Will INSPIRE succeed when the PSI Directive has not?

Friday 18 May 2007 5:02:06 pm

Will INSPIRE succeed when the PSI Directive has not?

The INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC has now come into force (as of 15 May 2007) within the European Union and Member States now have two years to transpose the INSPIRE Directive into national law (15 May 2009).

The INSPIRE Directive refers to the PSI Directive 2003/98/EC and requires Member States to implement Metadata services by 15 May 2010 (two years following the adoption of the metadata rules on 15 May 2008). Article 5 of the INSPIRE Directive sets out the information to be provided within the Metadata services. The metadata services to be delivered by 15 May 2010 must cover the data detailed in Annexes I and II. The metadata services for data detailed in Annex III must be implemented before 15 May 2013!

The PSI Directive 2003/98/EC also requires Asset lists to be produced and maintained. The PSI Directive came into force at the EU Level 42 months ago and there is very little evidence to show that European Public Sector Information Holders (PSIH’s) have met the requirement for asset lists of their information holdings. Admittedly the PSI Directive information holdings are wider than those of the INSPIRE Directive however on the other hand the level of detail to be provided is far less than that required by INSPIRE.

The INSPIRE Directive has no compliance regime and no enforcement regime. The powers of compliance and enforcement within the INSPIRE Directive could be considered to be less than those included within the PSI Directive! So what will encourage the PSIH to meet the metadata service requirement this time around?

The INSPIRE Directive may well introduce yet another set of rules and requirements that need to be complied with in respect to their data holdings. Member States have an opportunity when transposing the INSPIRE Directive to take steps to improve through simplification and harmonisation all the rules that relate to access to information.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question 1: What are the attributes within the INSPIRE Directive over and above those in the PSI Directive that will encourage PSIH’s to implement metadata services?

Question 2: If the metadata services are not implemented or the implementation is patchy (islands of implementation) then can the INSPIRE Directive deliver the benefits perceived?

Question 3: Will PSIH’s be further confused by yet another set of criteria that need to be met with respect to accessing, creating, maintaining, archiving their information holdings?