data.europa.eu The official portal for European data
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[text_output]On 26 April 2021, the Publication Office of the European Union launched the data.europa.eu portal. The portal is a result of the European Data Portal and the European Open Data Portal merge and will act as a single access point for open data from Europe and its Member States.
Under the name data.europa.eu, the project will continue its mission to support European countries in increasing their open data maturity, publishing open data, and promoting awareness of open data’s potential for re-use.
To better exploit the potential of open data and public sector information (PSI), the project is centred around:
Harvesting metadata of PSI available on public open data portals in European countries;
Fostering uptake on data supply, including through the support to the improvement of the (meta)data quality supply; and
Fostering the uptake of public sector information re-use across Europe.
The strategic goal of the data.europa.eu project is to improve accessibility and increase the value of public sector information along the whole data value chain. Thus, the project will operate, maintain and further develop the data.europa.eu portal, support Member States and European countries in the publication of data and increase awareness on the value and potential of public data resources.
Recommendations for Open Data Portals: from setup to sustainability
Open Data is now a worldwide movement. It has, as the 2016 Open Data Barometer (ODB) report puts it, ‘entered the mainstream’. More than half of the countries surveyed by the ODB in 2015 have an Open Data initiative. In 93% of countries surveyed, even in countries where that data is not yet fully open, civil society and the technology community are using government data. OpenDataSoft estimates that there are more than 2,600 Open Data portals worldwide.
In Europe, Open Data has been a focus for policymakers for over a decade.5 Revisions to the European Union Directive on Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) in 2013 made reusable and open public sector data the presumptive norm for Member States.6 The updated Directive also encouraged the adoption of standard licences for public sector data, and strengthened mechanisms for people to challenge decisions made not to make information available for re-use. Today, almost all European countries now have an Open Data portal, and across the continent these portals are becoming more advanced, being used more frequently and creating more benefits for citizens. As Open Data moves from being a new initiative to business as usual for governments, ensuring Open Data portals are fit for purpose and sustainable in the long term is a top priority. › Download pdf[/text_output]
