Implementation of Law on open data (RO0092)

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address?

Currently, the opening of government data and its re-use is limited, especially in relation to the situation in other Member States. This is also highlighted in assessments at European or international level, such as the European Commission's Open Data Maturity Report or the OECD's OURdata Index. More specifically, the problems identified include the lack of workflows and roles for data management (lack of governance and data management mechanisms), low quality and limited availability of published data, lack of frameworks for collaboration with re-users at institutional level at all stages of the data lifecycle.

2. What are the causes of the problem?

The main causes were identified through the mentioned evaluations, through the analysis of the current situation carried out for the development of the National Open Data Strategy, but also through the interactions with institutions and data re-users. These mainly concern: the widespread lack of a data culture and data literacy across the Romanian public sector, the lack of data standards including interoperability and data sharing. Description of the undertaking

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem?

Currently, all initiatives and approaches to collaborate and create or animate open data ecosystems (information sessions, debates, meetings, etc.) are initiated at the level of the coordinating institution (GSG). It is important that such steps are taken, initiated and supported, or even formalized, at the level of institutions that hold/produce and share data. Moreover, the implementation of Law No 179/2022 is uneven and the delay in the publication of the implementing rules has exacerbated the weak implementation of national legislation. However, there is a very limited use and implementation of the guidelines already available on the data.gov.ro portal and which have been continuously disseminated to the institutions.

2. What solution are you proposing?

Taking into account Law No 179/2022 on open data and the re-use of public sector information, Regulation No 138/2023 on high-value datasets, the National Open Data Strategy, but also the submission for endorsement of the draft Government Decision approving the implementing rules for Law No 179/2022 and the need for their compliant and successful implementation, the GSG will provide targeted and dedicated assistance to a limited number of voluntary institutions for the implementation of the provisions of the aforementioned normative acts. This may include: training and information activities, support in identifying and inventorying data, establishing roles and workflows with data, prioritizing for publication, publishing quality data and metadata, facilitating collaborative processes with re-users. The aim will also be to set concrete objectives for the implementation of Law 179/2022 within the annual objectives of public institutions. The proposed objective is to create, in collaboration with voluntary institutions, good practices in opening up data that can be disseminated and replicated at national level. It also aims to facilitate the production of applications, visualisations, etc. by re-using open data, which can have an economic, social, environmental or administrative impact. This will encourage the growth of a data culture among public officials to move towards a data-driven public sector (data-driven decisions, policies or design of services).

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment?

• Public institutions are better prepared to implement Law no.179/2022 • Increasing the capacity of institutions to work collaboratively with re-users • Good practices disseminated nationally • Generating applications, visualizations and other products through data reuse • Improving a data culture in administration • Collecting concrete information on implementation in voluntary institutions and developing proposals for improving the Implementing Rules of Law no.179/2022 Commitment analysis Questions Answer (if not applicable, answer with N/A only)

1. How will the commitment promote transparency?

Improve citizens’ access to data and information of public interest through publication as open data and the involvement of re-users.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability?

Creating transparent mechanisms to track progress in data opening will increase the accountability of the institutions involved.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? Active involvement of civil society, private sector and academia in the collection, identification, prioritisation for publication and reuse of government data.

Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date

1. Identification of voluntary institutions | Selection of institutions and formalization of inter-institutional collaboration | November 2025

2. Individual planning with each institution of the steps to follow, objectives and stakeholder mapping | Work plans developed at institutional level | March 2026

3. Piloting: taking the necessary steps to open data at institutional level, with the support of SGG and involving re-users at all stages (e.g. data collection design; identification, inventory, prioritisation for publication, publication, updating, with a focus on increasing the quality of data and metadata) | Data inventories, publication plans, high quality published datasets, including at metadata level, working frameworks with re-users Proposals to improve the legislative framework (Implementing rules) | December 2026

4. Events dedicated to the re- use of published data and actions to disseminate good practices and re-use examples | Selection of good practices, guidelines, reuses | June 2027