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 23 rd January 2008, Prague REPORT Prepared by Chris Corbin epsiplus Analyst 1 epsiplus is funded under the European Commission econtentplus programme

www.epsiplus.net Europe s one-stop shop on Public Sector Information re-use 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 re use...19 6.2 Key re use sectors acceptable data quality...19 2

6.3 Standards and Advisory bodies...19 6.4 Strengths Weaknesses 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 3

www.epsiplus.net Europe s one-stop shop on Public Sector Information re-use Change Control Record Date Version Author/Editor Status Purpose 30.01.08 DV1.0 Chris Corbin Internal First draft following meeting in the Czech Republic 16.01.09 V1.0 Chris Corbin Public 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 Chris.Corbin@epsiplus.net. 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. 4

1 Introduction The epsiplus National meeting for the Czech Republic 1 was held on the 23 rd 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 website 2. All the materials from the meeting were posted to the epsiplus website by 29 th 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-Ros 3, 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 EPMA 4 Management) in conjunction with the Czech Ministry of Interior that hosted the meeting. (European Projects & 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 ISVS 5-25 th January 2008; IKAROS 2 nd February 2008 6. 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 place 7. 1.1 General Information Czech Republic 1.2 Czech Speakers Geographic area square kms 79,000 Population 10,287,100 Land borders with Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland Official languages Czech Member of the European Union Yes Member of the Euro zone No The meeting was moderated by Dagmar Vránová, Strategic Development Director, EPMA European Projects & Management Agency. Irina Zálišová, Managing Director of EPMA and epsiplus Czech national representative 8 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. 1 http://www.epsiplus.net/events/national_meetings/completed/czech_republic 2 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 5

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 6

2 Legal and regulatory progress and impact The Czech Republic joined the European Union on the 1 st 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 3 rd February 2006 and came into force in March 2006. The European Commission reflected the notification on 1 st September 2006 9. The Ministry of Informatics was responsible for the transposition 10 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 31 st May 2007. The roles of the former Ministry of Informatics have been taken over by the Ministry of the Interior 11, 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 Protection 12 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 25 th October 2006. The outcome of the review was published during December 2007 13. The report 14 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 9 th January 2008 passed a resultion 15 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 31 st 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. 9 http://www.epsiplus.net/news/ec_psi_directive_transposition 10 http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/micr/legislativa/default_en.htm 11 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 7

Within the Ministery of the Interior the task was allocated to the Division of Inspection and Supervision in Public Administration 16 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 Watch 18 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 1 st 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: 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 16 http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/sprava/mistni/index.html 17 http://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archiv2008/sprava/mistni/dokumenty/analyza_ucinnosti.html 18 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 14 Administrative areas within CZ Regions 13 + Prague Administrative areas within CZ Districts 134 Number of local government bodies 593 Public Sector employees (2005) 19 729,800 Public Sector employees Central government (2005) 19 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 Portal 20. 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 Point 21 that provides a single Point of contact for citizens to communicate and undertake transactions with public administration. CzechPoint was introduced on the 1 st January 2008. epusa The Ministry of the Interior operates the epusa 22 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/ 20 http://portal.gov.cz 21 http://www.czechpoint.cz/web/index.php 22 http://www.epusa.cz 10

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 IADBC 23 (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 portal 24 and the latest Country Report for the Czech Republic (at the time of the meeting) was published in August 2007 25. 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 Services 26. 23 http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/home 24 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 11

Copied from page 37 Section Czech Republic (CZ) 12

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 portal 27. 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 http://inspire.jrc.it/state_of_play.cfm 28 http://wwwinfo.mfcr.cz/ares/ares.html 13

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs 29 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-ADR 30. The register is available as an online service and on CD- ROM. Ministry of Justice 31 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 Region 32 The Vysočina Traffice Information service 33 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 portal 35. 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. 29 http://www.mpsv.cz 30 http://forms.mpsv.cz/uir/popis/popis.jsp 31 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 14

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 Geoportal 37. Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) 38 provides data and information related to: Meteorology and Climatology, Hydrology and Air Quality control 39. Czech Geological Survey The Czech Geological Survey (Česká geologická služba) 40 provides access to a wide range of data and information services 41, which includes an online map service 42 and a metadata service (MICKA) 43. Local government The Association of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic 44 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 ZK 45. (Jednotné digitální technické mapy Zlínského kraje). The service is available to registered users such as the partners: region 46, 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 Pardubice 47. 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. 36 http://www.czso.cz 37 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 15

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 chart 49 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 http://www.mpo.cz/en/business-support/opei/ 49 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 GISAT 50 the company offers data. Legal Information Sector Fulsoft 51 Sagit 52 Tori Soft 53 Arnet 54 Publishing Sector ASPI Walters Kluwer 55 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 Commerce is law No. 301/1992. The legal basis of the Czech Chamber of 50 http://www.gisat.cz 51 http://www.fulsoft.cz 52 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 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 information 60. 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 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. 60 http://www.czso.cz/eng/redakce.nsf/i/m_conditions_of_commercial_utilization_of_the_czso_products_using_negotiated_prices 61 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 http://domino.cni.cz/np/notesportalcni.nsf/key/hlavni_stranka?open 63 http://www.cni.cz/en/index.html 19

7 National situation: Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic 64 The Chamber of Deputies 65 Elections in the Czech Republic: 2 nd & 3 rd 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. Municipalities with extended Powers Municipalities with Authorised Municipal Office Region Czech Region Name District A Hlavní město Praha Prague 58 B Jihomoravský kraj Jihomoravsky 7 21 34 C Jihočeský kraj South Bohemia 7 17 37 E Pardubický kraj Pardubice Region 4 15 26 H Královéhradecký kraj Hrdec Kralove 5 15 35 J Kraj Vysočina Vysocina Raja 5 15 26 K Karlovarský kraj Karlovy Vary 3 7 14 L Liberecký kraj Liberec 4 10 21 M Olomoucký kraj Olomouc 5 13 20 P Plzeňský kraj Pilsen 7 15 35 S Středočeský kraj Central Bohemia 12 26 55 T Moravskoslezský kraj Moravian-Silesia 6 22 30 U Ústecký kraj Usti 7 16 30 Z Zlínský kraj Zlin 4 13 25 Total 14 134 205 388 Source of above summary: http://portal.gov.cz/wps/portal/_s.155/6966/_s.155/695/place 64 http://www.senat.cz/index-eng.php 65 http://www.psp.cz/sqw/hp.sqw 20

Annex 1: Meeting Agenda A1.1 Czech Agenda 08:30 Registrace účastníků Národní konference o znovuvyužití informací veřejného sektoru 23. ledna 2008 Ministerstvo vnitra ČR, Praha 4 Program 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: Re use of Public Sector Information 23. January 2008 Ministry of Interior, Prague 4 08:30 Registration Agenda 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 Re use 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 re user 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 re use, JUDr. Radim Polčák, Masaryk University Brno 11:40 Transposition of EU Directive on Re use 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 Family Name Organisation Frantisek Cermak MF Jiří Choun Feditel Odboru Informačních Služeb, CSO Tomas Chramecky CSU Chris Corbin epsiplus Petra Dolezalová CEKIA, a.s. Peter Druga PD Consulting Olga Dvorská Ministry of the Interior Jiří Effler ASPI Rornan Felhav Triada Pavel Finger CCB Czech Credit Bureau Adam Furek Ministry of the Interior Pavel Gardavsky AION CS, s.r.o. Vladislav Hančil Poradce Javier Hernandez-Ros European Commission Jiří Hiess Czech Association for Geoinformation Frank Hoffman IGN Jan Holoubek Atla cz a.s. Jiří Hradec CENIA - Czech Environmental Information Agency Václav Jáchim Regional Authority of Vysočina Region Petr Jemelka ISVS Jiří Kadleček AIP Jitka Karpinská Ministry of Finance Robert Korseit Centire Czech, s.r.o. Pavel Král CEKIA, a.s. Michaela Králová CSU Lubomir Krnávek Ministry of Finance Jiří Krump UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) - Office for Personal Data Protection Eva Kubátová Ministry of the Interior Oldfich Kuzilek Otevrena spolecnost, o.p.s. Pavel Kysely Internet Securities Inc. Radek Lastovicka Coface Czech Credit Services Karel Lux Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Ludek Mácha Internet Securities Inc. Olga McHenry epsiplus Mates Milath EU Petr Němec CreditInfo Czech Republic Michael Nicholson Intelligent Addressing Erika Orlitová GISAT, s.r.o. Jiří Pavliček Telefonica O2 Jitka Pavlonova Rada vlady pro IS Aleš Pekárek EPMA Jiří Podzemsky CSU Radim Polčák Masaryk University, Brno Jana Presslova CUZK Tomas Rencin Triada, spol. S.r.o. Jaroslav Rozsypal MSp Alena Seoud Dun & Bradstreet, spol, s.r.o. Ivan Spingi SCIP Czech Vojtech Stavny Creditinfo Solution, s.r.o. Hana Stepánková UOOU (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) - Office for Personal Data Protection Josef Svec Mesto Velke Mezirici 23

First name Family Name Organisation Jaroslav Svoboda Ministry of Interior Zwrauw Svobrdyz Ministry of the Interior Attila Toth e-content Store Tomas Vejlupek TOVEK, s.r.o Dagmar Vránová EPMA Gerhard Wagner epsiplus Michal Warzala epsiplus Irina Zališová EPMA Jan Zicha Raventia s.r.o. A2.2 Sorted by name of Organisation First name Family Name Organisation Pavel Gardavsky AION CS, s.r.o. Jiří Kadleček AIP - Albertina icome Praha s.r.o. Jiří Effler ASPI Jan Holoubek Atla cz a.s. Pavel Finger CCB Czech Credit Bureau Petra Dolezalová CEKIA, a.s. Pavel Král CEKIA, a.s. Jiří Hradec CENIA - Czech Environmental Information Agency Robert Korseit Centire Czech, s.r.o. Radek Lastovicka Coface Czech Credit Services Petr Němec CreditInfo Czech Republic Vojtech Stavny Creditinfo Solution, s.r.o. Tomas Chramecky CSU (Český statistický úřad) Michaela Králová CSU (Český statistický úřad) Jiří Podzemsky CSU (Český statistický úřad) Jiří Choun CSU (Český statistický úřad) Feditel Odboru Informačních Služeb Jana Presslova CUZK - Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre Jiří Hiess Czech Association for Geoinformation Alena Seoud Dun & Bradstreet, spol, s.r.o. Attila Toth e-content Store Aleš Pekárek EPMA Dagmar Vránová EPMA Irina Zališová EPMA Chris Corbin epsiplus Olga McHenry epsiplus Gerhard Wagner epsiplus Michal Warzala epsiplus Mates Milath EU Javier Hernandez-Ros European Commission Erika Orlitová GISAT, s.r.o. Frank Hoffman IGN Michael Nicholson Intelligent Addressing Pavel Kysely Internet Securities Inc. Ludek Mácha Internet Securities Inc. Petr Jemelka ISVS Radim Polčák Masaryk University, Brno Josef Svec Mesto Velke Mezirici Frantisek Cermak Ministry of Finance Jitka Karpinská Ministry of Finance Lubomir Krnávek Ministry of Finance Jaroslav Svoboda Ministry of Interior Karel Lux Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Olga Dvorská Ministry of the Interior 24