Bilateral meetings with MIG-T members (upon request)
ES and DE
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 EC (JRC) and attended by experts from AT, BE, CZ, DK, EE, EL, FI, FR, DE, HU, IS, IE, IT, LV, LI, LT, LU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SI, ES, SE, the European Commission services (DG ENV, CNECT, EUROSTAT, and JRC), the European Environment Agency (EEA), and several invited experts.
Welcome and approval of the agenda
The agenda of the 78th MIG-T meeting was approved without changes.
For the next meetings where the MIG-T will have to vote on change proposals, FI representatives asked the JRC to share the change proposals sufficiently in advance to ensure there is enough time for coordinate and agree the feedback with the national data providers.
Actions from the previous meeting (for discussion and agreement)
Actions from the 77th MIG-T meeting were reviewed and their current status is reflected in the dedicated wiki page.
MIWP Actions
Action 1.1. Towards a digital ecosystem for the environment and sustainability
GeoDCAT-AP good practice
Action 2.3.1. Governance of artefacts
Updates and news on INSPIRE artefacts
Overview of TGs and schemas change proposals discussed by the sub-group: #172, #173, #174 (TGs), #123 (schemas)
Validity/support of old schemas
INSPIRE Registry content update
Presentation, discussion and voting of INSPIRE Registry change proposals (sli.do): #17, #71, #84, #85, #86, #87, #92
Action 1.1
GeoDCAT-AP good practice
JRC shortly presented the status of the working group activities for updating the GeoDCAT-AP good practice. An introductory webinar and 3 ad-hoc specific webinars have been organised by the SEMIC Action of DIGIT, DG ENV and the JRC to discuss with the INSPIRE community this bridge between geospatial ISO 19115/19139 and GeoDCAT metadata formats (see available event materials). A first draft of the updated GeoDCAT-AP European profile should be available by mid-June. The plan is to perform a public review process until September 2024.
Action 2.3.1
All TGs to be converted in AsciiDoc format for the v.2024.2 release (scheduled on ) will soon be made available in this branch.
A hotfix version of INSPIRE schemas (v.2024.1.3) was released on ; this completes the transposition of IR amendments on schemas.
Change proposals to TGs and schemas discussed by the sub-group 2.3.1 in the meeting on are presented to the MIG-T.
MIG-T members to share their position on change proposals #172 for TGs and #123 for schemas (for future discussion).
JRC proposes that old schemas (v.4.0), which are no longer valid after the changes resulting from IR amendments, are still considered valid for one INSPIRE M&R cycle (2024), i.e. the new schemas will be required starting from M&R 2025. The MIG-T agrees to the proposal (see poll results). Nevertheless, the use of the new schemas is already enforced in the Validator to stimulate their adoption.
The INSPIRE Registry team informed about the remaining changes derived from the IR amendment, which will be directly added in the coming month to the INSPIRE Registry in an intermediate release - v.2024.1b (#91 already published, #88, #89 and #90 still pending).
All change proposals proposed to be added to the INSPIRE Registry as part of release v.2024.2 (July 2024) (#17, #71, #84, #85, #86, #87, #92) are approved by the MIG-T (see poll results).
Finally, a new INSPIRE Registry survey has been recently published. The INSPIRE community is kindly requested to participate to identify potential improvements to this INSPIRE central component, which will remain open indefinitely (open-ended).
Training on the ETF and Re3gistry for users, administrators and developers
INSPIRE Geoportal
Support activities
Architecture & Harvesting console
Catalogue administrators
New mailing list & registration
Country fiches
Action 2.5. HVD and INSPIRE
Action 2.4 Central INSPIRE Components
ETF and Reference Validator
v.2024.1 of the INSPIRE Reference Validator was released on . In addition to some bug fixes and minor improvements to the UI, it includes a major architectural upgrade in terms of Java version and software versions.
The remaining part (Part B) of tests implementing the data-service linking simplification Good Practice, consisting of an update to the ATS and ETS for network services, will be completed for the next release.
The JRC proposes to remove tests for metadata TG v.1.3 (deprecated since years) from the Validator starting from release v.2024.3 (planned in September 2024), although there is some evidence that these tests are still performed. The MIG-T agrees with the proposal.
Re3gistry software
Latest releases of the Re3gistry software were v2.5.2 (December 2023) and v2.5.3 (March 2024).
The next release (v2.6.0) is expected in June 2024 and will include solutions to the issues listed here. This include improvents focused on caching, bulk edit functionalities and email notifications, as well as a depth testing of the application to obtain a robust version.
JRC presented a proposal to dismiss the INSPIRE Register Federation Tool due to lack of usage evidences. MS used to utilise it as a way to inform about their national codelist extension in the scope of the INSPIRE register federation.
MIG-T members to provide clear evidences of INSPIRE Register Federation usage by the next MIG-T Meeting.
Training on the ETF and Re3gistry for users, administrators and developers
The agenda and registration for the event is already available here. The INSPIRE community is encouraged to promote and actively participate in this event.
INSPIRE Geoportal
A new collaboration between GeoCat and the JRC started at the beginning of May 2024, aimed at supporting Geoportal specific needs and improvements (e.g. #170, #172, #168, #184, #190 and #181).
JRC is currently evaluating with GeoCat alternatives for revising the INSPIRE Geoportal server architecture. The sandbox environment and the production harvesting console will remain disabled to MS. In the meantime, harvestings might be ad-hoc requested to the JRC but publication of results in the frontend will only be possible when this exercise is successfully finished.
JRC also explained the need to update the list of National Catalogue Administrators from MSs and EFTA countries, which is outdated and will be fully dismissed on . Primary purpose of this list is management and communication related to the INSPIRE Geoportal and its harvesting console. It is additionally recommended to establish a Primary and a Deputy administrator.
The tool for communicating the National Catalogue Administrators details was duly explained.
MIG-T members to update the information about their National Catalogue Administrators to have this list updated as soon as possible.
New mailing list & registration
As announced already during the 77th MIG-T meeting, the old INSPIRE MIG-T mailing list will be phased out and substituted with a new one under the inspire.eu domain. In order for MIG-T members to be onboarded, they will have to fill the survey in by indicating "MIG-T mailing list" in the "Notes" field.
MIG-T members to fill in the survey for inclusion to the new mailing list by .
Country fiches
Several MS provided the country fiches through the newly established procedure on GitHub. Country fiches are available for consultation at this page. Feedback is positive and the procedure works well.
Action 2.5 HVD and INSPIRE
DG ENV presented the process towards the alignment of HVD and INSPIRE activities, in particular revolving around ISO and DCAT metadata. A dedicated questionnaire will be launched to capture the preferences of the MIG-T members with respect to the reporting of HVD.
MIG-T members to provide feedback in the dedicated Action 2.5 survey on HVD and INSPIRE alignment.
SK INSPIRE Link-checker & Service monitor
SK presented their experience using a system to help their national data providers to check the accessibility of their INSPIRE resources through link analysis and service monitoring, which served as inspiration for the approach taken in the last Monitoring and Reporting tools.
Interoperability study
The results of a study on 'Prospective interoperability provisions for the Green Deal Data Space' on behalf of the JRC was presented. Based on the analysis of current environmental data sharing initiatives, their achievements and challenges, the findings and outcomes of this study will serve to inform the potential pathways after the GreenDataForAll initiative. A new JRC technical report will soon be available for disseminating the study results.
Update on relevant EC initiatives
GreenData4All (ENV)
The call for evidence on the GreenData4All initiative received 61 inputs from stakeholders from industry, public sector, civil society organisations, academia, etc. Results were processed and will be shared with the contractor in charge of supporting the impact assessment, starting in June.
Public consultation will be kicked off in July, i.e. there will be time in August/September to provide input for the policy options. As done for the INSPIRE evaluation, the MIG-T will be consulted for the validation of policy options.