The Czech Republic National Meeting

www.epsiplus.net Europe’s one-stop shop on Public Sector Information re-use

Towards the 2008 review of the Directive on PSI re-use

The Czech Republic National Meeting 23rd January 2008, Prague

REPORT Prepared by Chris Corbin ePSIplus Analyst

1 ePSIplus is funded under the European Commission eContentplus programme


Contents 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................................................5 1.1 General Information – Czech Republic ...........................................................................................................................................5 1.2 Czech Speakers..........................................................................................................................................................................................5 1.3 Delegates......................................................................................................................................................................................................6 2 Legal and regulatory progress and impact...................................................................................................................................................7 2.1 Transposition status ...............................................................................................................................................................................7 2.1.1 Complaints procedure .....................................................................................................................................................................8 2.2 Impact of the PSI Law.............................................................................................................................................................................9 2.2.1 Complaints ..........................................................................................................................................................................................9 2.3 Scope to extend the coverage of the Directive.............................................................................................................................9 2.4 Strengths‐Weaknesses Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................9 2.4.1 Strengths ..............................................................................................................................................................................................9 2.4.2 Weaknesses.........................................................................................................................................................................................9 2.5 Future developments .............................................................................................................................................................................9 3 Public sector organization and culture change........................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1 General information – Public Sector ............................................................................................................................................. 10 3.2 Support and compliance .................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.2.1 Support for the Directive............................................................................................................................................................. 10 3.2.2 Compliance with the Directive.................................................................................................................................................. 11 3.3 Value chain............................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.3.1 Modernising government (eGovernment) ............................................................................................................................. 11 3.3.2 Public Sector Information Holders .......................................................................................................................................... 13 3.3.3 Public Private Partnerships......................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.3.4 National Innovation Strategy ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.4 Impact of relevant initiatives ........................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.5 Strengths‐Weaknesses Analysis ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.5.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.5.2 Weaknesses...................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.6 Future developments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 16 4 Encouraging the PSI re-use business ......................................................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 General Information – Private Sector............................................................................................................................................. 16 4.1.1 Private Sector Re-use examples................................................................................................................................................ 17 4.2 Potential for pan‐European products........................................................................................................................................... 17 4.3 Knowledge transfer between sectors ‐ Associations – Professional and Trade ........................................................ 17 4.4 Strengths‐Weaknesses Analysis ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.4.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.4.2 Weaknesses...................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.5 Future developments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5 The financial impact: pricing and charging ............................................................................................................................................. 18 5.1 Impact on the PSI value chain.......................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.2 Pricing and charging policies ........................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.2.1 Public Sector bodies...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.3 Outstanding national policies .......................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.4 Strengths‐Weaknesses Analysis ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.4.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.4.2 Weaknesses...................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.5 Future developments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 6 Information management, standards and data quality .......................................................................................................................... 19 6.1 Quality of PSI – impact on commercial reuse ............................................................................................................................ 19 6.2 Key reuse sectors acceptable data quality................................................................................................................................ 19 2

6.3 Standards and Advisory bodies ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 6.4 StrengthsWeaknesses Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 6.4.1 Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 6.4.2 Weaknesses...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 6.5 Future developments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 7 National situation:............................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Annex 1: Meeting Agenda ................................................................................................................................................................................ 21 A1.1 Czech Agenda ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 21 A1.2 English Agenda ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Annex 2: Attendance list.................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 A2.1 Sorted by Family name ...................................................................................................................................................................... 23 A2.2 Sorted by name of Organisation .................................................................................................................................................... 24 Annex 3: Press Releases..................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 ePSIplus Press Release (English language)........................................................................................................................................ 26 EPMA Press Release (Czech language)................................................................................................................................................ 28 Annex 4: Panel Session ‐ transcript ............................................................................................................................................................ 30 A4.1 Original Czech language transcript ............................................................................................................................................ 30 A4.2 English translastion of the Czech language transcript....................................................................................................... 31 Annex 5: Meeting summary ‐ transcript................................................................................................................................................... 34

ePSIplus is funded under the European Commission eContentplus programme

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Change Control Record Date 30.01.08 16.01.09

Version DV1.0 V1.0

Author/Editor Chris Corbin Chris Corbin

Status Internal Public

Purpose First draft following meeting in the Czech Republic First public draft for review

Vote of Thanks The ePSIplus Thematic Network thanks the Czech Ministry of the Interior for hosting the meeting and the Czech National ePSIplus representative EPMA (European Projects & Management) for organising the meeting.

This report has been produced and prepared as deliverable of the ePSIplus project. Best endeavours have been taken to ensure the document is correct at the time of publication. Contributions and feedback are welcome and should be submitted to [email protected]. The report maybe reproduced providing acknowledgement is made to this report and the ePSIplus Thematic Network. For further information visit Europe’s one stop shop on Public Sector Information at: http://www.epsiplus.net Legal Disclaimer ©2007 to 2009 ePSIplus - This document and all material therein has been compiled with great care; however, the author, editor and/or publisher and/or any party within the ePSIplus project or its predecessor ePSINet consortium cannot be held liable in any way for the consequences of using the content of this document and/or any material referenced therein.

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1 Introduction The ePSIplus National meeting for the Czech Republic1 was held on the 23rd January 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic. The agenda for the meeting appears within Annex 1 of this document. The PowerPoint presentations are available on the ePSIplus website2. All the materials from the meeting were posted to the ePSIplus website by 29th January 2008. The language medium for the meeting was Czech apart from the presentations and interventions made by the ePSIplus representative Chris Corbin and the European Commission representative Mr Javier Hernandez-Ros3, Head of Unit, Digital Libraries and Public Sector Information Unit, DG Information Society & Media based in Luxembourg. The meeting was organised by the Czech National ePSIplus representative EPMA4 (European Projects & Management) in conjunction with the Czech Ministry of Interior that hosted the meeting. The meeting was followed by a Press Conference and the Czech and English language press releases appear in Annex 3 of this report. Media reports on the meeting were subsequently published: • •

The Czech Internet ezine ISVS5 - 25th January 2008; IKAROS – 2nd February 20086. V Praze proběhla národní konference o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru

Following the conclusion of the Press Conference the official launch meeting of the European PSI Alliance took place7. 1.1 General Information – Czech Republic Geographic area square kms Population Land borders with Official languages Member of the European Union Member of the Euro zone

79,000 10,287,100 Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland Czech Yes No

1.2 Czech Speakers The meeting was moderated by Dagmar EPMA – European Projects & Management Agency.

Vránová,

Strategic

Development

Director,

Irina Zálišová, Managing Director of EPMA and ePSIplus Czech national representative8 opened the meeting with a welcome address and went on to introduce: • •

the projects and activities that EPMA undertakes; the Czech PSI Watch and its achievements to date.

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http://www.epsiplus.net/events/national_meetings/completed/czech_republic http://www.epsiplus.net/events/national_meetings/completed/czech_republic/presentations 3 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/unit_e4/index_en.htm 4 http://www.epma.cz/ 5 http://www.isvs.cz/pristup-k-infomacim/vysledek-konference-epsiplus-mame-co-dohanet.html 6 http://www.ikaros.cz/node/4542 7 http://www.epsiplus.net/reports/psi_alliance 8 http://www.epsiplus.net/contacts/epsiplus_network_national_representatives/czech_republic_epma_european_projects_management_agency 2

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Jaroslav Svoboda, Head of Unit, Department of Public Administration Informatics, Ministry of Interior gave an overview of the Czech legislation that related to the transposition of the Directive 2003/98/EC and on a number of central government eGovernment and Information Society initiatives. Václav Jáchim, IT Department, Regional Authority of Vysočina Region gave an overview of the developments in the Vysočina Region from the perspectives of a data producer as well as a data user and disseminator. Radim Polčák, Masaryk University Brno provided a legal interpretation of the Czech laws as they related to the reuse of Public Sector Information and information governance. Peter Druga, the ePSIplus National representative for Slovakia provided a status report on the re-use of public sector information within Slovakia. Dagmar Vránová, EPMA and the Czech PSI Watch initiative provided an update on the re-use of public sector information from the perspective of different information sectors. Jiří Hiess, President of the Czech Association for Geoinformation presented three case studies from the geographic information sector. Upon the conclusion of the formal presentations a panel session moderated by Dagmar Vránová considered a number of thematic perspectives related to public sector information. A transcript of the panel session appears in Annex 4 (Czech language followed by an English language translation). A summary of the meeting was then made which appears in Annex 5 of this report after which the meeting was formally closed. 1.3 Delegates The meeting was attended by 60 people, which included the organisers, the speakers and a number of delegates for the PSI Alliance meeting. The delegates represented both the private, public and civil society sectors as shown in the following Diagram. The attendance list appears within Annex 2 of this document. DIAGRAM 1: Sectorial analysis of delegates

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2 Legal and regulatory progress and impact The Czech Republic joined the European Union on the 1st May 2004. 2.1 Transposition status The Government of the Czech Republic chose to transpose the European Union Directive 2003/98/EC (Směrnice Evropského parlamentu a Rady 2003/98/ES ze dne 17. listopadu 2003 o opakovaném použití informací ve veřejném sektoru) by amending the existing Free Access to Information Act No 106/1999 (Úplné znění zákona č. 106/1999 Sb.). The amended Act was passed by the Parliament on the 3rd February 2006 and came into force in March 2006. The European Commission reflected the notification on 1st September 20069. The Ministry of Informatics was responsible for the transposition10 and stated at the time: “The Ministry of Informatics has drafted an amendment to Act No. 106/1999 on Free Access to Information. The main reason for the amendment is the adoption of Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information, which is binding upon the Czech Republic as an EU member state and must be transposed into Czech legislation. Apart from the transposition itself, the amendment also responds to problems that occurred in relation to the application of the Free Access to Information Act, especially by unifying and specifying the terminology of the existing regulation and regulating the manner of providing information in more detail. The amendment also responds to the development of other legislation, especially the establishment of self-governing units, and lays down clear procedures for processing information requests relating to the independent or delegated powers of those units.” Following the national elections in 2006 the new Government restructured some of the central government ministries and the Ministry of Informatics as a separate entity closed on the 31st May 2007. The roles of the former Ministry of Informatics have been taken over by the Ministry of the Interior11, which includes the administration and implementation of the law related to the re-use of public sector information. The Ministry of Informatics web site has been archived and is still available on the Ministry of the Interior web site. Act No. 365/2000 on Public Administration Information Systems lays down the rights and obligations of public administration bodies in relation to the establishment, use, operation and development of those information systems. The Personal Data Protection Act 101/2000 (and subsequent amendments) that was adopted in April 2000 transposes the European Union Directive 95/46/EC. The Czech Office for Personal Data Protection12 is responsible for the implementation of the Act. Czech Law Act 123/1998 Sb. Freedom of Access to Environmental Information Act transposes the European Union Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information. During 2007 the Ministry of the Interior undertook a review of Act 106/1999 and subsequent amendments as required by Government Resolution No. 1199 of 25th October 2006. The outcome of the review was published during December 200713. The report14 makes little reference to the Directive 2003/98/EC and re-use of public sector information is mentioned only in one short paragraph on the page 112 of the 115 page report. The Government of the Czec Republic on 9th January 2008 passed a resultion15 on the outcome of the review, which set out the following actions: • •

•

The Minister of the Interior shall bring forward draft amendments to Law No. 106/1999 by the 31st December 2008. All Ministers and Heads of Central government bodies must provide support to the Minister of the Interior during the process of drafting the amendments to the Law No. 106/1999. The support to include the support of the regions and local government. The resultion must be published in the Government Gazette for the regional and municple authorities.

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http://www.epsiplus.net/news/ec_psi_directive_transposition http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/micr/legislativa/default_en.htm http://www.mvcr.cz 12 http://www.uoou.cz 13 ePSIplus news topics “Czech FOI Act reviewed” refers 14 ANALYZA ÚČINNOSTI ZÁKONA O SVOBODNÉM PŘÍSTUPU K INFORMACÍM 15 http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/sprava/mistni/dokumenty/uv080109a.pdf 10 11

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Within the Ministery of the Interior the task was allocated to the Division of Inspection and Supervision in Public Administration16 and the progress of the actions taken appears on the Ministry of the Interior archived web site.17 The government has not implemented a public sector information re-use information portal. The nearest possible implmentation of such an information service was that of the old Ministry of Informatics web site where it presented the Czech transposition of the European Union Directive 2003/98/EC. In response to the absence of a government resourced information portal on the re-use of Public Sector Information PSI Watch18 was established – a civil society initiative that has the involvement of all the sectors.

The Czech PSI Watch initiative was established in the summer of 2005 (as the Directive came into force in all Member States on 1st July 2005) as a voluntary activity of the three organizations representing public, private and voluntary sector. The initiative was brought forward by the not for profit organisation EPMA (the organizer of the ePSIplus National Czech Meeting on the re-use of public sector information). The founding members were: • • •

European Projects & Management (EPMA) Ministry of Informationcs within the Ministry of Science Čekia a.s.

Since the formation of the Czech PSI Watch others members have joined the initiative from botht he demand and supply sides of the re-use of public sector information sector and includes orgnisations such as: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

TOVEK Ltd. Adastra, sro AION, Ltd. Creditinfo Czech Republic CCB a.s. Creditinfo Solutions Czech Statistical Office The Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Interior The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Czech Association for Geographic Information (CAGI) Open, ops Nemoforum, os

The Czech PSI Watch has been involved in a number of activities related to the re-use of public sector information and maintains a dynamic information portal. The portal sets a good example as to what can be done in the absence of action from the public sector. 2.1.1 Complaints procedure No special arrangements have been put in place for the handling of complaints specifically related to the re-use of public sector information. Section 16 of the Law 106/1999 refers to the complaints and appeals process. Complaints must be submitted in the first instance to the public body to which the request for public sector information was made. Under Act No. 349/1999 Coll. the Ombudsman - Office of The Public Defender of Rights handles complaints that maybe received about the conduct of public sector bodies. The authority does not include the following institutions: • • • • 16 17 18

Courts of all instances and the nature of their decision-making power Parliament, President and the government Supreme Audit Office Intelligence services of the Czech Republic

http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/sprava/mistni/index.html http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/sprava/mistni/dokumenty/analyza_ucinnosti.html http://www.czechpsi.info/iniciativa-czech-psi-watch.html 8

• •

Bodies active in criminal proceedings The State Prosecutor.

2.2 Impact of the PSI Law The impact of the transposition within the Czech Republic has been minimal in that the economic framework objective has been lost within the access to public sector information framework. The lack of stong leadership from central government on taking forward the re-use of public sector information as an economic measure has contributed to the minimal impact outcome. 2.2.1 Complaints There was no evidence presented at the meeting that formal complaints or Court cases have been made within the Czech Republic that are related to the re-use of public sector information. 2.3 Scope to extend the coverage of the Directive It was not apparent from the meeting or from the published review of the Act No. 106/1999 during 2007 as to whether there was a call from public sector information re-users for the scope of the existing Free Access to Information Act No 106/1999 and associated laws to be extended to cover those public sector information holdings that have been exempted. 2.4 Strengths-Weaknesses Analysis 2.4.1 Strengths Although the government has not resourced its own dedicated information service on the re-use of public sector information the Czech PSI Watch provides an invaluable service to all stakeholders that have an interest in public sector information. The Czech PSI Watch has the advantage that it is not subject to changes of Government following elections and reorganizations of responsibilities within the central government administration. 2.4.2 Weaknesses The inclusion of the re-use of public sector information framework within the access law (Act 106/1999) reduces the impact of the re-use framework especially when the access law is under review. The absence of a government resourced information service that covers all aspects of the re-use of public sector information. The absence of a public sector information management and data sharing policy that applies to all public sector bodies within the Czech Republic. The impact of political changes and subsequent re-organisations of central government bodies has resulted in change of priorities and the inevitable delays as re-organisation takes place and settles down. The number of Laws (Acts) that relate to public sector information holders (vertical orientation) are not consistent with cross cutting Laws (Acts) that relate to all public sector information holders (horizontal orientation). A number of the laws that relate to public sector information holders define value added tasks, which reflect a previous era and as such are not consistent with the economic framework related to the re-use of public sector information. As a result the: • Complexity of interpretation due to the number of Acts may be contributing to the legalistic approach (mind set) many public sector employees adopt when receiving re-use requests; • Process of rationalising (as the information society advances) the various laws is complex and contributes to delaying the economic development envisaged from the re-use of public sector information; • Competition that arises as the public sector competes with the private sector in adding value to the public sector information. 2.5 Future developments The outcome of the amendments to the Law No. 106/1999 will not be know until early 2009. There was no indication during the meeting as to which direction the amendments might take. The review of the access law does provide an opportunity to separate out the re-use framework, which if this approach were to be taken would add clarity and potentially strengthen the implementation within the Czech Republic. 9

3 Public sector organization and culture change 3.1 General information – Public Sector Number of Government Ministries Administrative areas within CZ – Regions Administrative areas within CZ – Districts Number of local government bodies Public Sector employees (2005)19 Public Sector employees – Central government (2005)19

14 13 + Prague 134 593 729,800 19,400

During the meeting the following three information services were referenced. The Public Adminstration Portal The Ministry of the Interior operates the Public Administration Portal20. The Directory (a metadata service about public sector bodies) provides links and connections to public authorities, government and other bodies of government as required under the Access law 103/1999 coll. The service incorporates a map server. CzechPoint

The Ministry of the Interior operates as part of the Czech eGovernment programme a service named Czech Point21 that provides a single Point of contact for citizens to communicate and undertake transactions with public administration. CzechPoint was introduced on the 1st January 2008. ePUSA

The Ministry of the Interior operates the ePUSA22 information system that enables citizens and others to access information held by local government bodies. The ePUSA information system is an integral part of the Public Administration portal and supports CzechPoint. The legal basis for ePUSA is Act No. 365/2000 Coll. on Public Administration Information Systems. 3.2 Support and compliance 3.2.1 Support for the Directive Compared with the freedom of access to public sector information the awareness within the public sector bodies and the public sector employees with respect to the re-use of public sector information was reported as low by a number of the participants within the meeting. The Ministry of the Interior had yet to initiate an awareness raising initiative to address the re-use part of the Act 106/1999 Coll. Public Sector bodies are required by Act 106/1999 to publish an annual report on the implementation of the access law. It was also apparent from the meetings presentatons and discussions that the culture of sharing information between public sector bodies was also minimal as reported in the Kraj Vysočina presentation even though there was a strong interest and drive with respect to the implementation of eGovernment; for example the information systems referred to in section 3.1 of this report; the examples cited during the presentations at the central and regional government levels and the geographic information sector during the meeting. The meeting did not identify or reference a published government policy on the sharing of information whether that be within the public sector itself, with citizens and businesses or for re-use whether that be for commercial or non commercial purposes. As a result there was:

19

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ http://portal.gov.cz 21 http://www.czechpoint.cz/web/index.php 22 http://www.epusa.cz 20

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• • •

Duplication of data that has been recognised as the government is considering a law on basic registers. Differing interpretations of the Act 106/1999 with respect to the handling of requests for the re-use of public sector information by public sector employees. A legalistic approach being taken by public sector bodies when handling re-use requests.

3.2.2 Compliance with the Directive The public sector presentations during the meeting made no specific reference to the re-use of public sector information and where re-use was referred to it was often in the context of supporting the democratic processes of Government for example the access law and the services implemented for handling specific transaction under eGovernment. Following the meeting online research of Czech public sector bodies web sites revealed that few have complied with the Directive with regards to the re-use of public sector information. This probably reflects the lack of leadership from the centre and the need to work with those setting the standards and interoperability guides and practices related to transformation government and in particular web sites. (eGovernment). 3.3 Value chain 3.3.1 Modernising government (eGovernment) The Czech Republic is actively involved in European Union eGovernment initiatives, which includes the European Commission, Directorate General Enterprise and Industry led initiative IADBC23 (Interoperable and Delivery of pan-European eGovernment services to public Administrations, Business and Citizens) programme. The IDABC eGovernment Observatory provides news and status reports on the Czech Republic within the eGovernment context. The IDABC has now merged into the epractice.eu portal24 and the latest Country Report for the Czech Republic (at the time of the meeting) was published in August 200725. The European Commission i2010 commissioned benchmark report published in September 2007 provides an indication of how Czech Republic compares with other Member States. The following four diagrams have been copied from pages 14, 15, 16 and 37 of the benchmarking report titled: The User Challenge Benchmarking The Supply Of Online Public Services26.

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http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/home http://www.epractice.eu/index.php?page=home 25 http://www.epractice.eu/factsheets 26 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/benchmarking/egov_benchmark_2007.pdf 24

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Copied from page 37 Section Czech Republic (CZ)

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The Czech Republic is actively involved in the European Environmental Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative (INSPIRE) with the Czech Environmental Information Agency (CENIA) acting as the primary interface within the Czech Republic. A report on the state of play as of December 2007 on the spatial data infrastructure initiatives within Czech Republic is available on the European Commission Joint Research Centre INSPIRE portal27. The meeting agenda item related to the transposition and implementation of the INSPIRE Directive did not take place as the presentor was absent. 3.3.2 Public Sector Information Holders The meeting during the debating session highlighted an issue that a number of public sector information holders have adopted the policy of delivering information only online with no fall back should the online service experience difficulties. A number of the delegates reported on the difficulty of obtaining the data and information from public sector bodies that had adopted the online only policy. The issue identified appeared to be that of bandwidth of the online channel. The policy maybe also due to a lack of resources as the response when asked why not provide a DVD or CD-ROM alternative was given as lack of resources. The following public sector information holders were referenced during the meeting amongst others. Central government Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Finance manages and is responsible for the Access to Registers of Economic Subjects (ARES)28. The ARES information service describes the service as follows: “ARES is an information system giving the user quick and easy access to public data concerning economic entities kept in information systems (source registers) of public administration. ARES contains not only the data from basic (major) sources but also the additional data from minor sources, available through references. Besides, the control sources are used in the data processing. ARES also contains the separate subsidiary applications. Description of sources and applications: Major sources • Commercial Register (CR), kept by registration courts • The Trade Register (TR), which is kept by trades licensing offices • The Register of Economic Entities (RES), which is kept by the Czech Statistical Office • Register of Churches and Religious Societies (RCRS) Other sources • Register of VAT Payers (VAT) • Register of Excise Duty Payers (ED) • Central Register of State Subsidies (SR) • Central Register of Bankrupts (BR) • Special register of state-financed organisations in ARIS system (RARIS) • Securities Centre (SC) concerning the majority shareholders and other information • List of Foreign Exchange Spots and Licences (FESL) • Register of Political Parties and Movements (PPM) • List of Civic Associations, Guilds and Clubs (AGC) • List of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies (IRC) • List of Responsible Actuaries (RA) • Register of Insurance Intermediaries and Loss Adjusters (IILA) Control source • Address Register of the Territorial Identification (UIR-ADR) Separate subsidiary application • Data from the Securities Centre (SC) concerning the majority shareholders and other information.” 27 28

http://inspire.jrc.it/state_of_play.cfm http://wwwinfo.mfcr.cz/ares/ares.html 13

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs29 The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in collaboration with the municipal authorities maintain a registry of addresses of all buildings to house number: UIR-ADR30. The register is available as an online service and on CDROM. Ministry of Justice31 The Ministry of Justice maintains anumber of register that include amongst others: • • •

Commercial register Evidence bankrupts Evidence experts and interpreters

Regional government The presentation from the Vysočina region demonstrated the role of many public sector information holders in that they are data producers, data integrators and data users in delivering their public task. The Vysočina region assists in developing the region and provides added value information services to the region. The services described amongst others included: • •

The Analytical and Statistical Services of the Vysocina Region32 The Vysočina Traffice Information service33

Czech Environmental Information Agency The Czech Environmental Information Agency (CENIA)34 manages and operates a number of information services, which includes amongst other a metadata portal35. The portal states: “It is based on catalogue service defined by Open Geospatial Consortium ad supports ISO 19115, 19119, 19139 stadards according to INSPIRE requirements. It is compatible with INSPIRE metadata profile and enables its integration into European Spatial Infrastructure.”

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http://www.mpsv.cz http://forms.mpsv.cz/uir/popis/popis.jsp http://www.justice.cz 32 http://analytika.kr-vysocina.cz 33 http://doprava.kr-vysocina.cz 34 http://www.cenia.cz 35 http://mis.cenia.cz/portal/client/?detail=1&lang=eng 30 31

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Czech Statistical Office The legal basis for Czech Statistical Office (CZSO)36 is the Act No. 89/1995 Coll., on the State Statistical Service. The Act defines the State Statistical Service as an activity, which involves acquisition and the production of statistical information on social, economic, demographic and environmental development in the Czech Republic and also the provision and publishing of statistical information. The Czech Statistical Office web site makes reference to the Directive 2003/98/EC and is one of the few public sector bodies that comply with the Directive with respect to transparency and pre-publishing prices. Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK) The Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre provide a range of geographic information services that includes amongst others a number of online services such as the Czech Geoportal37. Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI)38 provides data and information related to: Meteorology and Climatology, Hydrology and Air Quality control39. Czech Geological Survey The Czech Geological Survey (Česká geologická služba)40 provides access to a wide range of data and information services41, which includes an online map service42 and a metadata service (MICKA)43. Local government The Association of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic44 is a voluntary, apolitical and nongovernmental organisation founded as a professional association of legal entities. The number of members is in the region of 2,500 municipalities and towns. The Associations’objectives include amongst others: • •

•

To participate in the preparation of laws and other measures having an impact on local authorities, thus strengthening municipalities’ influence in the legislative area To duly inform the Government, Parliament and European Union institutions of the impact the measures prepared by them may have on the quality of citizens’ life and the development of individual areas, To enhance the economic independence of towns and municipalities

3.3.3 Public Private Partnerships During the Czech Association for Geographic Information (CAGI) presentation reference was made to a public private partnership between the municipalities in the Zlín region and the private sector utilities in the development and maintenance of a the single digital technical maps for the Zlín region, the JDTM ZK45. (Jednotné digitální technické mapy Zlínského kraje). The service is available to registered users such as the partners: region46, municipalities, manager of utility projects and other contractors such as surveying companies, designers and public authorities. The financial split is 44% public sector and 56% private sector. The Public Private Partnership was awarded via an open tender process during 2007 and the administrator of the service is the private sector company: Geovap, spol. s ro Pardubice47. The data ownership of the data placed in the relational database remains with the creators. There is no indication as to whether the data and information may be re-used by others.

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http://www.czso.cz http://geoportal.cuzk.cz 38 http://www.chmi.cz 39 http://www.chmi.cz/indexe.html 40 http://www.geologickasluzba.cz/ 41 http://www.geology.cz/extranet-eng 42 http://www.geology.cz/extranet-eng/geodata/mapserver 43 http://nts5.cgu.cz/website/micka/ 44 http://www.smocr.cz/ 45 http://www.jdtm-zk.cz 46 http://www.kr-zlinsky.cz 47 http://www.geovap.cz 37

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3.3.4 National Innovation Strategy The national innovation strategy was not referred to during the meeting. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic published a report during November 2007 on the Operational Programme - Enterprise and Innovation (OPEI)48. The programme has a strong focus on SME’s and their exploitation of ICT. The annual European Commission INNO-Policy Trend Chart — Policy Trends and Appraisal Report for the Czech Republic ranks the Czech Republic among the group of "moderate innovators" with an overall innovation performance that is below the EU average but above the level of the "catching up countries". The other EU "moderate innovator" countries with similar levels of performance are Estonia, Slovenia, Italy, Cyprus and Spain. The INNO-Policy Trend chart49 initiative was initiated in Lisbon during March 2000 and as such has the same origins and objectives as the re-use of public sector information Directive. 3.4 Impact of relevant initiatives No initiatives were identified during the meeting. 3.5 Strengths-Weaknesses Analysis 3.5.1 Strengths • •

The public administration portals. The eGovernment developments and skills.

3.5.2 Weaknesses • • • • •

Lack of leadership on the re-use of public sector information. Lack of transparency with respect to licences and pricing. Lack of a data sharing policy for the public sector. The low awareness within the public sector when handling requests for the re-use of public sector information. Failure to exploit the public administration portal to bring together the re-use of public sector information. As the Czech government chose to implement the re-use of PSI Directive within the access law the follow on action to exploit the access services provided has yet to be taken.

3.6 Future developments No future intiatives were referred to during the meeting other than the review of several laws pertinent to public sector information referred to in section 2 of this report. 4 Encouraging the PSI re-use business 4.1 General Information – Private Sector Number of SMEs (Approximate) (2005) (EUROSTAT) 878000 Number of employees within SMEs (2005) (EUROSTAT) 2461000 Percentage of Enterprises using the Internet (2007) (CZSO) 95% Percentage of Enterprises using broadband (2007) (CZSO) 77% Percentage of Enterprises with a web site (2007) (CZSO) 77% Source 1: EUROSTA, Enterprises by size class - overview of SMEs in the EU Source 2: CZSO, Enterprise Survey on ICT Use and E-commerce The strong presence of the private sector at the meeting demonstrated a keen interest in public sector information and the development of the Czech information economy. The private sector is also well represented within Czech PSI Watch and the Czech Association for Geographic Information bodies both of whom made presentations during the meeting. No private sector company made a presentation and only one private sector re-user participated in the panel session.

48 49

http://www.mpo.cz/en/business-support/opei/ http://www.proinno-europe.eu/ 16

4.1.1 Private Sector Re-use examples The following companies were referred to during during the EPMA presentation and the following discussions: Business Information Sector Česká kapitálová informační agentura, a.s. (ČEKIA). The Swedish based company Bisnode owns ČEKIA and as such is part of a company that has subsidaries in othe European Member States. The company offers economic and business information Geographic Information Sector GISAT50 – the company offers data. Legal Information Sector Fulsoft51 Sagit52 Tori Soft53 Arnet54 Publishing Sector ASPI Walters Kluwer55 Albertina icome Praha s.r.o that offers information online and on offline for example CD-ROM. Meteorological Sector (Weather Sector) Meteopress s.r.o.56 The company has been established 15 years and offers weather service to a wide range of sectors. Meteopress cooperates with the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and other partner companies in other countries. 4.2 Potential for pan-European products There was no evidence presented during the meeting that indicated Czech companies were offering pan European products and services based on the re-use of public sector information. A number of companies however were part of a larger European or International Company and as such they were part of a company that offered pan-European products and services. 4.3 Knowledge transfer between sectors - Associations – Professional and Trade The Czech Association for Geo-Information (CAGI)57 presentation outlined a number of case studies mostly from the public sector. One of the case studies was related to metadata and the MIDAS service 58 Czech Chamber of Commerce (Hospodářská komora České republiky).59 The legal basis of the Czech Chamber of Commerce is law No. 301/1992.

50

http://www.gisat.cz http://www.fulsoft.cz http://www.sagit.cz/ 53 http://www.sbirka.cz 54 http://www.zakonycr.cz 55 http://www.aspi.cz 56 http://www.meteopress.cz/ 57 http://www.cagi.cz/ 58 http://pcj331p.vsb.cz/midas/ 59 http://www.komora.cz/?langid=1 51 52

17

4.4 Strengths-Weaknesses Analysis 4.4.1 Strengths No strengths identified. 4.4.2 Weaknesses •

•

The private sector re-users have not coalesced and formed an action group to address the issues that they face when re-using public sector information. Czech PSI watch is the nearest equivalent but includes both the supply and demand sectors as well as public sector policy bodies related to public sector information. A number of the Czech companies are involved in the pan European PSI Alliance. Considering the high proportion of SME’s within the Czech Republic and the few companies identified during the meeting may indicate an awareness gap which might be due to the lack of centrally driven promotion campgain and coordination between Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Industry and Trade.

4.5 Future developments None identified.

5 The financial impact: pricing and charging 5.1 Impact on the PSI value chain No evidence was presented or discussed during the meeting regarding the impact of financial charges where they are levied as to whether these charges had an impact on the down stream value chain. One reason for this maybe that many re-users of public sector information reported difficulty in gaining access to the information in the first place due to the cultural issues that exist within the public sector information holders. 5.2 Pricing and charging policies There was no reference to a national policy on financial charges when re-using public sector information. Many public bodies operate under a legal framework and the pertinent law describes how the public body shoul levey charges if at all. 5.2.1 Public Sector bodies The Czech Statistical Office publishes a price list related to the re-use of CZSO data and information60. Commercial re-users are required to take out a licence. The Czech Geological Survey publishes a price list for its data and information.61 5.3 Outstanding national policies No outstanding policies have been identified within the meeting. 5.4 Strengths-Weaknesses Analysis 5.4.1 Strengths The meeting did not identify any strengths. 5.4.2 Weaknesses • • •

60 61

The lack of transparency - price lists not publishe are published deep within the web site. The lack of financial accountability in public sector body annual reports Annual reports that include financial information not published annually within a given time period at the end of the financial year.

http://www.czso.cz/eng/redakce.nsf/i/m_conditions_of_commercial_utilization_of_the_czso_products_using_negotiated_prices http://www.geology.cz/extranet/geodata/cenik 18

5.5 Future developments No future developments related to the effectiveness of the policy frameworks related to PSI re-use and financial charges were identified within the meeting. 6 Information management, standards and data quality The meeting did not consider standards specifically although information management and application standards arose during the discussions and debates. 6.1 Quality of PSI – impact on commercial re-use

6.2 Key re-use sectors - acceptable data quality No information was presented or discussed during the meeting. 6.3 Standards and Advisory bodies The Czech Standards Institute (Cesky Normalizacní Institut)62 The Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing (COSMT)63 established under Law No. 20/1993 Coll. COSMT is a budgetary organisation that comes under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. 6.4 Strengths-Weaknesses Analysis 6.4.1 Strengths None identified during the meeting. 6.4.2 Weaknesses None identified during the meeting. 6.5 Future developments None identified at the current time.

62 63

http://domino.cni.cz/NP/NotesPortalCNI.nsf/key/hlavni_stranka?Open http://www.cni.cz/en/index.html 19

7 National situation: Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic64 The Chamber of Deputies65 Elections in the Czech Republic: 2nd & 3rd June 2006 - Chamber of Deputies; October 2008 - Senate and municipal government; October 2010 - Chamber of Deputies & Senate and municipalgovernment The Czech Republic will hold the Presidency of the European Union during the period January through to June 2009.

Region A B C E H J K L M P S T U Z Total

Czech Region Hlavní město Praha Jihomoravský kraj Jihočeský kraj Pardubický kraj Královéhradecký kraj Kraj Vysočina Karlovarský kraj Liberecký kraj Olomoucký kraj Plzeňský kraj Středočeský kraj Moravskoslezský kraj Ústecký kraj Zlínský kraj 14

Name Prague Jihomoravsky South Bohemia Pardubice Region Hrdec Kralove Vysocina Raja Karlovy Vary Liberec Olomouc Pilsen Central Bohemia Moravian-Silesia Usti Zlin

District 58 7 7 4 5 5 3 4 5 7 12 6 7 4 134

Municipalities with extended Powers

Municipalities with Authorised Municipal Office

21 17 15 15 15 7 10 13 15 26 22 16 13 205

34 37 26 35 26 14 21 20 35 55 30 30 25 388

Source of above summary: http://portal.gov.cz/wps/portal/_s.155/6966/_s.155/695/place

64 65

http://www.senat.cz/index-eng.php http://www.psp.cz/sqw/hp.sqw 20

Annex 1: Meeting Agenda A1.1 Czech Agenda Národní konference o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru 23. ledna 2008 Ministerstvo vnitra ČR, Praha 4 Program 08:30 Registrace účastníků 09:00 Uvítání, Irina Zálišová, EPMA, národní koordinátor projektu ePSIplus 09:15 Informace o projektu ePSIplus, Chris Corbin, analytik ePSIplus 09:30 Znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru v evropském kontextu, Javier Hernandez-Ros, Evropská komise 10:00 Začlenění evropské směrnice č. 2003/98/EC o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru a dopad na strategii rozvoje informační společnosti, Jaroslav Svoboda, Ministerstvo vnitra ČR 10:20 Směrnice INSPIRE a její aplikace v ČR, Jiří Hradec, ředitel CENIA 10:40 Místní samospráva jako producent i zpracovatel informací veřejného sektoru, Václav Jáchim, odbor informatiky, Krajský úřad Kraje Vysočina 11:00 Přestávka na kávu 11:20 Právní úskalí zákona o svobodném přístupu k informacím v kontextu zvovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru, Radim Polčák, Masarykova univerzita Brno 11:40 Implementácia EU smernice PSI na Slovensku, Peter Druga, národní koordinátor ePSIPlus, Slovenská republika 12:00 Přehled trhu informačních služeb založených na informacích veřejného sektoru, Dagmar Vránová, EPMA + Iniciativa Czech PSI Watch 12:20 Český trh geoinformací, Jiří Hiess, Česká asociace pro geoingormace 12:40 Blok panelových diskuzí na téma: • • • • •

Právní a regulatorní otázky znovuvyužití PSI Standardy a kvalita dat v informačních systémech veřejného sektoru Kultura, tradice a zvyklosti veřejného sektoru Platit či neplatit za data veřejného sektoru? Jak povzbudit rozvoj trhu informačních služeb?

(zástupci ministerstev vnitra, financí, práce a sociálních věcí, spravedlnosti, Českého statistického úřadu, Úřadu na ochranu osobních údajů aj. v diskuzi se zástupci zpracovatelů z komerční i nekomerční sféry) 13:40 Shrnutí, závěry, Chris Corbin, analytik ePSIplus 14:00 Oběd, neformální diskuze 15:00 Formální ukončení konference

21

A1.2 English Agenda National Meeting of the Czech Republic: Reuse of Public Sector Information 23. January 2008 Ministry of Interior, Prague 4 Agenda 08:30 Registration 09:00 Welcome, Irina Zálišová, EPMA, ePSIplus Czech national representative 09:15 ePSIplus An overview, Chris Corbin, ePSIplus analyst 09:30 Re–use of PSI A European Context. Javier Hernandez‐Ros, Head of Unit, Digital Libraries & Public Sector Information Unit, DG Information Society & Media, European Commission 10:00 Transposition of European Directive on Reuse of PSI and its impact on Information society development strategy, Jaroslav Svoboda, Ministry of Interior 10:20 INSPIRE Directive and its application in Czech Republic, Jiří Hradec, director of CENIA – Czech Environment Information Agency 10:40 Local Government as a producer and reuser of PSI, Václav Jáchim, IT Department, Regional Authority of Vysočina Region 11:00 Coffee break 11:20 Legal pitfalls of Free Access to information Acts in the context of reuse, JUDr. Radim Polčák, Masaryk University Brno 11:40 Transposition of EU Directive on Reuse of PSI in Slovakia, Peter Druga, ePSIplus National representative of Slovakia 12:00 Survey of Information services market based on PSI, Dagmar Vránová, EPMA, Initiative Czech PSI Watch 12:20 Czech market of geoinformation, Jiří Hiess, Czech Association for Geoinformation 12:40 Panel discussion, moderator Dagmar Vránová Panel members: Jiří Choun, ředitel odboru informačních služeb Petr Němec, CreditInfo Czech Republic Adam Furek, MV Karel Lux, MPSV Jitka Karpinská, MF 13:40 Conclusion, Chris Corbin, ePSIplus analyst 14:00 Joint lunch, informal networking 15:00 Formal closing of the meeting

22

Annex 2: Attendance list A2.1 Sorted by Family name First name Frantisek Jiří Tomas Chris Petra Peter Olga Jiří Rornan Pavel Adam Pavel Vladislav Javier Jiří Frank Jan Jiří

Family Name Cermak Choun Chramecky Corbin Dolezalová Druga Dvorská Effler Felhav Finger Furek Gardavsky Hančil Hernandez-Ros Hiess Hoffman Holoubek Hradec

Václav Petr Jiří Jitka Robert Pavel Michaela Lubomir Jiří

Jáchim Jemelka Kadleček Karpinská Korseit Král Králová Krnávek Krump

Eva Oldfich Pavel Radek Karel Ludek Olga Mates Petr Michael Erika Jiří Jitka Aleš Jiří Radim Jana Tomas Jaroslav Alena Ivan Vojtech Hana

Kubátová Kuzilek Kysely Lastovicka Lux Mácha McHenry Milath Němec Nicholson Orlitová Pavliček Pavlonova Pekárek Podzemsky Polčák Presslova Rencin Rozsypal Seoud Spingi Stavny Stepánková

Josef

Svec

Organisation MF Feditel Odboru Informačních Služeb, CSO CSU ePSIplus CEKIA, a.s. PD Consulting Ministry of the Interior ASPI Triada CCB – Czech Credit Bureau Ministry of the Interior AION CS, s.r.o. Poradce European Commission Czech Association for Geoinformation IGN Atla cz a.s. CENIA - Czech Environmental Information Agency Regional Authority of Vysočina Region ISVS AIP Ministry of Finance Centire Czech, s.r.o. CEKIA, a.s. CSU Ministry of Finance UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) Office for Personal Data Protection Ministry of the Interior Otevrena spolecnost, o.p.s. Internet Securities Inc. Coface Czech Credit Services Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Internet Securities Inc. ePSIplus EU CreditInfo Czech Republic Intelligent Addressing GISAT, s.r.o. Telefonica O2 Rada vlady pro IS EPMA CSU Masaryk University, Brno CUZK Triada, spol. S.r.o. MSp Dun & Bradstreet, spol, s.r.o. SCIP Czech Creditinfo Solution, s.r.o. UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) Office for Personal Data Protection Mesto Velke Mezirici 23

First name Jaroslav Zwrauw Attila Tomas Dagmar Gerhard Michal Irina Jan

Family Name Svoboda Svobrdyz Toth Vejlupek Vránová Wagner Warzala Zališová Zicha

Organisation Ministry of Interior Ministry of the Interior e-Content Store TOVEK, s.r.o EPMA ePSIplus ePSIplus EPMA Raventia s.r.o.

A2.2 Sorted by name of Organisation First name Pavel Jiří Jiří Jan Pavel Petra Pavel Jiří

Family Name Gardavsky Kadleček Effler Holoubek Finger Dolezalová Král Hradec

Robert Radek Petr Vojtech Tomas Michaela Jiří Jiří

Korseit Lastovicka Němec Stavny Chramecky Králová Podzemsky Choun

Jana

Presslova

Jiří Alena Attila Aleš Dagmar Irina Chris Olga Gerhard Michal Mates Javier Erika Frank Michael Pavel Ludek Petr Radim Josef Frantisek Jitka Lubomir Jaroslav Karel Olga

Hiess Seoud Toth Pekárek Vránová Zališová Corbin McHenry Wagner Warzala Milath Hernandez-Ros Orlitová Hoffman Nicholson Kysely Mácha Jemelka Polčák Svec Cermak Karpinská Krnávek Svoboda Lux Dvorská

Organisation AION CS, s.r.o. AIP - Albertina icome Praha s.r.o. ASPI Atla cz a.s. CCB – Czech Credit Bureau CEKIA, a.s. CEKIA, a.s. CENIA - Czech Environmental Information Agency Centire Czech, s.r.o. Coface Czech Credit Services CreditInfo Czech Republic Creditinfo Solution, s.r.o. CSU (Český statistický úřad) CSU (Český statistický úřad) CSU (Český statistický úřad) CSU (Český statistický úřad) Feditel Odboru Informačních Služeb CUZK - Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre Czech Association for Geoinformation Dun & Bradstreet, spol, s.r.o. e-Content Store EPMA EPMA EPMA ePSIplus ePSIplus ePSIplus ePSIplus EU European Commission GISAT, s.r.o. IGN Intelligent Addressing Internet Securities Inc. Internet Securities Inc. ISVS Masaryk University, Brno Mesto Velke Mezirici Ministry of Finance Ministry of Finance Ministry of Finance Ministry of Interior Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Ministry of the Interior 24

First name Adam Eva Zwrauw Jaroslav Oldfich Peter Vladislav Jitka Jan Václav Ivan

Family Name Furek Kubátová Svobrdyz Rozsypal Kuzilek Druga Hančil Pavlonova Zicha Jáchim Spingi

Jiří Tomas Rornan Tomas Jiří

Pavliček Vejlupek Felhav Rencin Krump

Hana

Stepánková

Organisation Ministry of the Interior Ministry of the Interior Ministry of the Interior MSp Otevrena spolecnost, o.p.s. PD Consulting Poradce Rada vlady pro IS Raventia s.r.o. Regional Authority of Vysočina Region SCIP Czech Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals Telefonica O2 TOVEK, s.r.o Triada, spol. s.r.o. Triada, spol. s.r.o. UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) Office for Personal Data Protection UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) Office for Personal Data Protection

25

Annex 3: Press Releases ePSIplus Press Release (English language) Czech Republic: National Meeting (Národní konference o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru) 23rd January 2008 Ministerstvo vnitra ČR (Ministry of Interior) nám. Hrdinů 3, Praha 4 Over 40 delegates attended the meeting organised under the auspices of the European Commission funded ePSIplus Thematic Network by the Czech Republic national partner European Projects and Management (EPMA). The objective of the meeting was to: -

Raise the awareness within the Czech Republic on the European Union Directive 2003/98/EC; Gather evidence from Public Sector Information (PSI) re-use stakeholders as to how the Directive has been transposed and implemented within the Czech Republic.

The meeting considered presentations from the ePSIplus Thematic Network, the European Commission and organisations within the Czech Republic. A panel of Czech PSI stakeholders responded to the presentations and questions raised by the delegates. A final summary was made by the responsible ePSIplus Analyst. It was clear from the meeting that: -

There is an absence of leadership with respect to the implementation of the PSI Directive within the Czech Republic! There is a bottom up approach where civic and non-profit sectors have done more then the responsible Ministry with respect to raising awareness. For example PSI Watch.

As a result the Czech Republic was not reaching the economic potential to be gained from re-using public sector information as perceived by the European Union PSI Directive. The Czech Republic has chosen to transpose the PSI Directive by amending an existing law (an access law) rather than a separate law that establishes the framework that will act as a catalyst within which the economic opportunity maybe maximised as has been the approach taken by 62% of the European Union Member States as well as the European Commission itself.

26

One consequence of the approach adopted within the Czech Republic is that there is no single harmonised independent complaints process that handles complaints in a time frame that is consistent with the window of opportunity that potential PSI re-users have when developing innovative products and services. Complaints are a natural consequence as the PSI Directive implementation requires a cultural change and whilst this is occurring cultural differences will arise at the interface of the supply and demand interface for PSI. Complaints should not be perceived to be a negative process but just one tool available to assist the economic potential to be achieved through resolving the issues that arise when implementing a law such as the PSI Directive. Complaints also raise awareness, develop good practice and clarify the interpretation of the law in a simple low cost but time effective way. As an example - the recent survey published in the Czech Republic on the experience of the implementation of the Freedom of Access law demonstrates that complaints and appeals arise from interpretation of the law and how this applied in practice. The ePSIplus Thematic Network analyst during the summary of the meeting suggested the following immediate actions that the lead Ministry – The Ministry of the Interior; could take to commence addressing the perceived lack of leadership and awareness within the Czech Republic. 1. 2. 3.

Undertake and publish a PSI survey of PSI stakeholders within the Czech Republic within the next six months. Form a PSI Policy forum made up of PSI stakeholders within the Czech Republic. Organise and hold further PSI awareness raising meetings.

Note to Editors ePSIplus is a Thematic Network, funded by the European Commission under the eContentplus programme to support the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information (PSI) Re-use, in the period leading up to its review in 2008. The ePSIplus Thematic Network will be active for 30 months from September 2006 through to February 2009 and will bring together the PSI community at large across Europe through a series of national and thematic meetings culminating in a final conference. These events will be supported throughout the duration of the project by the ePSIplus web site – www.epsiplus.net; Europe’s one stop shop on Public Sector Information. The ePSIplus Thematic Network is working closely with the European Commission in order to support the review of the Directive that will be undertaken and completed by the European Commission ready for July 2008. The ePSIplus Thematic Network will focus on five major themes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Legal and regulatory progress and impact Public sector organisation and culture change Encouraging PSI reuse business The financial impact: pricing and charging Information management, standards and data quality

27

EPMA Press Release (Czech language)

Tisková zpráva Praha, 23. ledna 2008. Informace produkované veřejným sektorem jsou cenný statek, s nímž je nutno racionálně nakládat a využít jeho ekonomického potenciálu k dalšímu rozvoji informační společnosti. Na tom se shodli účastníci Národní konference o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru, která se konala 23. ledna 2008 na Ministerstvu vnitra v Praze. Komerční sféra volá po odstranění některých bariér, které brzdí další rozvoj informačních služeb a brání vytvoření spravedlivého a konkurenčního prostředí na informačním trhu. Instituce veřejného sektoru žádají přesnější pravidla pro poskytování informací k dalšímu využití. Všichni by uvítali vytvoření katalogu informačních zdrojů dostupných pro znovuvyužití a jedno centrální metodické pracoviště, které by radilo poskytovatelům i zpracovatelům, případně vyřizovalo spory. Agentura EPMA (Agentura pro evropské projekty a management) společně s Ministerstvem vnitra pořádala v rámci celoevropského projektu ePSIplus v Praze dne 23. ledna 2008 národní konferenci o informacích veřejného sektoru a jejich znovuvyužití, které se zúčastnili zástupci všech zainteresovaných skupin (veřejný, privátní a neziskový sektor) z České republiky, společně s vedoucím úseku pro informační trh v Evropské komisi Javierem Hernandez-Rosem. Součástí konference bylo také založení mezinárodní PSI Alliance, která reprezentuje komunitu zpracovatelů informací veřejného sektoru v Evropské unii. Konference byla zaměřena na přímou diskusi zástupců veřejného a privátního sektoru o současném stavu evropského a českého trhu s informačním obsahem využívajícího informace veřejného sektoru, stavu legislativního prostředí, standardech a kvalitě dat, výši licenčních poplatků atd. Problematika znovuvyužití informací produkovaných veřejným sektorem (PSI – Public Sector Information) je již delší dobu v centru pozornosti Evropské unie vzhledem k jejich značnému, ale prozatím v evropském prostoru málo využívanému ekonomického potenciálu. Podle studie MEPSIR (Measuring European Public Sector Information Resources) z roku 2006 činí hodnota informací veřejného sektoru v EU zhruba 10 – 48 miliard EUR, což znamená velkou příležitost pro vytváření atraktivních informačních produktů s vysokou přidanou hodnotou, ovšem za předpokladu volné dostupnosti takových informací a existence jasných pravidel jejich distribuce. Největší potenciál mají především informace hospodářské, právní, geografické, meteorologické, dopravní a další, přitom je samozřejmostí respektování osobních a jiných citlivých údajů. „Pokud se naučíme dále využívat informace již jednou vytvořené veřejným sektorem, přinese to prospěch celé ekonomice i občanům“, řekl Javier Hernandez-Ros. „Otevřená a transparentní politika je pro rozvoj informačního trhu nezbytná“. Pro posílení komerčního trhu s odvozenými produkty založenými na informacích veřejného sektoru byla v roce 2003 vydána Evropská směrnice č. 2003/98/EC o opakovaném využití informací veřejného sektoru, která byla různými způsoby implementována do národních legislativních systémů. V České republice se tak stalo novelizací zákona o svobodném přístupu k informacím č. 106/1999 Sb., ovšem úroveň implementace není podle posledních analýz optimální. Problematika znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru spadá do kompetence Ministerstva vnitra, které převzalo tuto agendu od Ministerstva informatiky. Orgány české veřejné správy jsou v přístupu k řešení problematiky PSI poněkud bezradné, v současné době k tomuto stavu přispívá také absence jednoznačně odpovědné instituce. Téma poskytování informací se totiž objevuje i dalších právních normách, zejména v zákoně č. 123/1998 Sb. o právu na informace o životním prostředí, v zákoně o státní statistické službě, v katastrálním zákoně aj. Jistou bariérou je rovněž tradice a kultura veřejného sektoru: získávání informací veřejného sektoru pro účely dalšího zpracování je tradičně považováno veřejnými institucemi spíše za „zneužívání“ práva na informace ke komerčním účelům. Jedním z řešení současného stavu je pozitivní informační tlak především na instituce veřejného sektoru, ale také informování privátního sektoru o značném ekonomickém potenciálu PSI. Hybatelem těchto aktivit je v České republice především nezisková iniciativa CzechPSI Watch, jejímiž členy jsou zástupci veřejného, privátního i neziskového sektoru. Jedním z hlavních cílů iniciativy je především vyvolání diskuse o ekonomickém potenciálu informací veřejného sektoru a propojení subjektů zainteresovaných skupin za účelem rozvoje trhu s odvozenými informačními produkty s vysokou přidanou hodnotou. „Téma o opakovaném použití informací veřejného sektoru je zajisté velmi zajímavé nejen proto, že zajištění některých úkolů po nás požaduje Směrnice Evropského parlamentu a Rady 2003/98/ES, ale především pro opravdovou nutnost zracionalizovat nakládání s informačními produkty na všech úrovních veřejné správy, tu mezinárodní nevyjímaje,“ napsal účastníkům konference Tom Zajíček, předseda výboru pro veřejnou správu a regionální rozvoj Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky. „Jsem přesvědčen, že nemáme pro splnění poměrně složitého úkolu mnoho času. Vytvoření podmínek pro implementaci jmenované Směrnice mělo být splněno do 1. července 2005 a první kontrolu používání lze očekávat do 1. července roku letošního.“ 28

Evropská komise již zadala zpracování hodnotící studie dopadu Směrnice o opakovaném využití informací veřejného sektoru ve třech tematických sektorech (geografické, meteorologické a právní informace) k posouzení její účinnosti napříč Evropou. Rovněž projekt ePSIplus slouží k získání velmi podrobného přehledu o stavu implementace směrnice o opakovaném využití informací veřejného sektoru ve všech evropských státech. Rozsáhlá síť téměř 3000 expertů reprezentující jak poskytovatele, tak zpracovatele informací veřejného sektoru ze všech evropských států přináší informace o aktuálním stavu, jeho změnách, náměty na řešení, příklady dobré i špatné praxe apod. Informace o problematice informací veřejného sektoru v ČR přináší webová stránka www.czechpsi.info Bližší informace poskytne Dagmar Vránová, EPMA, tel.+420 234 602 268, mobil: +420 724 753 530, email: [email protected] Redakční poznámky: EPMA – Agentura pro evropské projekty a management je neziskové zájmové sdružení právnických osob založené krajem Vysočina a sdružením BMI. Zabývá se mimo jiné problematikou eGovernmentu v evropském kontextu, otázkami eBusinessu zejména ve vztahu k malým a středním firmám a problematikou Public Sector Information, zejména jejich komerčním využíváním. EPMA je zapojena do projektu ePSIplus jako národní koordinátor za ČR. Více na www.epma.cz Ministerstvo vnitra je ústřední orgán státní správy, do jehož kompetence spadá mimo jiné i problematika znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru. V gesci MV je aplikace zákona o svobodném přístupu k informacím, do něhož byla začleněna evropská směrnice 2003/98/EC o opakovaném využití informací veřejného sektoru. Více na www.mvcr.cz ePSIplus je projekt podporovaný Evropskou komisí v rámci programu eContentplus. Jeho cílem je vytvořit celoevropskou tematickou síť expertů zaměřenou na problematiku opakovaného využití informací veřejného sektoru upravenou evropskou směrnicí č. 2003/98/EC. K aktivitám projektu patří pořádání tematických konferencí pro 5 oblastí: a) legislativa, regulace, b) kultura veřejného sektoru, c) rozvoj podnikání, informační trh, d) kvalita dat a standardy e) finanční dopady, ceny a poplatky. V rámci projektu pořádají jednotlivé státy národní konference, jejichž cílem je zhodnotit dosavadní stav v oblasti opakovaného využívání informací veřejného sektoru, rozvinout diskuzi a nastínit směr jeho dalšího rozvoje. Více o projektu na www.epsiplus.cz

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Annex 4: Panel Session - transcript

A4.1 Original Czech language transcript ePSIplus National Meeting Czech Republic 23.1. 2008 Zápis z panelové diskuse 13:30 – 14:15 Moderátor: Dagmar Vránová, EPMA Účastníci: Jiří Choun, ředitel odboru informačních služeb, ČSÚ Petr Němec, CreditInfo Czech Republic Adam Furek, Ministry of the Interior Karel Lux, MPSV Jitka Karpinská, Ministry of Finance Po skončení hlavní části konference následovala panelová diskuse, které se zúčastnili čtyři zástupci ústředních vládních institucí ČR a jeden zástupce privátního sektoru. První tematickou oblastí byly právní a regulatorní otázky. Slova se ujal Petr Němec ze společnosti CreditInfo Czech republic, který souhlasil se závěry meetingu – z hlediska dostupnosti PSI v surové podobě jsou velké rozdíly v přístupu jednotlivých veřejných institucí, chybí jednotná gesce problematiky a politická vůle. Dále Petr Němec sdělil, že výklad zákona je dosti různý. Jeho zkušenosti jako zpracovatele jsou spíše negativní. Pokud se jeho firma obrátila dopisem se žádostí o poskytnutí konkrétních informací, vždy nějaký právník veřejné instituce zdůvodnil (mnohdy i za pomoci jiných zákonů), že tyto informace poskytnout nelze, případně odkázal, že všechny informace, které je instituce povinna zveřejňovat, jsou na webu. Z pléna zazněla připomínka Pavla Krále z agentury ČEKIA, který tyto praktiky potvrdil a uvedl příklad, že na odpověď a vyřízení požadavku z daňové správy čekala jejich firma třičtvrtě roku. Adam Furek z MV blíže komentoval nedávno vydanou Analýzu zákona o svobodném přístupu k informacím, jejíž je spoluautorem. Souhlasil s tím, že PSI směrnice není v tomto zákoně dostatečně implementována a na námitku, že v analýze toto mohlo být více rozebráno, odpověděl, že primárním účelem analýzy bylo zmapování účinnosti zákona ve smyslu jeho hlavního účelu (svobodný přístup k informacím jako zbraň proti korupci) na základě vládního usnesení. Poznamenal, že hlavní výstup této analýzy – návrh rozšíření skupiny tzv. povinných subjektů – je důležitý i ve smyslu poskytování a znovuvyužití PSI, protože se tím zvětší okruh potenciálních držitelů PSI, kteří budou povinni tyto informace poskytovat. Karel Lux z MPSV vyjádřil osobní souhlas se závěry konference a podotknul, že MPSV se snaží v tomto směru o co největší vstřícnost a jako příklad uvedl databázi ÚIR-ADR, kterou MPSV spravuje a kterou nabízí každému on-line na internetu, off-line na CD-ROM a to zdarma. Slovo si vzala Jitka Karpinská z MF, která vyjádřila pochopení pro problematiku a uvedla, že jejich úřad se snaží být maximálně otevřený vůči občanům i subjektům, které chtějí informace dále využívat. K dispozici dává mnoho dat, jsou zdarma dostupné na internetu, ale poznamenala, že hromadné stahovaní dat z registru ARES dělá problémy vzhledem ke kapacitě internetového připojení MF, takže stahování je omezeno na max. 5000 záznamů denně. P. Němec zareagoval námitkou, proč tedy MF neposkytuje data podobně jako MPSV nebo ČSÚ off-line, v kompletní syrové podobě, na což J. Karpinská nedokázala odpovědět. www.epsiplus.net (Pozn. EPMA – ARES je pouhá aplikace spojující různé databáze veřejné správy – tzv. zdrojové registry, nikoliv samostatná primární databáze, proto s ní MF takto nakládat nemůže). Z pléna zazněl dotaz, proč si tedy MF za stahování větších objemů dat neúčtuje nějaké poplatky, které by potom mohlo investovat do rozšíření přenosové kapacity, případně na výrobu CD. J. Karpinská se odvolala na právní stanovisko MF, že k vybírání poplatků není oprávněno. Poukázala však i na problémy, které má ministerstvo financí s vyřizováním požadavků. Například uvedla, že krajské samosprávy si nyní budují vlastní datové sklady a informační služby (jako uvedl Václav Jáchim z kraje Vysočina ve své prezentaci na této konferenci), a požadují výběry z centrálních databází, např. z registru dotací CERD. Přitom se podle ní kraje nejsou schopny dohodnout na jednotné struktuře dat, každý kraj požaduje data jinak. Splnění těchto požadavků zatěžuje pracovníky MF, protože na podobný druh služeb nejsou vybaveni. Moderátorka reagovala tak, že kdyby MF zveřejnilo standardní strukturu věty jednotnou pro všechny, kteří chtějí data dále využívat, bylo by to schůdné řešení. Každý zpracovatel disponuje dostatečnou programátorskou kapacitou pro transformaci dat do vlastních aplikací. P. Němec a komerční sektor zastoupený v sále vyslovil názor, že místo toho, aby MF uspokojovalo individuální požadavky (a to nejen krajských úřadů), mělo by zavést standardy a možnost získávat data moderním způsobem. P. 30

Král uvedl jako příklad insolvenční rejstřík a evidenci úpadců (provozované MSp), které nabízejí moderní uživatelské rozhraní snadno využitelné pro webové služby a další pokročilé technologie. J. Karpinská reagovala v tom smyslu, že insolvenční rejstřík a evidence úpadců jsou mnohonásobně menší databáze než je např. RES v systému ARES, který obsahuje více než 3 mil. záznamů. Moderátorka vyzvala zástupce ČSÚ, aby objasnil jejich politiku při zpřístupňování dat z RES (který je spravován ČSÚ jako zdrojový registr). Jiří Choun po stručném úvodu předal slovo vedoucímu oddělení poskytování elektronických výstupů ČSÚ, Jiřímu Podzemskému, který vysvětlil, že ČSÚ prodává RES (jedna z databází, kterou ARES používá) taktéž off-line (podobně jako MPSV), protože hromadné stahování větších dávek dat z internetu by vedlo k zablokování přenosových kanálů a znemožnění přístupu dalším uživatelům. Za kompletní RES si ČSÚ účtuje cenu 20 000,- Kč, vzhledem k tomu, že ČSÚ se řídí také zákonem o státní statistické službě (pozn. EPMA v tomto zákoně nicméně není takové zpoplatňování určeno). Zástupce Creditinfa ještě jednou pochválil ČSÚ a MPSV za jejich přístup, nepochválil MF. Poznamenal, že omezení počtu stahovaných záznamů na 5000 denně nutí zpracovatele nasazovat více serverů a provádět tak stahování jednotlivých dávek v souladu s tímto omezením. Ve skutečnosti se však objem stahování dat nezmenší, pouze se rozloží. Svým přístupem tak MF de facto nutí zpracovatele obcházet toto regulační nařízení. MF by si mělo uvědomit, že komerční poskytovatel musí nabízet produkty, které obsahují aktuální data, a hledá způsoby, jak toho dosáhnout. Moderátorka se následně dotázala zúčastněných, zástupců státní správy, jestli jejich instituce pořádají nějaké školení zaměstnanců pro tuto problematiku, odpovědi byly vesměs záporné, Jaroslav Svoboda z MV, které má uvedenou problematiku v gesci, neurčitě odpověděl, že vzdělávání úředníků je nekonečný problém. Na závěr panelové diskuse poznamenal ředitel Choun, že problémy s poskytováním PSI pro jejich další využití je částečně i osobní problém jednotlivých úředníků (tzv. Úřednická psychika), ale na příkladu statistických dat uvedl, že jejich šíření se někdy u odpovědných pracovníků nesetkává s pochopením, protože mají obavy, aby nebyly chybně interpretovány, což se právě u statistických dat často stává. Dále uvedl, že některá data jsou dnes mnohem obtížněji poskytovatelná vzhledem k ochraně individuálních údajů (uvedl např. data o dovozu a vývozu za jednotlivé firmy), a to mimo jiné též povinností řídit se směrnicí Evropské unie, která poskytování těchto dat omezuje. Shrnutí: V poskytování informací veřejné správy panují velké rozdíly. Chybí jednotné postupy a základní metodické vedení. Zveřejňování dat na internetu je sice velkým přínosem pro občany, nemusí však být vždy vhodné pro další využití. Pokud nemohou komerční poskytovatelé získávat aktuální data v celém objemu, protože k on-line stahování nejsou kapacity přenosových linek dostatečně dimenzovány, hledají jiné cesty, jak data získat. Uvítali by, kdyby to ale nemuseli dělat a mohli si data regulérně koupit. Poskytování dat pro opakované využití je do značné míry závislé na kultuře veřejného sektoru a osobních postojích každého úředníka. V tomto směru chybí vzdělávací programy, které by tuto poměrně novou oblast činnosti veřejné správy kultivovaly.

A4.2 English translastion of the Czech language transcript

Minutes of the panel discussion 13:30 - 14:15 Moderator: Dagmar Vránová, EPMA Panel articipants: Jiří Choun, Director, Information Services Department, Czech Statistical Office Petr Němec, CreditInfo Czech Republic Adam Furek, Ministry of the Interior Karel Lux, The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Jitka Karpinská, Ministry of Finance At the end of the main part of the conference a panel discussion took place. The panel was made up of four representatives from the public sector and one from the private sector. 31

The first thematic area considered by the panel was that of the legal and regulatory issues. Petr Nemec of CreditInfo of the Czech Republic agreed with the conclusions of the meeting - in terms of the availability of PSI in the form of crude are major differences in how individual public institutions, lack of uniform main issues and the political will. In addition, Petr Nemec said that interpretation of the law is quite different. In his experience public sector information holders are rather negative. When CreditInfo submits a letter requesting the provision of specific information, always a lawyer, public institutions moved (often with the assistance of other laws) that the information cannot provide, or to refer to all the information which the institution is obliged published on the web. The plenary voiced comment from Paul King ČEKIA agency, which these practices and has introduced an example that the answer to a request from the processing of tax administration waiting a quarter of their company. Adam Furek of the Ministry of the Interior commented upon the recently released report that reviewed the effectiveness of the Free Access to Information Act. Agreed that PSI directive in this Law sufficiently implemented and the objection that this analysis could be more discusses replied that the primary purpose of the analysis has been mapping the effectiveness of the law in terms of the main purpose (freedom of information as a weapon against corruption) on the basis of the government resolution. Noted that the main output of this analysis - a proposal the expanded group of so-called mandatory bodies - is important also in terms of provision and re-PSI, because it will enlarge circuit potential holders of PSI, who will be required to provide this information. Karel Lux of The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs expressed personal consent to the conclusions of the conference and went on to say that The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs works to maximize the use of the data by others that it holds and quoted as an example the UIR-ADR database, which is provided online on the Internet as well as off-line on CD-ROM and it is free. Jitka Karpinski of the Ministry of Finance, expressed understanding of the issue and said, that their office is trying to be more open to citizens and entities that wish to re-use information for further. A lot of data and information is available for free on the Internet, but noted that the bulk downloading of data from the registry does present problems due to the Ministry of Finances capacity of the Internet connection, so downloading is limited to a maximum of 5000 records daily. Petr Nemec responded to the point made and asked why does the Ministry of Finance not make the data available in the same was as the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs available and the Czech Statistical Office do as an off-line version and in the entire raw form? Jitka Karpinski did not respond to the question. (Note by Moderator from EPMA - ARES is an application linking various databases of public administrations - the so-called source registers, rather than separate primary database, so it follows the Ministry of Finance may not be able to present the information in the way suggested). The participants’ from the floor also posed the question as to why? The Ministry did not charge for downloading large volumes of data, which if they did would enable them invest in the expansion of transmission capacity and if necessary also for the production of offline versions such as CD’s or DVD’s. Jitka Karpinski referred to the legal opinion of the Ministry of Finance that requires that charges should not be levied. I was pointed out from the floor that as a consequence if the problems that the Ministry of Finance have with respect to the resources that are available for processing and the online channel capacity that is available regional government for example is now creatng and maintaining their own data warehouses and information a services (for example Vaclav Jáchim of the Vysocina Region presented). This required withdrawals from central databases, such as subsidies from the registry Cerda. In doing so, according to the region are unable to agree on a single data structure, each region requires the data differently. As a result the Ministry of Finance personnel are trying to respond t many different requirements for similar type of services. The panel moderator responded, so that if the Ministry of Finance published the structure of sentences uniform for all who want to enjoy the data, it would be a viable solution. Every do processor has enough programming capacity for transformation of data into the own applications. Petr Nemec and other commercial sector representatives present in the meetng expressed the view that an alternative approach to trying to respond to the individual requirements the Ministry of Finance and the regional authorities should try to establish standards so that the information could be made available online via web sbsed services. P. King quoted as an example the insolvency register and register of bankrupcies both operated by SMEs, that offered advanced user interfaces that are easily usable for Web services and other advanced technologies. Jitka Karpinski responded to the effect that the insolvency register and register of bankrupcies are far less database than as RES in the ARES, which contains more than 3 million records. The panel moderator invited representatives of the Czech Statistical Office to clarify its policy on disclosure of data from the RES (which is administered by Czech Statistical Office as a source register). It Choun of three after a brief introduction to the word of the Head of Department providing electronic outputs CSO, Ji r ímu Podzemskému who explained that the CSO sells RES (one from the database, which uses ARES) also off-line (like Office), because the publica downloading large doses of data from the Internet would lead to a blockage of transmission channels and as a result disabling access to other users. Za kompletní RES si ČSÚ účtuje cenu 20 000,- Kč, For a complete RES CSO charged the price of 20 000, - CZK EPMA Whereas the CSO is governed by the law of the State Statistical Service (Note EPMA in this law, however, is that charging for). 32

The Creditinfo representative once again praised the Czech Statistical Office of Labor and Social Affairs, and their approach nepochválil MF. e Noted that limiting the number of downloaded records to 5000 a day makes processors to deploy more servers to download and implement the various benefits in accordance with this restrictions. In fact, however, the volume downloading data does not only will be spread. His access to MF de facto forces the processor to circumvent the regulatory regulation. MF by si mělo MF would be a realize that a commercial provider must offer products that contain the actual data, and. looking for ways to achieve this. Moderator then asked the stakeholders, representatives of government, if their institutions held a staff training for this issue, the answers were all negative, Jaroslav Svoboda from the Ministry of Interior referred to the issue of responsibility and the endless task of educationg public sector officials. At the end of panel discussions Choun director noted that problems with the provision of PSI their further use is partly a personal problem of individual officials (the so-called caretaker but the example of statistical data indicated that their spread is sometimes responsible for Workers nesetkává with the understanding because they have concerns that have been wrongly interpreted, This is just for statistical data often. He further stated that some data are now much difficult due to the protection of individual data (for example, said data on imports exports for each company), including the obligation to drive with the European Union, the provision of the data limits. Summary: In providing information the public administrations are facing major differences. The lack of uniform procedures and basic methodological guidance. Publication of data on the Internet is a major contribution to Citizens, however, may not be suitable for further use. If not commercial on-line providers to obtain current data throughout the volume, because the on-line downloads are not capacity transmission lines adequately sized, are looking for other ways to obtain the data. Welcomed by, but if they do not have a date to a fair buy. Providing data for re-use is largely dependent on the culture of public sector and personal attitudes of each official. In this respect, lack of educational programs that would this relatively new field of public administration kultivovaly.

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Annex 5: Meeting summary - transcript Edited transcript of the Final summary made by Chris Corbin At the Czech national meeting – 23rd January 2008. First of all I would like to thank all of you, the presenters, the panel and those of you that have sat and listened and taken part and stayed to the very end – well done. A lot of material has been presented and discussed. It is only by coming together in this way and in subsequent meetings I hope that will enable us to all move forward to seize the economic opportunity that is before us. Time is short as I only have a few minutes and your lunch is waiting so just a few points. You will appreciate that I have followed the meeting with the assistance of live translation and I may have missed a point or two or misunderstood the points being made. I should also explain one of my responsibilities here. Within the ePSIplus Thematic Network I am responsible to produce a report on the meeting, which I will do in due course. All the presentations will be put up on the ePSIplus web site tomorrow (24th January 2008) and also on the PSI Watch web site. The first point that strikes me is that I have not heard a mention today as to whether a policy exists with respect to data sharing. Data sharing is important, as the public sector itself has to deliver the services to society in a seamless way often referred to as eGovernment in the discussions today. The re-use of data is but one form of data sharing and as such the policy on data sharing needs to be visible, delivered, adapted with experience and finally adhered to. It needs to deal with all the various ways that data is shared whether that be between public bodies, between public bodies and society to support the democratic processes (which we have heard much about today), between public bodies and society for statutory processes or by re-use. The second point, which I found interesting, was the economic aspect of the Vysocina Region (please excuse my pronunciation) and that of the PSI policy lead from the Czech Government (Ministry of Interior). Judging by the presentation the relatively newly formed Vysocina region clearly understands the economic potential to be gained from the development of their region and appears from what we have heard to take this seriously as they were attempting to develop their regions economy – promotion of tourism for example, and the need to build capacity within the region. This is in stark contrast to the lack of a national lead on PSI where we heard early in the meeting from Mr HernandezRos of the economic opportunity that the PSI Directive provides. What a difference! Your country is like a number of others in Europe where there is a marked reluctance by central (or federal) government Ministries to take the lead on the PSI Directive and opportunity. It is almost as if it is too hot to handle - politically risky, needs resources that they may not be able to be obtain, not understood, for example. It is as if you Sir (referring to Mr Svoboda) that you find the ‘potato’ too hot and start to drop it. If you are unable to deal with it you should pass it back up the structure and if the Ministry cannot handle it then the Ministry (through the Ministers) find another Ministry that will take it and take the lead required. Another interesting aspect was the views expressed during the meeting that the Ministry of Interior should do it all. This is clearly not practical, as we have heard of the issues of capacity and the skills needed – this is no different within the Ministry. We have also heard in the presentations that PSI is very broad so to expect one entity (The Ministry of the Interior) to understand that breadth and act upon it is rather impractical. Instead what should be done is that the Ministry should lead, develop and promulgate policy by involving other PSI stakeholders. It does not mean you Sir (referring to Mr Svoboda) have to do it all! That is unrealistic – but you must be the facilitator. A further aspect that struck me from the meeting is the need to separate policy formulation and delivery within the public sector. The presentations appeared to focus very much on delivery (eGovernment delivery for example or what a public body was making available and how). I appreciate that due to the recent political changes in the Czech Government that there have been re-structures of the public sector bodies and as such this may have contributed to the loss of the PSI drive that was present earlier. This is an aspect that all countries experience from time to time and emphasises why it is important to have multi-stakeholder forums that are able to persist across structural changes within the public sector. A number of issues that have been made during the meeting lacked supporting evidence. For example high prices! To help address the issues we need to provide the evidence and state with whom the issue is with and provide the detail of the issue. The recent survey on the access law and its implementation - that is very welcome (addressing the panel member responsible for the survey and analysis); also highlighted the percentage of the Czech society (as well as the public 34

sector itself in responding) that had exploited their rights under the access law or were aware of the law. The percentages I recall were low. The reason I mention this is that the access law probably has much more visibility than the PSI Directive and as such it is a reminder to us of the important need to raise awareness not just as a one off exercise but also as a continuous process if the economic opportunity is to be reaped. Time is really short so just one final point. As this year – 2008, is an important year with respect to the PSI Directive and its review, I offer a couple of suggestions to you to try and take forward the PSI re-use agenda here in the Czech Republic before the Commission review of the Directive commences. The first is that a survey on PSI re-use should be done similar to that undertaken on the access law. The survey should be undertaken sooner than later. The second is that the Ministry of the Interior should form a multi stakeholder forum on PSI re-use and set off a series of meetings. These are small but easily delivered activities, which may clarify the current position here in the Czech Republic with respect to PSI. I would like to thank you again and I look forward to seeing more meetings like this one taking place in the Czech Republic which I will observe with interest. Only by coming together will you collectively address some of the issues that you have reported on today. Good luck and thank you. A question was then asked: Is there a Country that we could consider as a good example to emulate to save time? Answer: Well yes there is – unfortunately I am British so this may come across incorrectly – but the UK is a good example. Now don’t take me wrong on this as the UK has many good points but it also has many issues that have still to be resolved. However with respect to leadership, guidance, awareness raising the UK Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is a model to follow. The OPSI is part of the National Archives and as such deals with the whole life cycle of PSI. The National Archive reports to the Ministry of Justice and one Minister within the Ministry of Justice has responsibility for PSI and PSI re-use, Data Protection, and Freedom of Information. The Minister is currently visible and leads. There is also an Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information (APPSI). Notes: 1. The above transcript has been provided after the event and has been edited to fill in the gaps and to assist with translation and comprehension. 2. A copy of the OPSI literature pack distributed to delegates at various meetings by the OPSI has been handed to EPMA and Mr Svoboda of the Ministry of the Interior. The information pack is also available on the ePSIplus web site and the individual components on the OPSI web site.

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The Czech Republic National Meeting

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