agency/Organization Name: EUROGI - European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information
Mailing Address: EUROGI, 6-8 Avenue Blaise Pascal, CitÈ Descartes /Champs-sur-Marne, F-77455 Marne la Vallee Cedex 2, France
E-mail Address: cchenez@euronet.nl
Telephone Number: (+33) 1 64 15 32 95
Fax Number: (+33) 1 64 15 32 97
Name of Agency Head or Primary Contact Person: Mr. Christian Chenez, Secretary-General

The European Commission has sponsored an initiative called "GI2000: Towards a European Policy Framework for Geographic Information" which is working its way through the wide-ranging consultative processes typical of pan-European initiatives (spanning 15 Member States). The main goal of GI2000 is best summarised in the following extract from the draft Communication to European Council of Ministers and European Parliament:

"..., Europe needs a policy framework to set up and maintain a stable, Europe-wide set of agreed rules, standards, procedures, guidelines and incentives for creating, collecting, exchanging and using geographic information, building upon and where necessary supplementing, existing information society frameworks. The aim should be to create a competitive, plentiful, rich and differentiated supply of European geographic information that is easily identifiable and easily accessible."

The GI2000 initiative embraces all forms of digital geographic / spatial information, which today is collected, used and made available primarily by public sector agencies at local and national level. The only organisations collecting and offering GI (spatial data) at regional level are a limited number of private companies (for travel-related information products, e.g. in-car navigation and tourism) and a few European Institutions, such as the European Statistical Office (Eurostat, Luxembourg), the European Environment Agency (EEA, Copenhagen, Denmark) and the EC's DG VI (Agriculture) for monitoring agricultural land use. The European Institutions collect and use pan-European data (cross-border) mainly to fulfil legal obligations created by Directives covering the whole of the EU (European Union).

Access to spatial data at pan-European (cross-border) level is being encouraged by creation of regional spatial information metadata systems (directories) in projects partly-funded by the European Commission, in partnership with national and regional bodies. The systems are being developed by consortia comprising National Mapping Agencies (NMAs), academic institutions and national and pan-European associations (national GI/GIS associations, EUROGI and CERCO - the organisation representing the NMAs of 32 European countries). The largest existing system is the GDDD - Geographical Data Description Directory - implemented by MEGRIN, the marketing group for CERCO. GDDD helps users find European digital geographic information from 17 of the NMAs which belong to CERCO.

Another metadata project underway is the EC sponsored project ESMI - (European Spatial Metadata Infrastructure) - which aims to provide GI users with better knowledge of existing pan-European datasets. The consortium (which includes MEGRIN and EUROGI, among others) is developing the mechanisms needed to link existing European metadata services which have been created at national level (UK, Netherlands, Finland, Portugal, Spain, etc.).

These are only two of a range of similar projects, but highlight the concept that pan-European GI data will not reside on a single, large spatial database maintained by a single organisation. Rather, an infrastructure is being created, using the Internet as the linking mechanism, by which GI collectors, owners, users, service organisations, vendors and others with an interest in GI will be able (eventually!) to locate spatial data held by thousands of owners across the whole of Europe. Problems obviously exist with language (and even semantics) which seldom need to be catered for at purely national level. When funded by the EC or other EU Institutions, these projects are encouraged (or even required) to adhere to existing standards. In the case of GI, this relates to the European (ENv) standards created by CEN TC 287.

Opposite to the situation which exists in the USA and many other nations, very little digital GI / spatial data collected by local, national and (certainly) regional government agencies in support of their specific needs is available in the public domain. Europe has no "Freedom of Information" act, nor even a "freedom of information" or "government transparency" culture. However, the situation varies widely across the EU and CEEC (Central and Eastern Europe Countries) Member States, with some adopting a more liberal policy than others. Although the EC is slowly progressing a potential European Directive on "Access to and Commercial Exploitation of Public Sector Information in the Information Society - Proposals for a European Union policy" - turtles have been known to move more quickly - during mid-winter hibernation! And even here, the emphasis is jointly on "access" and "commercialisation", which can lead to conflict.

Recently, the United Kingdom government was reprimanded by the European Court of Justice for charging what were considered to be exceptionally high costs (> US$ 500 000) to the UK branch of Friends of the Earth in relation to "environmental" data - base map information which FoE needed to monitor Sites of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSIs). Information relating to the environment is supposed to be made "freely available" to any EU citizen by yet another EC Directive (Directive 90/313/EEC on freedom of access to environmental information) which has been in effect since 1993.

Other than this regional Directive, which covers only ill-defined "environmental" information, there are no special provisions made for spatial data. One of the goals of the GI2000 initiative of DG XIII/E is for a harmonised approach to be developed to access to GI across Europe, at relevant scales and for relevant base data (basic thematic data).

While the existing and proposed GI metadata services tend to be freely available - studies by the EC showed that users were simply not ready to pay for this information and metadata provides today seem to concur - the actual spatial data, once located, is available via an often bewildering range of purchase prices and options. Nearly all GI is sold under separate contractual agreements, in many cases even down to the level of a single portion (e.g. one street or one land parcel) of a single tile of data. Needless to say, users and potential users find this situation not conducive to production of other spatial information products nor to readily and easily satisfying their own spatial analysis needs.

As in the US, spatial data sets now sold or licensed via whatever medium (Internet, CD-ROM, diskette, tape, printed maps) are not part of the ESDI, but simply comprise part of the electronic information market. The commercial sector is free to establish any conditions and prices it chooses for the spatial data it sells or licenses and such conditions vary wildly across the 15 Member States and in the remaining European countries (EEA and CEEC).

Pricing is a major issue in the current debate surrounding the Green Paper (and possible Directive) "Access to and Commercial Exploitation of Public Sector Information in the Information Society - Proposals for a European Union policy" mentioned in (7) above. As yet, there is no consensus across Europe on either the general rules that should apply to access to public data or on pricing. Not only are national government agencies often required to operate a full cost recovery scheme (the UK's Ordnance Survey this year recovered 97% of its total operating costs - exceeding 100 Million GBP), but local government is now following a similar practice in many countries (the UK's Local Government Management Board - LGMB - which represents 450+ UK local government authorities, created in 1997 a separate information sales company specifically to be better able to market and sell data gathered in the course of executing local government business).

First, there is no single "ESDI spatial data set" nor will there ever be one. The GI2000 initiative foresees an information infrastructure (the EGII) which would permit all existing spatial data sets to be located via standard metadata and pan-European directory services. These datasets could then be accessed (unless restricted by law, for example for national security purposes) or acquired by users under a range of terms, ranging from completely freely (as with some local and national government spatial data today, especially in the Scandinavian Member States) to full market cost (travel maps, demographic data, etc. from private companies and public organisations operating government department "cost recovery" schemes).

In Europe today, very few commercial companies collect or offer cross-border or truly pan-European spatial data, except for remote sensing firms (for which "cross-border" data goes hand-in-hand with the technology) and certain travel and transport related organisations (travel clubs, in-car navigation systems integrators, air and marine transport operators, etc.).

Two attempts by EUROGI to foster creation of commercially oriented pan-European associations which could then join EUROGI both failed. EUROGI is an "association of associations" only - individual companies and agencies cannot belong. GIVE (GI Vendors in Europe) and GISPE (GI Service Providers in Europe) were both proposed by EUROGI, but the firms who should have become members of these two new associations were not forthcoming, so the initiative died after about one year.

In Europe, there are no significant digital spatial datasets available without licensing and IPR restrictions - often onerous ones, at that! For example, geo-demographic statistical information collected for the European Statistics Office (Eurostats), including the administrative boundary information covering the whole of Europe down to commune level (the smallest political sub-division) which was created specifically for Eurostat by MEGRIN, is NOT available to users outside the Commission, except at great cost. Pan-European land cover data collected under the CORINE programme of the EC's DG XI and now under control (including updating responsibility) of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is NOT available to commercial use and is very difficult to acquire for even personal use. The agricultural land use information collected by the EC's DG VI (Agriculture) under the MARS programme (Monitoring Agriculture by Remote Sensing) is NOT available for general release, even to other EC institutions or Directorates.

The main problem with these "public domain" data sets at European level (as opposed to purely national level) is that they are commissioned and created to meet the needs of a specific EU Institution or Directorate of the EC, often by special legislation, with little or no regard or thought being given to "public access" at the time that the data collection provisions are made. The actual data collection is then carried out by national bodies (there is no pan-European institution mandated to collect spatial data across Europe) under individual contracts. These contracts tend not to be harmonised, reflecting the different cultures of "access to information" which prevail in the Member State concerned. The resulting situation viz a viz access by the public to these important data sets is confusing to potential users, obstructive, expensive and non-transparent.

From the European agencies themselves and/or related pan-European organisations, there are no such services or goods which are provided free of charge. Of course, numerous universities and research institutes make available the results of projects which are, in many cases, partly or wholly funded by EC R&D programmes (Esprit, Telematics Applications, Environment and Climate, Transport Telematics, etc.) The EC's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Space Applications Institute (SAI), Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) released in 1997 a computer-based system for collecting and reporting GI metadata which adheres to the CEN TC 287 metadata standards.

Spatial datasets receive no special status in Europe as regards privacy protection for individuals, liability for misuse, etc. Existing data protection (copyright/IPR protection) and personal privacy "legislation" are set out in the EU Directive 97/66/EC on data protection in telecommunications services and Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data.

**** OPERATIONAL ISSUES ****

NO

The GI2000 draft Communication has no force in law and is merely a "communication" to the European Council of Ministers (who represent the governments of the Member States at ministerial level) and the European Parliament (who are directly elected or otherwise selected by Member State citizens to represent their interests at European level). A Communication can lead to a Directive (but quite often does not do so), and that Directive can then require enacting legislation at Member State government level (but does not necessarily do so!). This process usually takes many years (e.g. the Data Protection Directive was more than 7 years in the preparation and certain Member States are exempt from enacting national legislation for up to a further decade after the Directive was accepted by the Council of Ministers and European Parliament).

NO

GI2000 does not exist as a programme or even a formally recognised project. It is rather an "initiative" being enacted by one Unit of DG XIII/E (DG XIII/E.3). Limited funds have been made available for conducting consultation meetings, attending (and speaking at) conferences, and the cost of external experts to help in drafting the documentation and maintaining the current Web site and discussion forum where GI2000 issues are debated and elaborated (http://www2.echo.lu/gi/en/gihome.html). Including the cost of external experts and studies carried out in support of GI2000 drafting, total annual expenditure by DG XIII/E has probably been less than 500 000 ECU.

There are no specific funds available to enact any of the recommendations mentioned in the GI2000 draft Communication, wherein the EC's main role is seen as being a facilitator for a High Level Working Party, which will then need to secure the funds for the actions which it deems necessary to implement the ESDI. However, the EGII "Action Line" which still remains in the specific work programme for the developing 5th Framework RTF Programme, envisions a budget of 10 - 20 Million ECU over five years. (This entire Action Line could still be removed from the Programme in the next months - and there is no guarantee that the requested budget will be forthcoming).

A. METADATA YES
B. CLEARINGHOUSE YES (interconnection of existing national clearinghouses)
C. DATA STANDARDS YES (strongly support recently released CEN TC 287 standards)
D. CORE DATA YES - one objective of the GI2000 initiative is to encourage and facilitate collection of pan-European "base data" (15 themes identified) at relevant scales to permit other value-added products to be developed, thus spurring on the market for GI in Europe.

YES

If YES, please describe the types of projects that have been funded.

GI and GIS projects were specifically sought and funded under the IMPACT2 and INFO2000 information market related programmes of DG XIII/E from 1992 onwards (a total of 27 such projects have been part-funded to date). The EU's Fourth Framework RTD Programme and related programmes have provided full or part funding for as many as 190 projects which either use GI and GIS (the majority) or specifically focus on GI and GIS technology developments (a minority).

GI and GIS are also receiving heavy lobbying action for wide-spread inclusion in the Fifth RTD Framework Programme (1998 - 2002) now being agreed the by EU governing Institutions (European Commission, Council of Ministers and European Parliament). One action line in that programme is specifically focused on "EGII - the European Geographic Information Infrastructure" and has a nominal budget of 10 - 20 Million ECU for the five-year programme.

Any projects or related actions which DG XIII/E supports in regard to GI2000 and the creation of an ESDI must adopt the proposed CEN TC 287 standards in so far as practicable. Since these draft standards were only released in the past few months - and several of them are being incorporated into ISO TC 211 work, many users, data owners and vendors are delaying implementation of CEN proposed standards until they see what ISO produces in the next few months. Otherwise, two conversions from local (organisation-specific) or national standards might be needed - first to CEN and then in 12 months' time to ISO. Few organisations are willing to take this risk at this time.

NO

YES and NO (don't you survey designers just love such answers!)

If YES, which initiative(s)?

"NO" - Because DG XIII/E's "GI2000" does not officially exist as a programme or project, nor has it any formally recognised coordinating body. Therefore, it is not possible to be "formally" affiliated with other global or regional infrastructure initiatives.

"YES" - However, EUROGI (which has historically been well supported by DG XIII/E) is formally acknowledged by the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific and by the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) initiative. DG XIII/E has a named representative on the GSDI Programme Committee for the 3rd GSDI Conference (although he won't actually be attending that Conference, by decision of his superiors) and EC Commissioner Bangemann has been "patron" of all three GSDI conferences (1996, 1997 and forthcoming 1998) - albeit without even attending himself or sending a high-level official to represent the EC.

NO (not yet)

If YES, how may a copy be obtained?

The closest thing ESDI has to a "strategic plan" is the draft Communication on GI2000. A virtual verbatim reproduction of this document (internal order and some section heads have been changed) will be on our Web site from 23.9.98 at http://www2.echo.lu/gi/en/gi2000/discussion98.html) as a Discussion Document - August 1998. (This little subterfuge is required because we are not permitted to publicly release copies of a draft Communication - as it is considered to be a closely-held document for internal use only - until such time as the Communication is officially adopted by the Commission - at which time it is too late for any outside the Commission to comment! Good, huh?)

Easy - getting the attention of even one high-level European official who truly understands (or is willing to investigate and accept!) the key role of spatial information in the rapidly evolving Information Society. But I'm not holding my breath!