2006/291/EC,Euratom: Commission Decision of  7 April 2006  on the re-use of Commission information
Date: 2006-04-07
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union, access to EU information, data collection, dissemination of EU information, information

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II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COMMISSION

COMMISSION DECISION

of 7 April 2006

on the re-use of Commission information

(2006/291/EC, Euratom)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

and services and which could provide a useful content
resource for companies and citizens alike.

Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular Article 218(2) thereof,

establishing the European

(4)

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community, and in particular Article 131 thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in
particular Article 28(1) and Article 41(1) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

The new information and communication technologies
have created unprecedented possibilities to aggregate
and combine content from different sources.

products

Public sector information is an untapped resource that
information
could be the basis of new, added-value,
society
The Commission
and
underlined the economic potential of public sector infor-
mation in its Communication of 23.10.2001 (1) ‘eEurope
2002: Creating an EU framework for the exploitation of
public sector information’.

services.

(3)

The Commission and the other Institutions are them-
selves holders of many documents of all kinds which
could be re-used in added-value information products

The right to access Commission documents is regulated
through Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding
public access
to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents (2).

(5)

(6)

(7)

Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of
the Council (3) sets minimum rules for the re-use of
public sector
the European
information throughout
Union.
In its recitals it encourages Member States to
go beyond these minimum rules and to adopt open
data policies, allowing a broad use of documents held
by public sector bodies.

In its Communication ‘eEurope 2002: Creating an EU
framework for the exploitation of public sector infor-
mation’, the Commission announced an update of the
policies on the re-use of information of the EU insti-
tutions. Several positive steps have been made in this
respect, such as the new Eurostat policy on dissemination
of information and the move towards a freely accessible
Eurlex portal.

The new Commission initiative ‘i2010 — a European
Information Society for growth and employment’, aims
among other things at facilitating the creation and circu-
lation of European content. As part of
this
Decision determines the conditions for the re-use of
Commission documents, with a view to achieving a
broad re-use.

i2010,

(1) COM(2001) 607 final.

(2) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
(3) OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, p. 90.

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(8)

(9)

An open re-use policy at the Commission will support
new economic activity, lead to a wider use and spread of
Community information, enhance the image of openness
and transparency of the Institutions, and avoid unne-
cessary administrative burden for users and Commission
services.

This Decision should be implemented and applied in full
compliance with the principles relating to the protection
of personal data in accordance with Regulation (EC)
45/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council
of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals
with regard to the processing of personal data by the
Community institutions and bodies and on the free
movement of such data (1).

(10)

This Decision should not apply to documents for which
the Commission is not in a position to allow re-use, e.g.
in view of
third party intellectual property rights or
where the documents have been received from the
other Institutions,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Decision determines the conditions for
the re-use of
documents held by the Commission or on its behalf by the
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
(Publications Office) with the aim of facilitating a wider re-use
of
the
information, enhancing the image of openness of
Commission, and avoiding unnecessary administrative burden
for re-users and the Commission services alike.

2.

This Decision shall not apply:

(a)

to software or to documents covered by industrial property
rights such as patents, trademarks, registered designs, logos
and names;

(b) to documents for which the Commission is not

in a
intellectual property

position to allow re-use in view of
rights of third parties;

(c)

to the research results of the Joint Research Centre;

(d) to documents made accessible to a party under specific rules

governing privileged access to documents.

This Decision shall be implemented in full respect of the
3.
rules on the protection of
individuals with regard to the
processing of personal data, and in particular Regulation (EC)
No 45/2001.

This Decision is without prejudice to and in no way

4.
affects Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall
apply:

1.

‘document’ shall mean:

Article 2

Scope

(a) any content whatever its medium (written on paper or
stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audio-
visual recording);

1.
This Decision applies to public documents authored by
the Commission or by public and private entities on its
behalf:

(b) any part of such content;

(a) which have been published by the Commission or by the
through publications,

Publications Office on its behalf
websites or other dissemination tools; or

2.

‘re-use’ shall mean the use of documents by persons or legal
entities of documents, for commercial or non-commercial
purposes other
than the initial purpose for which the
documents were produced. The exchange of documents
between the Commission and other public sector bodies
which use these documents purely in the pursuit of their
public tasks does not constitute re-use;

(b) which have not been published for economic or other
practical reasons, such as studies, reports and other data.

(1) OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1.

3.

‘personal data’ shall mean data as defined in Article 2(a) of
Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.

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Article 4

General principle

shall be

Subject to the restrictions set out in Article 2(2) and 2(3) all
commercial or non-
documents
commercial purposes in accordance with the conditions set
out below. Where possible, documents shall be made available
through electronic means.

re-usable

for

Article 5

Processing applications for re-use

In order to limit the need to make individual re-use appli-
1.
cations
shall, where appropriate,
indicate whether documents are re-usable (e.g. by general
notices on web pages).

the Commission services

the application,

2.
An application for the re-use of a document shall be
handled promptly. An acknowledgement of receipt shall be
sent to the applicant. Within 15 working days from registration
the Commission service or Publications
of
Office shall either allow re-use of
the document requested,
and, where relevant, provide a copy of the document, or, in a
written reply, indicate the total or partial refusal of the appli-
cation, stating the reasons.

In exceptional cases, for example in the event of an appli-
3.
cation relating to a very long document to a very large number
of documents or in case the application needs to be translated,
the time-limit provided for in paragraph 2 may be extended by
15 working days, provided that the applicant is notified in
advance and that detailed reasons are given.

This does not imply an obligation to create, to adapt or to
update documents in order to comply with the application,
nor any obligation to provide extracts from documents where
this would involve disproportionate effort, going beyond a
simple operation.

this Decision create any obligation for

the
Neither does
Commission to translate the documents requested into any
other language versions than those already available at
the
moment of the application.

On the basis of this Decision, the Commission or the Publi-
cations Office may not be required to continue the production
of certain types of documents or to preserve them in a given
format with a view to the re-use of such documents by a
natural or legal person.

Article 7

Principles governing charging

The re-use of documents shall

1.
charge.

in principle be free of

In specific cases, marginal costs incurred for the repro-

2.
duction and dissemination of documents may be recovered.

In the case of a refusal, the Commission service or Publi-
4.
cations Office shall inform the applicant of the right to bring an
action before the Court of First
the European
Instance of
Communities or
to lodge a complaint with the European
Ombudsman, under the conditions laid down in Articles 230
and 195 of the EC Treaty, respectively, or Articles 146 and
107(d) of the Euratom Treaty.

In cases where the Commission decides

3.
to adapt a
document in order to satisfy a specific application, the costs
involved in the adaptation may be recovered from the applicant.
The assessment of the need to recover such costs shall take into
account the effort necessary for the adaptation as well as the
potential advantages the re-use may bring to the Communities,
for example in terms of spreading information on the func-
tioning of the Communities or in terms of the image of the
Institution to the outside world.

5. Where a refusal is based on Article 2(2)b of this Decision,
the reply to the applicant shall include a reference to the natural
or legal person who is the rightholder, where known, or alter-
natively to the licensor
from which the Commission has
obtained the relevant material, where known.

Article 8

Transparency

Any applicable conditions and standard charges for the re-
shall be pre-established and published,

1.
use of documents
through electronic means where possible and appropriate.

Article 6

Available formats

Documents shall be made available in any existing format or
language version, through electronic means where possible and
appropriate.

2.
The search for documents will be facilitated by practical
arrangements, such as asset-lists of main documents available
for re-use.

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Article 9

Licenses

The re-use of documents may be allowed without conditions or
conditions may be imposed, where appropriate through a
license or through a disclaimer. Typical conditions for re-use
include the obligation for the re-user to acknowledge the source
of the documents, the obligation not to distort the original
meaning or message of the documents, and non-liability of
the Commission for any consequence stemming from the re-
use. The conditions shall not unnecessarily restrict possibilities
for re-use.

Article 10

Non-discrimination and prohibition of exclusive
arrangements

Any applicable conditions for the re-use of documents
1.
shall be non-discriminatory for comparable categories of re-use.

The re-use of documents shall be open to all potential

2.
actors in the market. No exclusive rights shall be granted.

3.
However, where an exclusive right is necessary for the
provision of a service in the public interest, the validity of the
reason for granting such an exclusive right shall be subject to
regular review, and shall, in any event, be reviewed after three
years. Any exclusive arrangement shall be transparent and made
public.

Article 11

Implementation

In accordance with Article 14 of the Commission’s rules of
the
procedure,

to take decisions on behalf of

the power

Commission on applications for re-use is delegated to the
Directors-General and Heads of Service. They shall take the
necessary measures to ensure that the procedures in relation
the
to documents
they shall
this Decision. To this
requirements of
designate an official to consider applications for re-use and
coordinate the response of the Directorate-General or Service.

responsible meet
end,

for which they are

Article 12

Review

This Decision shall be reviewed three years after its entry into
force. The review shall
in particular look into the possible
application of this Decision to the research results of the Joint
Research Centre.

Article 13

Entry into force

This Decision shall enter into force on the day of its publication
in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Done at Brussels, 7 April 2006.

For the Commission

Viviane REDING
Member of the Commission