A few days ago, people from a European-wide technology project, asked me to draft a short article about the legal status of open data in Spain.
I copy this article here for those who might be interested.
Opening data in Spain - legal situation
Despite
the high volume of initiatives around opening Spanish public data (17
nowadays), the opening of public data in Spain is still low regulated,
especially at regional and local level. There is, however, some
legislation at national level.
Here it is a short chronological summary of the main actions regarding legislation around opening data in Spain:
- 2003: European Parliament, Council of Europe: “Directive 2003/98/CE of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe about the re-use of information on the public sector (RISP)” [1].
- 2007: Transposition to the Spanish legislation of the Directive 2003/98/CE: Law 37/2007 [2].
- 2011: Royal Decree 1495/2011# that develops the Law 37/2007 [3].
In 2003 the European Parliament legislated the Directive 2003/98/CE
about the re-use of public sector information. This directive didn’t
oblige public administrations to allow the re-use of the information
that they were managing, but it did indicated how this re-use had to be
done in those administrations that decided to open their information.
This
directive explicitly states the importance of public sector information
as raw material for different services and products in the framework of
an increasingly relevant Information Society.
On november 17 2007 the Law 37/2007
was published in BOE (Official Journal in Spain) about the re-use of
public sector information. This law transposed to the Spanish
legislation the Directive 2003/98/CE (two years after the deadline).
This
law established a general legal framework for the re-use of public
sector information to all Spanish public bodies (without obliging them
to open data). Moreover, it also provides a wide definition of the
public sector information susceptible of being re-used, going from
traditional documents to data sets, under the control of public
administrations to execute their function as public service providers.
It also provides a definition for the kind of conditions under which
re-use of public information will be authorised allowing always its
identification through lists and online indexes (for search engines).
On
the other hand, the law indicates the conditions of use for re-used
information, without any kind of exclusivity right and, if desired,
without any other restriction. If it is the case, it indicates how the
economical returns should be for the re-use of public information.
The
approval of the Law 37/2007 was the start for the development of the
re-use of public sector information in Spain. However, as usual, the
approval of this law was not enough for the re-use of public information
to become real. More efforts were needed other than merely approving a
new law. There was the need to create a conscience of re-use and
dissemination actions for the success of this task. For this reason the
initiative Proyecto Aporta [4]
was created - promoted by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and
Public Administration and by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and
Business - with the objective of creating a culture and raise awareness
on the importance of re-use of public information among citizens,
professionals and business in Spain.
At the end of 2012 the Royal Decree 1495/2011
that developed - only at national level - the Law 37/2007 was approved.
The objective of this Royal Decree - redacted by the Government and by
the citizenry itself through a participative process - was to overcome
the barriers that impeded that re-use of public sector information in
Spain broadened.
Despite
the approval of the Law 37/2007, still there were obstacles like the
uncertainty about the real re-useness of public information. Also there
was (in fact still is) an amalgam of different conditions for the re-use
of public data that make it difficult for the re-use of more than one
information source, like the low use of open standards and information
formats that can be processed automatically. Another big problem was the
unclear definition of responsibilities in the information provision
chain of public entities and the low quantity of public data really
offered for their re-use.
Taking
into account these barriers, the Royal Decree 1495/2011 developed the
Law 37/2007 for the national government. Its main objective was the
openness of all data. This means that all data has to be open by default
and the possible exceptions must be adequately justified. This was an
important change with regard to the Law 37/2007. It also authorizes, in
general terms, the re-use of information and forces the administrations
to pen their data and to inform, in a proactive way, about the
information they open for its re-use.
Furthermore,
another novelty of this Royal Decree is the obligation for each
administration to constitute a responsible body for the re-use of public
information, solving the problem of definition of responsibilities in
opening public data.
The
Law also offers legal support (and obligations) to the catalogue of
open information. It defines a legal advice figure. This action makes
the re-use of public sector information easier and more comfortable if
it is used widely, and it represents a simplification of its management
by the administration. It also states that the transfer of public
information will be free of charge and non exclusive. The objective is
to reach any interested citizen and that they do not have to pay for
these services (with some exceptions). The gratuity and universalization
of re-usable information access is basic to attain the benefits of
re-use. It is a Royal Decree that moved forward some of the
recommendations that the European Commission recently made for the next
revision of the Directive 2003/98/CE.
On
the other hand, it should be born in mind that some regions in Spain
have already approved open government laws (like the case of Navarra [5])
or are in the step of having draft bills for informative transparency
laws (Autonomous Community of the Basque Country [6] or the City of
Zaragoza [7]). In all of these cases the promotion of the opening of data
is one of the most important parts of the text.
--
References:
- [1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003L0098:ES:HTML
- [2] http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2007/11/17/pdfs/A47160-47165.pdf
- [3] http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/11/08/pdfs/BOE-A-2011-17560.pdf
- [4] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proyecto_Aporta
- [5] http://www.parlamentodenavarra.es/UserFiles/File/BOP/B2012054.pdf
- [6] http://www.irekia.euskadi.net/es/proposals/376-anteproyecto-ley-transparencia-buen-gobierno
- [7] http://www.zaragoza.es/ciudad/risp/ordenanza/detalle_Participacion?oid=1
I want to thank to Júlia López Ventura for the English translation of this post.
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