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.”
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.
