23/09/2005

Explicit regulations for the access and further use of public sector information from natural or legal persons includes the bill that has been recently approved by the Government Committee and shall be soon introduced in Parliament, following an announcement of the Ministry for the Interior, Public Administration & Decentralisation.

The bill refers to information collected, produced and diffused by the public sector concerning - among others - fields such as businesses, the economy, society, education, tourism and geography. According to a study conducted by the EU in 2002, the value of this information amounts to 68 billion euros, which corresponds to 1% of the EU's GNP. The harmonisation of Member State laws was a necessary prerequisite for the utilization of this important financial good and, for this purpose, Directive 2003/98/EC was issued.

The bill for the adoption of the Directive by the Greek legislation provides that the natural and legal persons can now file an application to access public sector information for commercial or other reasons, that is, for purposes different than the original purpose for which such information was produced.

The public sector shall process every application electronically, when this is possible, and it shall reply within specific deadlines. The establishment of a specific, lawful interest is still required for access to a document, as provided by the applicable law. The price for further use shall be specified according to the cost of collection, production, reproduction and diffusion of information, the return on the investment made by the public body and the possible cost for further processing.

The above regulations do not apply to information concerning the protection of national security, national defence and public order. Moreover, commercial and industrial confidentiality as well as intellectual property rights are covered. Applicable provisions regarding access to public documents or personal data protection are not affected. On the contrary, there are measures for the deletion of personal data in forwarded documents.

Public information is freely accessible. An exclusive right for further use is acknowledged and provided for as an exception, where this is necessary for the provision of a service in the public interest. In such cases, the exclusive right has a limited time period of three years and a renewal option.

Source: Ministry for Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation