Does INSPIRE affect me?

The INSPIRE Directive states that it "should apply to spatial data held by or on behalf of public authorities and to the use of spatial data by public authorities in the performance of their public tasks"  It may also apply to spatial data held by "natural or legal persons" other than public authorities, provided that they request this. In simple terms therefore the Directive applies to public data and it will be the Governments of the EU Member States and those organisations that are responsible for public data that will have to apply the Directive.

Each Member State must have a national contact point and some form of co-ordinating group to ensure that all the provisions of the Directive are attended to. Some of the questions that Member States should have considered include:

  • Do we have a well developed strategy, with political support, and supported by an organisational structure that represents the main stakeholders? 
  • Do we understand, and have we explained to the main stakeholders, what should be in place as the main INSPIRE components - the institutional framework, technical standards, fundamental datasets and information services?
  • Are we clear on the specific deliverables - for example the metadata standards, co-ordinate system, network services and the monitoring and reporting obligations?
  • Will we have all newly collected (and extensively restructured) Annex 1 spatial data available according to the implementing rules for interoperability and harmonisation by May 2011?
  • Will we have 'no-cost' discovery and view network services in place by May 2010 for those public spatial datasets and services for which we have metadata?
  • Do we need to create a national geo-portal?
  • Do we have an action plan that implements the strategy according to agreed milestones and dates to ensure all INSPIRE provisions have been covered by the required dates?
  • Do we understand the capacity building requirements - do we have a cost appraisal of the actions and funding required (and a list of benefits to support these actions)? 
  • Do we have a representative contact point for external communication, and a communication strategy?