Towards a European strategy on business-to-government data sharing for the public interest - Final report prepared by the High-Level Expert Group on Business-to-Government Data Sharing
European Commission
Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
2020
The challenges our society currently faces, ranging from natural disasters to traffic congestion, are of a scale and complexity that traditional policy tools cannot always address. However, today’s digital revolution offers several innovative tools that can be used by governments in providing for the general welfare of their people. Data is one of these, and its potential to not only provide for new scientific insights, but also to inform policymaking and deliver better public services to the people is invaluable. If used effectively, data can become an enabler for a better society and a more efficient public sector. Yet, much of the potential for data and its insights to be used for the benefit of society remains untapped. Not only because the vast majority of data is in the hands of the private sector, but also because the public sector does not seem ready to realise the full potential of data. Due to organisational, technical and legal obstacles (as well as an overall lack of a data-sharing culture) business-to-government (B2G) data-sharing partnerships are still largely isolated, short-term collaborations. This report provides a detailed overview of these barriers and proposes a comprehensive framework of policy, legal and funding recommendations to enable scalable, responsible and sustainable B2G data sharing for the public interest.
