Document ID: 32008R1205

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1205/2008
of 3 December 2008
implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards metadata
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (Inspire) (1), and in particular Article 5(4) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Directive 2007/2/EC lays down general rules for the establishment of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community. Since, for the proper functioning of that infrastructure, it is necessary for a user to be able to find spatial data sets and services and to establish whether they may be used and for what purpose, Member States should provide descriptions in the form of metadata for those spatial data sets and services. Since such metadata should be compatible and usable in a Community and trans-boundary context, it is necessary to lay down rules concerning the metadata used to describe the spatial data sets and services corresponding to the themes listed in Annexes I, II and III to Directive 2007/2/EC.
(2)
The definition of a set of metadata elements is necessary in order to allow identification of the information resource for which metadata is created, its classification and identification of its geographic location and temporal reference, quality and validity, conformity with implementing rules on the interoperability of spatial data sets and services, constraints related to access and use, and organisation responsible for the resource. Metadata elements related to the metadata record itself are also necessary to monitor that the metadata created are kept up to date, and for identifying the organisation responsible for the creation and maintenance of the metadata. This is the minimum set of metadata elements necessary to comply with Directive 2007/2/EC and does not preclude the possibility for organisations to document the information resources more extensively with additional elements derived from international standards or working practices in their community of interest. Nor does it preclude the possibility to adopt guidelines established and kept up to date by the Commission, in particular when it is necessary to ensure the interoperability of metadata.
(3)
Instructions are necessary for the validation of metadata in accordance with Directive 2007/2/EC with regard to the conditions and expected multiplicity of each metadata element, that is to say, whether values for each element are always to be expected in the metadata record, can occur only once, or can occur more than once.
(4)
The value domain of each metadata element is necessary to ensure interoperability of metadata in a multilingual context and that value domain should be able to take the form of free text, dates, codes derived from international standards, such as language codes, keywords derived from controlled lists or thesauri, or character strings.
(5)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 22 of Directive 2007/2/EC,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation sets out the requirements for the creation and maintenance of metadata for spatial data sets, spatial data set series and spatial data services corresponding to the themes listed in Annexes I, II and III to Directive 2007/2/EC.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, in addition to the definitions laid down in Article 3 of Directive 2007/2/EC, the definitions set out in Part A of the Annex shall apply.
Article 3
Creation and maintenance of metadata
The metadata describing a spatial data set, a spatial data set series or a spatial data service shall comprise the metadata elements or groups of metadata elements set out in Part B of the Annex and shall be created and maintained in accordance with the rules set out in Parts C and D thereof.
Article 4
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 3 December 2008.

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