Introduction
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".
The Directive is not what we had hoped for when starting the petition to amend or reject INSPIRE on the grounds that it does not do enough to provide access to geodata to European citizens and businesses.
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.
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Latest News
2007-02-01: Europarl: Better geographical data: conciliation agreement approved by EP on INSPIRE
2007-02-01: Europarl: INSPIRE directive will be adopted at next Strasbourg plenary, 12 February
2006-11-22: Commission: Environmental data: Commission welcomes agreement on INSPIRE system
2006-11-23: Council: INSPIRE - Infrastructure for spatial information in the Community
2006-11-23: FreeOurData: How the Inspire directive was watered down
2006-11-22: Europarl: Better geographical data: conciliation agreement on INSPIRE
2006-11-25: Open Access News: More on the INSPIRE compromise
2006-11-23: Guardian: Britain poised for victory in Brussels
2006-11-22: Finish Presidency: Agreement between Parliament and Council on INSPIRE is reached
2006-11-01: Publicgeodata publishes the compromise amendments proposed by the Commission
2006-11-01: Guardian: November 21st looks like a key date
2006-10-09: UK: Defra is against Public Geographic Data and the European Parliament's amendments
2006-09-30: Publicgeodata pusblishes some answers to the Open Letter to Ministers
2006-09-20: Council of ministers: Inspire discussed in the Coreper I secret meeting
2006-09-19: Commission's position on amendments of the Parliament
2006-09-18: 'Free Data' article in The Times
2006-09-07: Guardian: Land Registry blocks plan for property website
2006-08-25: Guardian: It's a struggle to get data out of councils
2006-08-25: PublicGeoData is looking for people to translate the letter in all languages of the EU
2006-07-27: Guardian: UK fights tide on data directive
2006-06-28: Council publishes a summary of the outcome of the second reading of the European Parliament
2006-06-18: UK conservative MEP:UK defence security threatened by EU naivety on giving public access to maps
2006-06-18: Telegraph: EU gaffe could expose the Navy's chart secrets
2006-06-15: RSA / The Guardian: conference on Free our Data, monday 17 July
2006-06-13: European Parliament votes on the Inspire directive
2006-06-03: Proceedings of the Riksdag conference available online (see Rapporteur's presentation)
2006-06-03: Deadline for amendments wednesday 7 June, vote in plenary on monday 12 June
2006-05-03: Conference on cost recovery (London, Thursday 11 May)
2006-05-03: Conciliation: more transparency for an environmentally-friendly Europe
2006-05-03: Parliament plenary vote in second reading scheduled for 12-15 June
2006-04-10: Heise article: Freier Zugang zu Geo-Daten gefordert
2006-03-24: Inspire Euro-geo portal opened
2006-03-24: Slashdot: Where are the Boundaries to Open Source? (mentions Tim Berners-Lee call for Public Geo Data)
2006-03-23: Written questions about INSPIRE answered in UK Parliament
2006-03-23: Guardian: Creator of World Wide Web (WWW) calls to open public Geo Data
2006-03-21: MEP McAvan (UK Labour) answers Tim Waters
2006-03-21: ENVI committee votes for the Rapporter amendments
2006-03-20: Petition passes 2500 signatures
2006-03-16: Europarl: amendments published
2006-03-16: Open Letter from Public Geodata to the Members of the ENVI Committee
2006-03-15: Governmental Mapping Agencies lobbying Members of the European Parliament
2006-03-01: The ENVI Committee meet to discuss INSPIRE amendments on 21st March. What can be done?
2006-02-28: Petition banners available to put on your website
2006-02-21: Barrapunto: La directiva INSPIRE y los datos geográficos públicos
2006-02-21: Environment Committee meets to discuss INSPIRE (audio recording available)
2006-02-20: Inspire directive on the agenda of the ENVI committee of the European Parliament
2006-02-20: Directionsmag: Why Europe Needs to Provide its Own Public Geodata
2006-02-17: PublicGeoData starts petition asking the European Parliament to reject the Inspire directive
2006-02-16: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament (Commission is not happy about Intellectual Property clauses in the Common Position)
2006-02-16: Start of the second reading in the European Parliament of the Inspire directive