Bilateral meetings with MIG-T members (upon request)
Minutes
The minutes summarise the main conclusions and actions from the meeting. Actions are indicated by using check boxes and are tracked in the dedicated "Actions" section below.
The meeting was chaired by the JRC and attended by experts from AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, IE, IS, IT, LI, LV, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK, the European Commission (ENV, JRC), and the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Welcome and approval of the agenda
The agenda of the meeting was approved without modifications.
Actions from the previous meeting (for discussion and agreement)
All actions from the 72nd MIG-T meeting were completed except for (i) the item associated with the GeoJSON spec for encoding of INSPIRE data, which is left open in order to collect additional evidence, and (ii) the analysis and resolution of the identified vulnerabilities of the new GPT backend, which is ongoing.
INSPIRE Monitoring and Reporting
Context and overall approach to monitoring 2022
Monitoring results
Lessons learned
INSPIRE Geoportal - next steps
Discussion
The process and components used for the calculation of the yearly INSPIRE monitoring indicators were presented, followed by the announcement of the monitoring results. The new INSPIRE Geoportal infrastructure based on GeoNetwork, which was used for the 2022 monitoring process, is running and delivering results in accordance with the expectation despite the complex process of substituting the back-end infrastructure.
With regards to the monitoring indicators, overall, a slight improvement is observed in the conformity, availability and accessibility of INSPIRE data when compared to the 2021 exercise. The improvement is significantly increasing when compared to the 2020 and 2019 baselines. However, heterogeneity in the performance of the different countries still remains and, similar to M&R 2021, there are concerns about the reliability of indicators on the conformity of datasets and services (both being self-declared).
Several issues were identified in the Member States implementations during the M&R process and reported during the meeting, which may turn into opportunities for future improvement:
Presence of metadata records with indexation errors, and non-INSPIRE metadata records in national catalogues.
Common practices breaking functionality of infrastructure tools, like using one service to serve thousands of datasets, and ATOM services with thousands of sub-feed entries.
Several cases of conformity of network services non properly declared.
Good practices were also highlighted, showing the good performance of several countries in specific monitoring indicators.
Collaboration between GeoCat and the INSPIRE community for solving the remaining issues of the revamped Geoportal based on GeoNetwork is needed in 2023.
JRC to share with the MIG-T the documentation provided by GeoCat on how GeoNetwork deals with the link checking and the accessibility of INSPIRE datasets.
JRC to explore with GeoCat and the GeoNetwork community the possible use of the GeoNetwork API for interacting with the content of the INSPIRE Catalogue, and particularly checking the accessibility of INSPIRE datasets.
MIWP Action updates
1.1 Towards a Digital Ecosystem for the Environment and Sustainability
JRC is conducting a study on data intermediaries, data altruism organisations and indigenous data rights, to inform the development of the Green Deal data space. A new pool of experts will be created to support on emerging topics and provide legal advice.
MIG-T members to provide evidence through dedicated issues for the implementation of INSPIRE GeoJSON in accordance with the existing specifications.
Action 2.3.1
Release v.2023.1 of the INSPIRE schemas, Technical Guidelines and UML models took place on . Technical Guidelines converted to AsciiDoc (and also provided as PDF and HTML documents) now include the Metadata TG, Download Services and View Services TG, and Data Specifications for RS, EL, EF, GG, HY, LU, PS, SO.
New change proposals to the artefacts will be discussed in the next sub-group meeting, which will be organised in April before MIG-T meeting 74.
Feedback is still needed by the MIG-T members on GitHub issues #61 (schemas) and #72 (TGs).
Action 2.4
ETF and INSPIRE Reference Validator
v.2023.0 of the INSPIRE Reference Validator was released on (see the changelog). It includes a number of bug fixes, including to the UI.
The INSPIRE Reference Validator dashboard shows that about 30k tests were run in the production instance for the past 12 months.
There is a plan to add new tests checking the implementation of the data-service linking simplification approach. These will need to be aligned with the implementation of the same approach in the Geoportal. A concrete planning will be shared once available.
The JRC can offer limited support to organisations willing to deploy an ETF instance at their premise.
A survey will be launched soon aiming to collect feedback on the ETF usage and collect ideas for improvements.
A promotional video on the ETF was published here. MIG-T members are invited to share it within their networks.
INSPIRE Registry and Re3gistry
A new release of the Re3gistry software - version v2.4.1 - was delivered on and is ready for user testing. It mainly includes bug-fixes and one new feature / enhancement.
According to the release strategy of the Re3gistry software, the next release (version v2.4.2) will take place at the end of March 2023.
The new INSPIRE Registry, based on Re3gistry software v2.3.1, is online since . It has been used in the INSPIRE Monitoring and Reporting for 2022 demonstrating good performance.
Next community building activities around the Re3gistry software and the Registry Federation tool will be:
A demonstration and a presentation in the upcoming ENDORSE Conference 2023, to be held from to . The programme is already available.
Participation in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2023, with some proposals to improve the software. Member States are invited to disseminate this activity through their respective networks.
Specific proposals were presented to the MIG-T in order to:
Organise training sessions for SOs on the use of the INSPIRE Registry (based on v2 of the Re3gistry software) administration interface in the next months.
New surveys on the Re3gistry software and the INSPIRE Registry will be launched soon.
JRC to organise a call for nominations and reactivate the governance structure of the INSPIRE Re3gistry including the following steps - NOTE: The call for participation in the Control body launched in this meeting was unable to be completed due to the limited number of volunteers. A new proposal for Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Control body and Submitting organisations, and updated INSPIRE Registry workflow, were presented and endorsed in the 74 MIG-T meeting.
Control body:
MS to expression of interest - Until
Online poll available for MIG-T - From to
Official nomination of new members for the Control body - On
Appointed submitting organisations:
Outreach and promotion - Until
Propose updates for the representatives - From to
Official nomination of new SOs representatives - On
The OASIS Code List Representation format (genericode) to be considered by the Re3gistry governance structure as a possible additional format for exposing the content.
JRC to share with interested MIG-T members the EC report analysing the functionalities of Vocbench and the Re3gistry software.
Topics proposed by MIWP members
ISO/TC 211 activities on EU Data Spaces / High-value datasets
ISO/TC 211 activities on EU Data Spaces / High-value datasets
The ISO/TC211 Ad-hoc group on Input to EU Data Spaces was kicked-off on with with 25 participants from 10 countries, and also liaisons from the European Commission (JRC) and the OGC.
Scope: support to the European strategy for data and the uptake of high-value datasets is included within the mandates of this group. A first report should be provided by May 2023.
Update on relevant EC initiatives
GreenData4All: the call for evidence for the impact assessment will happen in Q1 2024, followed by the public consultation and the impact assessment study. The target date for the adoption of the legal proposal by the College is Q2 2025.
Commission Regulation 1089/2020: by the end of February the green light from the Legal Office for continuing the procedure (after translations in all EU languages) is expected, with the adoption by the College and publication targeted for March/April 2023.
INSPIRE Conference 2023: foreseen for the autumn of 2023 in Brussels. The current idea is to have 3 days of physical networking and online gathering, with hybrid sessions of political and technical nature. The date, venue and political representation will be confirmed soon.
Closing of meeting
Summary of conclusions and actions
The next MIG-T meeting, in accordance with the annual calendar, will be organised as a virtual event back to back with the 17th MIG meeting on the 28th of April (tbc).