Preparing Europe’s SDI in 2005-2006

A proposal of the European Commission (EC) for a Directive aimed at establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) has resulted in a Preparatory Phase (2005-2006) work programme to support the future implementation of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The statistics bureau Eurostat and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) together with the EC’s Directorate-General for the Environment have developed the working programme. The INSPIRE Expert Group and the European Environmental Agency contributed also. The work programme summarises the requirements of the proposal for an INSPIRE Directive. It presents the process by which the EC will proceed in developing the Implementing Rules through the participation of various groups of stakeholders in the drafting and review activities. Terms of reference have been included for those groups. The full text of the work programme is available on the INSPIRE site.