IT and Authority abroad: EU to make all public data available electronically

The European Union has announced that all 27 EU member states will be forced to digitize all their government data and make it available online. According to new proposals put forward by the European Union's Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, all E.U. countries will be obliged to make their public data arrays available in digital formats to meet the needs of end users. Public data includes all the information that public bodies in the European Union produce, collect or pay for. This could include various reports, forms, reference literature, geographical data, statistics, meteorological data etc.

According to Neelie Kroes this represents a huge opportunity for tech companies, which could be worth €40 billion to the E.U.'s economy each year, according to the Commission. Funding earmarked for research on data-handling technologies alone is around €100 million. Money will also be made available for creating data portal websites through the E.U.'s Competitiveness and Innovation Program, and the Commission will also back research into data infrastructures.

EU officials are intending to launch a one-stop access point for all citizens of Europe where they would have an opportunity to access necessary information on ran-by-state initiatives.