COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information
Date: 2018-04-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: access to information, copyright, data collection, dissemination of information, domestic market, information, information service, public sector, right to reuse information

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 25.4.2018  SWD(2018) 129 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information {COM(2018) 234 final}  - {SWD(2018) 145 final}  
 
 
Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information (the PSI Directive) aims to 
make it easier to re-use public sector information (PSI) throughout the EU by harmonising the 
basic  conditions  for  making  PSI  available  to  re-users.  More  specifically,  its  objectives 
include: 

improving the development of EU-wide products and services based on PSI; 

 
  stimulating cross-border re-use of PSI; and 
  preventing distortions of competition on PSI-related markets. 

The PSI Directive was amended in July 2013 by Directive 2013/37/EU to address a number of 
barriers that prevented the full realisation of the benefits of PSI re-use. This was done by (i) 
extending  the  scope  of  application  to  the  cultural  sector;  (ii)  laying  down  the  principle  of 
charging at maximum the marginal dissemination costs; and (iii) including a recommendation 
that public sector bodies should, as far as possible, make PSI available in open and machine-
readable formats. 

This REFIT evaluation has been carried out to fulfil the periodic review obligation contained 
in Article 13(1) of the PSI Directive, which stipulates that ‘the Commission shall carry out a 
review of the application of this Directive before 18 July 2018’. At the same time, it will help 
fulfil the goals of the digital single market (DSM) strategy in the field of the data economy. In 
the  May  2017  mid-term  review  of  the  DSM  strategy,  the  Commission  announced  that  it 
would,  ‘in  spring  2018,  based  on  an  evaluation  of  existing  legislation  and  subject  to  an 
Impact  Assessment,  prepare  an  initiative  on  accessibility  and  re-use  of  public  and  publicly 
funded data and further explore the issue of privately held data which are of public interest’. 

Under  this  commitment,  the  evaluation1  has  been  carried  out  back-to-back  with  the  impact 
assessment  on  policy  options  for  the  future  of  the  PSI  Directive2.  The  conclusions  of  this 
evaluation have — where relevant — fed into the impact assessment. 

A  broad  set  of  data  sources  were  used  to  perform  this  evaluation,  including  a  study 
commissioned to support the review of the PSI Directive3 and the findings of the 2017 Open 
Data Maturity in Europe Report from the European Data Portal4. Input was also gathered from 
the  Member  States  and  broad  stakeholder  consultations  were  organised,  including  a  public 
online consultation, numerous workshops and a public hearing. 

In line with the Commission’s Better regulation guidelines, the Directive has been subject to 
an overall assessment as well as to a more specific evaluation process against the following 
five  criteria:  effectiveness,  efficiency,  relevance,  coherence  and  EU  added-value.  The 

1   SWD(2018) 145. 
2   SWD(2018) 127. 
3  

Impact  Assessment  Support  Study,  Deloitte,  SMART  2017/0061:  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-
market/news-redirect/623420   

4   https://www.europeandataportal.eu/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n3_2017.pdf  

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evaluation  covered  the  overall  functioning  of  the  Directive,  with  particular  focus  on  the 
changes introduced in 2013. 

Effectiveness:  Generally  speaking,  the  PSI  Directive  has  been  effective  in  achieving  its 
objectives  of  (i)  ensuring  fairer  competition  in  the  digital  single  market;  (ii)  enabling  the 
creation of new jobs and services; and (iii) to a lesser extent, enhancing the effective cross-
border use of PSI by businesses. The 2013 changes have also been effective, in particular on 
charging and data formats. However, the Directive has not yet reached its full potential and a 
few (and sometimes new) challenges exist, such as PSI data lock-in resulting from new types 
of partnerships between public sector bodies and private companies. 

Efficiency:  There is an overall positive  balance between the costs and  the  (quantitative and 
qualitative) benefits of the PSI Directive. It is too early to draw conclusions on how efficient 
the 2013 extension to the cultural institutions has been. 

Relevance:  The  PSI  Directive  has  retained  its  relevance  to  stakeholders’  needs.  However, 
emerging  trends  such  as  the  growing  significance  of  dynamic  data  and  Member  States’ 
measures  designed  to  increase  the  availability  of  data  in  new  areas  not  covered  by  the 
Directive (e.g. data from public undertakings in utility domains) might have an impact on its 
relevance for the future. 

Coherence:  Generally  speaking,  the  PSI  Directive  is  consistent  with  other  relevant  EU 
legislation. Nevertheless, a technical update clarifying in particular the relationship with the 
Database Directive and the INSPIRE Directive may be useful. 

EU-added value: The overall EU added value of the instrument is unequivocal, although it is 
stronger  for  specific  aspects  of  PSI  re-use  (charging)  than  for  others  (cultural  data  and 
formats). 

In conclusion, the overall evaluation of the PSI Directive, including the changes introduced in 
2013,  has  shown  that  it  continues  to  be  an  effective,  efficient  and  relevant  instrument  that 
successfully contributes to the achievement of its main objectives. Although the PSI Directive 
creates  a  certain  number  of  obligations  for  public  sector  bodies,  it  does  not  impose  a 
disproportionate  burden  on  them.  Re-users,  on  the  other  hand,  have  benefited  from  the 
substantial simplification of the procedures for obtaining PSI access, which helps them save 
time and money. 

However, the evaluation has  also revealed that there are a number of challenges  that would 
need  to  be  addressed  in  order  to  fully  exploit  the  potential  of  PSI  for  the  EU  economy  and 
society.  They  include  (i)  making  it  easier  to  re-use  dynamic  data;  (ii)  unlocking  high-value 
public data that currently remains outside the scope of the Directive (scientific data, data from 
public undertakings in utility domains); (iii) addressing PSI data lock-in; (iv) limiting the use 
of  exceptions  that  allow  public  sector  bodies  to  charge  above  marginal  costs;  and  (v) 

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clarifying  some  aspects  of  the  interplay  between  the  PSI  Directive  and  the  Database  and 
INSPIRE Directives. 

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