[geo-discuss] Fw: INSPIRE Democratic Process 12/2006

Thu Mar 16 22:18:35 GMT 2006

INSPIRE questions being asked in UK parliament yesterday... i don't
see this in theyworkforyou's archive yet, perhaps we have to wait for
written answers for it to appear there?

----- Forwarded message from Christopher Corbin <corbinceh at ntlworld.com> -----

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:17:15 +0000
Subject: INSPIRE Democratic Process 12/2006
From: Christopher Corbin <corbinceh at ntlworld.com>
To: EGIP <european-gi-policy at jrc.it>
Thread-Topic: INSPIRE Democratic Process 12/2006

Uhmmmm interest in the proposed INSPIRE Directive has reached the interest
of the UK Parliament just as the European Parliament ENVI Committee is about
to consider the 43 amendments and which to vote through on the 21st March
2006 in Brussels.  The amendments can be downloaded from agenda item 15 on
the following URL:

http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/organes/envi/envi_20060321_150
0.htm

I wonder whether this means local government has woken up with respect to
the value of the proposed INSPIRE Directive?

....read on....

Part 1: Written Questions for Answer on
Wednesday 15 March 2006

"61 
Mr Eric Pickles (Brentwood & Ongar):To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what
assessment (a) his Department and (b) Ordnance Survey has made of the
implications of the EU's plans for Infrastructure for Spatial Information in
the European Community (INSPIRE).
(59121)"

Mr Pickles MP is Shadow Minister for Local Government;
Deputy chairman Conservative Party

Interesting that this question has been directed at the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister....perhaps the answer will be when it appears on the public
record that this is a matter for the  Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (DEFRA - http://www.defra.gov.uk )

The democratic process raises some other interesting points with respect to
bed fellows!

I wonder whether the short speech made last June in the European Parliament
will be repeated this year when the proposed INSPIRE Directive reaches the
European parliament plenary!

....read on.....

Gerhard Batten MEP London UK Independence Party speech 6th June 2005 has
some interesting comments to make about the proposed INSPIRE Directive and
the Ordnance Survey.  The speech can be read at the following URL:

http://www.gerardbattenmep.co.uk/search.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&i
d=1118249729&archive=&cnshow=news&start_from=&%5C%22to_date_day%5C%22=&TB=ho
me5

Now I wonder whether Mr Batten realises the number of Ordnance Survey
employees that serve on the various INSPIRE committees?

Whilst the Public Geodata organisation (http://petition.publicgeodata.org/ )
petition crosses 2000 verified signature the The Guardian Technology
campaign Free Our Data: Make taxpayers' data available to them
http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/ .  The web site contains a number of
responses including one from the Ordnance Survey.  The campaign steped up a
notch with a further article appearing in the Guardian newspaper today 16th
march 2006 titled:

What Price Information?
By Charles Arthur and Michael Cross

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1731386,00.html

The authors report that they have received a huge response since the article
a week ago (refer to EGIP intervention Geographic Information Markets 4/2006
9 March 2006) and the launch of the Guardian campaign.  The article appears
to be referring to the proposed INSPIRE Directive in parts plenty of URLs to
explore within this article.

So it seems that the European Parliament ENVI Committee and the European
Commissions position at the end of the first reading have a lot of support -
lets hope the ENVI MEP's act wisely on the first of spring (in the northern
hemisphere) next week.

It all sounds like a good topic for the assembled masses in Gävle early in
April 2006.  
http://www.direktportalen.com/dynaweb/Gavlekongress/index.asp?page=2732

Regards

Chris (Corbin)

Brighton
Sussex
England

Telephone: +44 (0) 1273 553110
email: corbinceh at ntlworld.com

EGIP Archive:  http://www.ec-gis.org/egip/

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