Proposed EU law on commercial use of public documents

The European Commission has issued a proposal for a Directive on the re-use and commercial exploitation of public documents. The proposed Directive aims to set a minimum set of rules governing the commercial and non commercial exploitation “of existing documents held by public sector bodies of the Member States which are generally accessible.”30 Sep 2002

The proposed Directive requires public bodies to make documents available in any pre-existing format or language through electronic means “where possible and appropriate”. It also states that public sector bodies should process requests for re-use and make documents available to the applicant within a certain timescale.

The proposed Directive would generally not apply to documents containing personal data or documents for which third parties hold intellectual property rights and should be implemented into Member States’ laws by the end of 2004.

Find out more Find out more