INSPIRE is the most recent in a long series of attempted EC Directives that have tried to establish a common framework for annotating and sharing geographic data between member states - a spatial data infrastructure. It emphasises the environmental reasons to share data between official agencies in different EC countries, rather than focusing on access to that data as a way of promoting wider involvement in civic issues.

On February 12th 2007 the INSPIRE Directive establishing a framework for spatial data infrastructure in Europe was approved by the European Parliament. It will become law within 8 weeks of this date, then Member States have 2 years to implement it in national law and to comply with the "Implementing Rules".

Now the Implementing Rules are being written. Each will go through a period of public consultation, and once complete presented to a committee of experts chosen by the European Commission. There is an effort to prepare an open source community response to the Implementing Rules for Metadata.

 

Visit their web site at http://www.publicgeodata.org/

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