Open Provision of Geo-Data (GR0053)

Context The Ministry of Environment and Energy, following Law 3882/2010 is responsible to centrally coordinate all involved bodies of the Greek Public Administration that manage/produce/provide geospatial data, so as those data to be provided publicly and in open format to all interested parties. To this end, the Ministry of Environment and Energy will proceed to the adjustment – amendment of the current legislation and undertake all necessary actions to gradually implement and complete this policy. The provided geospatial data will be publicized through the website of the National Geospatial Information Infrastructure by the Ministry, the supervised entities as well as other public sector entities, following technical standards and procedures to be established. Also the data will be posted on the Central Governmental registry data.gov.gr. Under the framework of the above-mentioned action, geospatial data of the Ministry are available at http://maps.ypeka.gr, covering a wide range of thematic pillars OGP Values Access to Information/ Geo-data Implementing bodies Ministry of Environment and Energy, ΕΘΕΓ, ΕΚΧΑ ΑΕ, - cooperation with the rest of the Ministries and public sector entities. Objective To provide open geospatial data of the Public Administration in open formats to all interested parties, according to Directive 2007/2/EC. Then, the National Interoperability Framework geo-information and Services will be established.

Commitment 23: Geo-Data

Commitment 23: Open provision of Geo-data

The Ministry of Environment and Energy, following Law 3882/2010 is responsible to centrally coordinate all involved bodies of the Greek Public Administration that manage/produce/provide geospatial data, so as those data to be provided publicly and in open format to all interested parties. To this end, the Ministry of Environment and Energy will proceed to the adjustment–amendment of the current legislation and undertake all necessary actions to gradually implement and complete this policy. The provided geospatial data will be publicized through the website of the National Geospatial Information

Infrastructure by the Ministry, the supervised entities as well as other public sector entities, following technical standards and procedures to be established. Also, the data will be posted on the Central Governmental registry data.gov.gr. Under the framework of the above-mentioned action, geospatial data of the Ministry are available at http://maps.ypeka.gr, covering a wide range of thematic pillars.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Environment and Energy

Supporting institution(s): None

Start date: July 2016 End date: November 2016

Editorial Note: The action plan text has been abridged by the IRM. For the full version, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-national-action-plan-2016-2018/

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to enhance the publishing of open geo-data in Greece. Prior to this commitment Greece had to comply with the EU directive INSPIRE that mandates the publishing of geo-data and environmental information.^{[Note 200: National Infrastructure for Geodata Information, (in Greek), http://www.inspire.okxe.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=68]} The official EU monitoring service indicated that “the closing of the initial National Contact Point, the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization, in 2013 caused significant delays in the implementation of the Directive”.^{[Note 201: Eionet, Central Data Repository (in Greek), http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/gr/eu/inspire/monitoring/envwbbkzq/Notes_on_Monitoring_of_year_2016.docx/manage_document]} According to the commitment text the Ministry of Environment would coordinate with all the public agencies that have geospatial information to help them release it in open formats. It included activities to release additional open geo-datasets as well as inserting changes in the legal framework of Law 3882. However, the original commitment text was vaguely worded and thus it remained unclear which specific geospatial datasets and legal amendments to expect.

Status

Midterm: Limited

This commitment was carried over from the previous action plan. The previous commitment focused on adding specific datasets to the national geospatial information infrastructure as a way to improve compliance with the requirements of Law 3882/2010 that implemented the EU INSPIRE Directive - specifically to publish the relevant datasets on the Greek geospatial open data site.^{[Note 202: Wayback machine archived version of geodata.gov.gr, https://goo.gl/KnYcD7]} This commitment had limited implementation at the midterm evaluation point. The coordination of all public agencies by the Ministry of Environment to release geospatial information in open formats proved an unrealistic goal. According to officials from the Ministry of Environment,^{[Note 203: Vassilis Gekas, Ministry of Environment, telephone interview with IRM researchers, September 2018.]} public agencies had insufficient capacity to keep up with the policy area of releasing geospatial data that has complex operational aspects, legal implications and requires significant technical capabilities.  

End of term: Limited

The release of new geospatial datasets in open formats has not progressed.^{[Note 204: Ibid.]} The head of the Department of Geospatial Information in the Ministry of Environment reports that a joint effort with the Ministry of Digital Policy to coordinate public agencies on interoperability issues and on releasing datasets in a new platform with uniform open formats is under way.^{[Note 205: Ibid.]} In trying to improve the legal framework^{[Note 206: The legal framework that governs Geospatial Information in Greece (in Greek), http://www.inspire.okxe.gr/images/_3882_2010____.pdf]} the Ministry of Environment has started drafting a ministerial decision to require public agencies to release their geospatial datasets on the website for urban planning^{[Note 207: Vassilis Gekas, Ministry of Environment, telephone interview with IRM researchers, September 2018.]} (e-poleodomia.gr).  

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Prior to this commitment the only available platform for citizens to access geospatial information in open formats was geodata.gov.gr, a civil society initiative. This commitment tried to create a common policy for all public agencies and coordinate its implementation to streamline the release of open geospatial data and improve the quality. The Ministry has not fulfilled the commitment to coordinate the policy for releasing open geo-data. Therefore, there have been no changes in access to information.

Carried Forward?

As a new action plan has not yet been released, it remains unclear whether this commitment will be included. To increase the quantity and quality of openly available geospatial information across public sector agencies annually, the Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Administrative Reconstruction, could put forward a plan with concrete and measurable actions. Such a plan could focus on prioritizing specific datasets in accordance with urgent and well defined social or economic problems, such as the issue of civil protection from forest fires that came up in July 2018.^{[Note 208: EU Open Data Portal, “Forest Fires in Attika, Greece (2018-07-24)”, http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/dataset/fce1a312-e90b-448e-9188-e962f6ac24a8]} Also, the government could benefit by cooperating with civil society to advance open geo-data initiatives like the Hellenic Data Service and the geodata.gov.gr website. CSOs such as the Athena Research Center, Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), and Open Knowledge Greece could be part of a common effort to co-create a possible future commitment to address this issue.^{[Note 209: Despina Mitropoulou, General Director of Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), telephone interview with IRM researcher, 21 October 2018.}

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