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European data portal 2019

02 Dec 2019

Paris, December 2, 2019 – Capgemini Invent has published its fifth annual report measuring the level of open data maturity across Europe. The “Open Data Maturity Report 2019” records the progress achieved by European countries as they push forward open data publication and re-use and the different priorities they have set to enable it. The report was requested by the European Commission within the context of the European Data Portal and coordinated by Capgemini Invent[1].

The 2019 report identified four notable trends:

From acceleration to consolidation: After years of open data maturity acceleration, Europe has now entered a phase of consolidation. From the start of the assessment in 2015, the overall maturity level significantly increased each year until it peaked in 2017. The earlier, easier acceleration towards maturity evolved into the steadier trend of improvement and consolidation seen today. Against solid open data policies, governance models and advanced portals, the EU28+ countries are now expanding and intensifying their efforts in the more difficult areas of open data quality and impact.

From quantity to quality, to better address users’ needs: As the open data propositions of the European countries mature, their focus has moved from quantity to quality. In the early years, great efforts were made in publishing more data under an open license, unleashing data assets that were already in the hands of public administrations. Today, there is an intensified focus on ensuring the value of that data to the re-users, which often means improving the quality of the data first. This is particularly true as open data teams at both the national and local levels become more engaged with the community of re-users, listen to their feedback and strive to address their needs.

From publishing to creating impact: The EU28+ countries’ focus is no longer just on publishing open data and adhering to the other requirements of the European Union’s Public Sector Information Directive, but rather on making the best opportunity out of the data to enable greater impact. They are conducting more activities to understand and capture how value is created with data and to gain insights into re-users’ demands and needs. Examples range from events to engage with the various communities of re-users and the development of impact monitoring frameworks, to satisfaction surveys and studies into the societal, environmental, political and economic value of open data.

Data sharing is the next frontier: Governments are becoming more aware of the opportunities arising from sharing data in general. When a dataset cannot be published in the open – for example, due to intellectual property constraints or confidentiality concerns – it does not mean that its value cannot be realized according to other models. This is commonly called “data sharing” in the public and private sector. Member States are now preparing to be effective at data sharing with other governments and organizations, in a secure way and with full respect to intellectual property and privacy. The European Commission is aware of this change and wants to support the process. For this purpose, it started a new project, launched last October: the “Support Centre for Data Sharing”.

“As the Member States’ open data offering matures, we can see their focus shifting towards putting open data re-users at the center,” said Marit Blank, Consultant at Capgemini Invent and lead researcher and author of the report. “This is a tangible illustration of how the European countries are striving to move beyond the basics to deliver consistent and sustainable value to their citizens.”

End notes:

  • The countries covered by this assessment include the EU28 Member States, as well as the EFTA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The European Data Portal

Open data refers to the information collected, produced or paid for by public bodies which can be freely used, modified and shared by anyone. The benefits of open data include an increase in government transparency and accountability as well tangible social and economic benefits for citizens, businesses and civil society. The Capgemini Invent study published in 2015 for the launch of the European Data Portal estimated a value of 75.7 billion EUR in market size for open data in 2020, with a significant increase by approximately 37% between 2016 and 2020. In this context, the European Union launched the European Data Portal. The Portal collects information about the data made available from different European countries. Today, it covers 35 countries, 82 catalogues, links to nearly 1 million datasets across Europe and offers a variety of learning resources and open data use cases. For more information and to view the reports visit:

About Capgemini Invent

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[1] The deployment of the European Data Portal is led by Capgemini Invent in association Intrasoft International, Fraunhofer Fokus, con terra, Sogeti, the University of Southampton, Time.lex, 52 North and the Lisbon Council, on behalf of the European Commission.