A 689
I assent.
(L.S.) GEORGE VELLA
President
2nd July, 2021
ACT No. XXXV of 2021
AN ACT to amend the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Act,  Cap.
546.
BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the House of Represen tatives, in this present Parlia ment
assembled, and by the authorit y of the same as follows:-
Short title.
Cap. 546.1. The short title of this Act is the Re-Use of Public Sector
Information (Amendment) Act, 2021  and this Act shall be read an d
construed as one with the Re-Use  of Public Sector Information A ct,
hereinafter referred to a s "the principal Act".
Amendment of 
article 1 of the 
principal Act.2. Sub-article (2) of article 1 of the principal Act shall be
substituted by the following new sub-article:
"(2) The purpose of this Act is to implement the provisions
of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 20 June 2019 on ope n data and the re-use of publ ic
sector information (recast).".
Amendment of 
article 2 of the 
principal Act.3. Article 2 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows:
(a) immediately before the definition "document" there
shall be added the following new definitions:
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" "anonymisation" means the process of changing
documents into anonymous doc uments which do not relate
to an identified or identifiable natural person, or the process
of rendering personal data a nonymous in such a manner that
the data subject is not or no longer identifiable;
"application program interface" or "API" means a set
of automated functions and protocols that enable machine-
to-machine communications for the exchange and
consumption of data in a dynamic environment. Such APIs
shall follow a registration process prior to be authorised and
included in the nationa l data portal;"; 
(b) immediately after the definition "document" there
shall be added the follo wing new definitions:
" "dynamic data" means documents in a digital form,
subject to frequent or real -time updates, in particular
because of their volatility or rapid obsolescence; data
generated by sensors are typica lly considered to be dynamic
data;
"high-value datasets" means documents the re-use of
which is associated with impor tant benefits for society, the
environment and the economy, in particular because of their
suitability for the creati on of value-added services,
applications and new, high-quality and decent jobs, and of
the number of potential benef iciaries of the value-added
services and applications based on those datasets;";
(c) immediately after the defin ition "public sector entity"
there shall be added the following new definitions:
" "public undertaking" means any undertaking:
(a) active in the areas defined in Directive
2014/25/EU; 
(b) acting as public service operator
pursuant to Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No. 1370/2007; 
(c) acting as air carriers fulfilling public
service obligations pursuant to Article 16 ofRegulation (EC) No. 1008/2008; or 
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"research data" means documents in a digital form,
other than scientific publicat ions, which are collected or
produced in the course of scientific research activities and
are used as evidence in the research process, or are
commonly accepted in the research community as necessaryto validate research f indings and results;";
(d) the definition "re-use of documents" shall be
substituted by the follo wing new definition:(d) acting as Community shipowners
fulfilling public service obligations pursuant toArticle 4 of Regulation (EEC) No. 3577/92 over
which the public sector bodies may exercise
directly or indirectly a dominant influence by virtue
of their ownership of it, th eir financial participation
therein, or the rules which govern it. A dominantinfluence on the part of the public sector bodiesshall be presumed in any of the following cases in
which those bodies, dir ectly or indirectly: 
(i) hold the majority of the undertaking's
subscribed capital;
(ii) control the majority of the votes
attaching to shares issued by the undertaking;
(iii) can appoint more than half of the
undertaking's administrative, management or
supervisory body;
" "re-use of documents" m eans the use by a person,
public sector body, or legal entity of a document heldby:
(a) the public sector body or another public
sector body, as the case may be, for commercial ornon-commercial pur poses, other than the initial
purpose within that public sector body’s publictask for which the document was produced,except for the exchang e of documents between
public sector bodies purely in pursuit of their publictasks; or
(b) public undertaking s, for commercial or
non-commercial pur poses, other than for the initial
purpose of providing services in the general interest
for which the documents were produced, except for
the exchange of documents between public
undertakings and public sector bodies purely in
pursuit of the public task s of public sector bodies."
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" "standard licence" means a set of predefined re-use
conditions in a digital format , preferably compatible with
standardised public licenses available online.".
Amendment of 
article 3 of the 
principal Act.4. Article 3 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows: 
(a) paragraph (h) thereof shall be substituted by the
following new paragraph:
"(h) documents held by educational establishments
of secondary level and below, research establishments,
research performing organisations and research funding
organisations, including organisations established for the
transfer of research results, as well as research units withinpublic sector bodies, schools and universities, except
university libraries, and, in the  case of all other educational
establishments, documents other than those referred to in
paragraph (b);"; and
(b) immediately after paragraph (i) thereof there shall be
added the following new paragraphs:
Amendment of 
article 6 of the 
principal Act.5. In article 6 of the principal Act the words "shall prevail." sh all
be substituted by the words "shall prevail:" and immediately thereafterand immediately thereafter there shall be added the
following new definition:
"(j) documents held by public undertakings:
 (i) produced outside the scope of the
provision of services in the general interest as
defined by law or other binding rules; 
S.L. 601. 05.(ii) related to activities directly exposed to
competition, under regulation 24 of the Public
Procurement of Entities operating in the Water,Energy, Transport and Postal Services Sector
Regulations, and therefore not subject to
procurement rules;
S.L. 460. 24.(k) documents access to which is excluded or
restricted on grounds of sensit ive critical infrastructure
protection related information as defined in article 2 of the
Critical Infrastructures and European CriticalInfrastructures (Identification, Designation and Protection)
Order;".
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there shall be added the following new proviso:
Addition of new 
article to the principal Act.6. Immediately after article 8 of t he principal Act there shall be
added the following new article:
Amendment of article 9 of the principal Act. 7. Article 9 of the principal Act s hall be renumbered as sub-artic le
(1) and immediately thereafter there shall be added the followi ng new
sub-article: 
"(2) Where no time limits or other rules regulating
the timely provision of documents have been established,
public sector bodies shall process the request and shalldeliver the documents for re-use to the applicant or, if a
licence is needed, finalise the licence offer to the applicant
as soon as possible, and in a ny event within twenty (20)
working days of receipt. That time frame may be extended
by a further twenty (20) working days in the case ofCap. 415."Provided that the right for the maker of a
database provided for in art icle 25 of the Copyright Act
shall not be exercised by public sector bodies in order toprevent the re-use of documents or to restrict re-use
beyond the limits set by this Act.".
"
Research 
data.8A. (1) Without prejudice to paragraph (b) of
article 3, research data shall be re-usable for commercial
or non-commercial purposes in accordance with articles13 to 23 (both articles included), insofar as they arepublicly funded and resear chers, research performing
organisations or research f unding organisations have
already made them publicly available through aninstitutional or subject-based repository. In that context,
legitimate commercial interests, knowledge transfer
activities and pre-existing intellectual property rightsshall be taken into account. 
(2) The Minister respon sible for public sector
information may adopt national policies and relevant
actions aimed at making publicly funded research data
openly available, following the principle of open bydefault and the FAIR principles. 
(3) Concerns relating to intellectual property rights,
personal data protection and confidentiality, security and
legitimate commercial interests, shall be taken intoaccount in accordance with the  principle of "as open as
possible, as closed as necessary". Open access policies
shall be addressed to researc h performing organisations
and research funding organisations.".
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extensive or complex requests. In such cases, the applicant
shall be notified as s oon as possible, and in any event within
three weeks of the initial request, that more time is needed to
process the request and the reasons  why:
Provided that any licence involved shall be in
accordance with the pr ovisions of article 17.".
Amendment of 
article 10 of the 
principal Act.8. Sub-article(4) of article 10 o f  t h e  p r i n c i p a l  A c t  s h a l l  b e
substituted by the follo wing new sub-article: 
Amendment of 
article 13 of the 
principal Act.9. Article 13 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows:
(a) sub-article (1) thereof shall be substituted by the
following new sub-article:
"(1) Without prejudice to the  Schedule, public sector
bodies and public undertakings shall make their documents
available in any pre-existing format or language and, where
possible and appropriate, by el ectronic means, in formats
that are open, machine-readable , accessible, findable and re-
usable, together with their metad ata. Both the format and the
metadata shall, where possible, comply with formal openstandards."; and
(b) immediately after sub-article (2) thereof there shall be
added the following new sub-articles:
Addition of new 
article to the 
principal Act.10. Immediately after article 13 of t he principal Act there shall be"(4) The following entities shall not be required to
comply with the requirements of this article:
(a) public undertakings; 
(b) educational establishments, research
performing organisations and research funding
organisations.".
"(3) Sub-article (1) shall a pply to existing documents
held by public undertakings which are available for re-
use. 
(4) The high-value datasets, as listed in accordance
with the Schedule, shall be made available for re-use in
machine-readable format, via  suitable APIs and, where
relevant, as a bulk download.".
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added the following new article: 
Amendment of 
article 15 of the principal Act.11. Article 15 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows:
(a) sub-article (1) thereof shall be substituted by the
following new sub-article: 
(b) paragraph (b) of sub-article (2) thereof shall be
substituted by the follo wing new paragraph: 
"(b) public undertakings;";
(c) sub-article (3) thereof shall be substituted by the
following new sub-article: "Dynamic 
data.13A. (1) Public sector bodi es shall make dynamic
data available for re-use immediately after collection, via
suitable APIs and, where relevant, as a bulk download. 
(2) Where making dynamic data available for re-use
immediately after collection, as referred to in sub-article
(1), would exceed the financ ial and technical capacities
of the public sector body, thereby imposing adisproportionate effort, those dynamic data shall be made
available for re-use within a time frame or withtemporary technical restrictions that do not unduly
impair the exploitation of t heir economic and social
potential. 
(3) The provisions of this  a r t i c l e  s h a l l  a p p l y  t o
existing documents held by public undertakings which
are available for re-use.".
"(1) The re-use of documents shall be free of charge:
Provided that the recovery of marginal costs
incurred for the reproduction, provision and
dissemination of documents as well as for anonymisation
of personal data and measures taken to protectcommercially confidential i nformation may be allowed.";
"(3) In the cases referred to in sub-article (2)(a) and
(b), the public sector bodies concerned shall calculate the
total charges according to objective, transparent and
verifiable criteria as set out in the rules issued under thisAct.
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(d) sub-article (4) thereof shall be substituted by the
following new sub-article: 
"(4) Where charges are made by the public sector
bodies referred to in sub-article (2)(c), the total income from
supplying and allowing re-use of documents over theappropriate accounting period shall not exceed the cost of
collection, production, reproduc tion, dissemination, data
storage, preservation and rights clearance, and where
applicable the anonymisation of  personal data and measures
taken to protect commerciall y confidential information,
together with a reasonable return on investment. Charges
shall be calculated in line with the accounting principles
applicable."; and
(e) immediately after sub-article (7) thereof there shall be
added the following new sub-article:
Amendment of 
article 17 of the principal Act.12. Sub-article (1) of article 17 of  t h e  p r i n c i p a l  A c t  s h a l l  b e
substituted by the following: The total income of those bodies from supplying and
allowing re-use of documents over the appropriate
accounting period shall not exceed the cost of collection,
production, reproduction a nd dissemination and data
storage, together with a reas onable return on investment,
and, where applicable, the a nonymisation of personal data
and measures taken to protect commercially confidential
information.
Charges shall be calculated in line with the accounting
principles applicable.";
"(8) The re-use of the following shall be free of
charge for the user:
(a) subject to the Schedule, the high-value
datasets, as listed in accor dance with item 1 of that
Schedule; 
(b) research data refer red to in article 8A.".
"(1) The re-use of documents shall not be subject to
conditions, unless such c onditions are objective,
proportionate, non-discriminatory and justified ongrounds of a public i nterest objective.
When re-use is subject to  conditions, those conditions
shall not unnecessarily restric t possibilities for re-use
and shall not be used to restrict competition.
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Amendment of 
article 18 of the 
principal Act.13. Article 18 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows:
(a) in paragraph (a) thereof the words "the asset lists; and"
shall be substituted by the words "the asset lists;"; and
(b) in paragraph (b) thereof the words "search for
documents." shall be substituted by the words "search for
documents; and" and immediately thereafter there shall be added
the following new paragraph:
"(c) continue efforts to simplify access to datasets by
providing a single point of access and making availablesuitable datasets held by pub lic sector bodies with regard to
documents to which this Act applies, in formats that are
accessible, readily findable a nd re-usable by electronic
means.".
Amendment of 
article 19 of the principal Act.14. Article 19 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows:
(a) in sub-article (1) thereof immediately after the words
"public sector bodies" there shall be added the words "or publi c
undertakings"; 
(b) in sub-article (2) thereof the words "27 June 2013"
shall be substituted by the  words "16 July 2019"; and
(c) immediately after sub-articl e (3) thereof there shall be
added the following ne w sub-articles: Where it is deemed appropriate by the public sector
body that conditions on re-use are imposed, such
conditions shall be imposed through a licence. These
conditions shall not be disc riminatory for comparable
categories of re-use, nor shall they be such as to
unnecessarily restrict the way in which a document can
be re-used including restrict ions in competition and such
conditions shall be objective, proportionate and justified
on grounds of a public interest objective.".
"(4) Legal or practical a rrangements that, without
expressly granting an exclusive right, aim at, or could
reasonably be expected to lead to, a restricted availability
for the re-use of documents by entities other than the thirdparty participating in the arrangement, shall be made
publicly available online at least two (2) months before
their coming into effect. 
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Substitution of 
article 23 of the principal Act.15. Article 23 of the pri ncipal Act shall be substituted by the
following new article: 
Addition of new Schedule to the principal Act. 16. Immediately after article 25 of t he principal Act there shall be
added the following new Schedule:
"SCHEDULE
1. The provisions of this Act shal l apply to the following thema tic
categories of high- value datasets:
(a) geospatial;
(b) earth observation and environment;
(c) meteorological;
(d) statistics;(e) companies and company ownership;
(f) mobility. 
2. The specific high-value datasets belonging to the categories in
item 1, as may be adopted in terms of Directive 2019/1024/EU, s hall be:
(a) available free of charge, subject to the provisions of
item 3; 
(b) machine readable; (5) The effect of such legal or practical arrangements
on the availability of data for re-use shall be subject to
regular reviews and shall, in any event, be reviewed every
three (3) years. The final terms of such arrangements shall
be transparent and made publicly available online.".
"23. (a) Without prejudice t o article 22, exclusive
arrangements existing on 17 July 2013 that do not qualify
for the exceptions under sub-ar ticles (2) and (3) of article
19 and that were entered in to by public sector bodies,
shall be terminated at the end of the contract and in anyevent not later than 18 July 2043. 
(b) Exclusive arrangements existing on 16 July
2019 that do not qualify for the exceptions under sub-
articles (2) and (3) of artic le 19, and that were entered
into by public undertakings, shall be terminated at the
end of the contract and in a ny event not later than on 17
July 2049.".
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(c) provided via APIs; and 
(d) provided as a bulk download, where relevant. 
3. The requirement for high-value datasets to be available free of
charge shall not apply to: 
(a) libraries, including university libraries, museums and
archives;
(b) public sector bodies that are required to generate
revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the
performance of their public tasks and complying with the
requirement to make datasets free of charge would lead to a
substantial impact on the budg et of the bodies involved. Provid ed
that this exemption shall be li mited to a period of not more th an
two (2) years following the entry into force of the relevantimplementing act adopted in terms of Directive 2019/1024/EU.".
Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 480 of the
28th June, 2021.
ANĠLU FARRUGIA
Speaker
RAYMOND SCICLUNA
Clerk of the House of Representatives
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