Europe fit for the Digital Age

'A genuine single market for data – open to data from across the world – where personal and non-personal data, including sensitive business data, are secure and businesses have easy access to high-quality industrial data, boosting growth and creating value'

POLICY & LEGISLATION OVERVIEW

An ambitious policy agenda was set by the European strategy for data in 2020, with the objective to achieve the full potential of data-driven innovation in the European Union (EU), which is currently hampered by issues including fragmentation of both infrastructures and data sharing practices. This Strategy envisages the establishment of common European data spaces in strategic sectors and domains of public interest, aligned with European ambitions, rules and values.

The focus on digital technologies presented under the priority “A Europe fit for the digital age” lies at the core of the Commission’s policy agenda for the period of 2019-2024. The Commission has presented a vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, which is emphasised by the title “Digital Decade” and has set ambitious targets aimed at strengthening digital sovereignty through specific actions on data, technology and infrastructures. In addition, the Annual Single Market report published in 2023, which marks the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, highlights the ambition to create a single EU data economy through a data-driven Single Market where interoperability within and across data spaces is ensured. 


HOW DOES IT ALL LINK TOGETHER? 

The European strategy for data, and the subsequent Staff Working Document (SWD) on data spaces, together with the legal initiatives being developed within the context of the strategy (the Data Governance Act, the Data Act, the Implementing Act on High Value Datasets, implementing the Open Data Directive and the Digital Markets Act) serve as input for determining requirements for data spaces. 

Foreseen by the European Strategy for Data several cross-sectoral legislative instruments have been adopted or proposed in order to create the necessary overarching governance framework for a data-agile economy, and to address common data sharing issues between different sectors, actors and domains. 






MAPPING DATA SPACES POLICY TO REQUIREMENTS

Below is collection of EU policy provisions on common European data spaces, based on the afore-mentioned policy sources. Such provisions are translated into groups of functional and non-functional requirements. These could form the basis for more granular requirement elicitation in the future, as well as for an analysis of the functionality provided by existing data sharing initiatives. For further details on our Functional and Non-functional pages. 

POLICY & LEGISLATION FOR DATA SPACES

To support the establishment of data spaces while meeting the Digital Decade objectives for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, several cross-sectoral legislative instruments have been adopted or proposed following the publication of the European strategy for data. These include: the Data Governance Act, the Data Act, the Implementing Act on High Value Datasets, implementing the Open Data Directive and the Digital Markets Act.


Follow the journey into the details of the policies which support data spaces below...


DATA GOVERNANCE ACT

The Data Governance Act introduces a set of horizontal measures to boost trustworthy data sharing, thereby also supporting the establishment and development of common European data spaces by:

(i) facilitating the reuse of specific public sector data that cannot be made available as open data (such as health data); (ii) regulating the role of data intermediaries within the common European data spaces; (iii) making it easier for businesses and citizens to make their data available for the benefit of society; and (iv) facilitating data sharing across sectors and borders and enabling suitable targeted applications.

The Data Governance Act, was proposed in 2020, entered into force in June 2022 and will be applicable from September 2023. 



IMPLEMENTING ACT ON HIGH-VALUE DATASETS

The Implementing Act on high-value datasets, introduced by the Open Data Directive, describes datasets held by the public sector, the reuse of which holds the potential to generate important benefits to society, economy and the environment.

The Open Data Directive (legislation link) requires that such datasets are made available for free, under open access licenses, and that they are accessible in machine-readable formats via suitable application programming interfaces (APIs) and, where relevant, as a bulk download.

The Implementing Act was adopted on the 22 December 2022.

While the Directive only defined six categories of high-value datasets (Geospatial, Earth Observation and Environment, Meteorological, Statistics, Companies and Company Ownership, and Mobility), the Implementing Act will detail the actual datasets belonging to each category, together with the requirements for their publication, e.g., formats, granularity, key attributes and licenses.  


STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT ON COMMON EUROPEAN DATA SPACES

The Staff Working Document on Common European Data Spaces (SWD) describes the vision behind common European data spaces as that of bringing together relevant data infrastructures and governance frameworks in order to facilitate data pooling and sharing.

DATA ACT

The Data Act aiming to make more business data available for reuse through the definition of rules on who can access and use what data and for which purposes. This is achieved by setting out rules on data use and access for data generated in the EU across all economic sectors. The overall goal of the Act to make more data accessible for, and within, the sectoral data spaces, stimulating a competitive data market and boosting data-driven innovation.

The Data Act is expected to be adopted in 2023. (Proposed by the Commission in February 2022)

The Data Act includes measures to:

(i) allow users of connected devices (electronic devices that may be connected to other devices or networks) to gain access to data they generate and share these data with third parties;

(ii) allow public sector institutions to access and use data held by private companies under particular circumstances (such as emergencies);

(iii) rebalance negotiation power for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) by preventing abuse of contractual imbalances in data sharing contracts; and

(iv) allow customers to switch between different providers of cloud data processing services





DIGITAL MARKETS ACT

The Digital Markets Act sets out measures on data access and portability to regulate the “gatekeeper power” of digital companies prone to unfair business practices. 

The Digital Markets Act entered into force on 1 November 2022 and will apply from 2 May 2023. 





Suggested Section: The Definition or Technical Requirements of a data space

Learn what is the Definition of a data space or the Technical Requirements of data spaces 

Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.

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