The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. Its main roles include proposing new laws and policies, monitoring their implementation, and managing the budget. The Commission also ensures that policies and laws are correctly applied across Member States, negotiates international agreements on behalf of the , and allocates funding. Additionally, it represents the interests of the on the global stage, ensuring a coordinated approach among countries.
Ensuring that Europe can exploit the full potential of data is a key priority for the Commission. To this effect, the Commission will put forward a European Data Union Strategy, building on existing data rules and policies. This strategy will support the development of artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies and ultimately boost the ’s .
Key existing initiatives that will support the strategy include the , the , and the . They provide a robust framework for ensuring the responsible sharing, access, and use of data across the .
and public sector information are also important elements of the strategy. The Commission recognises that the public sector generates vast amounts of data, including weather information, geographical data, , and data from publicly funded . Making this information accessible and reusable, without restrictions, is a key objective. The ensures government transparency and fair competition for stakeholders interested in reusing public sector data. Moreover, the Commission has identified specific high-value datasets and established . These datasets are considered particularly beneficial for the economy and society, and their availability aims to foster innovation and the development of new services.
In this context, the Commission has established data.europa.eu as the official portal for European data. This portal, managed by the , provides access to public data published by institutions, national portals of Member States and non-member states, as well as international organisations. It serves as the central point of access to high-quality European data, supporting transparency, economic activity, and the dissemination of knowledge. Its current repository contains more than 1.8 million datasets.