On 18 July, with 401 votes in favour, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen for another term as President of the European Union. Ahead of the vote, von der Leyen presented her Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029. In these guidelines, the European Data Union Strategy is proposed to enhance productivity in the EU through digital technology diffusion and the utilisation of open data. This strategy states the goal of a widespread adoption of digital technologies across various sectors. By enhancing digital infrastructure, the Commission aims to ensure

In the dynamic landscape of digital transformation, European policymakers are making a shift in drafting legislation with digital-ready policymaking in mind. During the SEMIC conference that took place on 27 June, there was a focus on making policies and legislative acts future-proof and interoperable. Digital-ready means that policies and legislative acts facilitate seamless, digital-by-default implementation through optimal use of technology and data . There are six different components that describe digital-ready policies, of which one is the ‘ Once-only principle and reuse of data ’. This

Are you enjoying a well-deserved holiday and looking for fresh reads about data? Data.europa.eu has created a new reading list with eight insightful and light readings that you can enjoy while relaxing in your home or at your favourite holiday destination. Learn more with our articles and data stories on AI, smart cities, data visualisation and more! Data Trends: Analytics, Governance, and More in 2024 : This Coursera article explores and compares the data trends of 2023 and 2024. Topics include Ai risk management, data sharing, and the importance of data strategy in generative AI. Open Data

As the Swiss public administration’s central portal, opendata.swiss contributes to Switzerland’s commitment to open data by providing access to more than 11 000 datasets, supplied by 140 different organisations. The data stems from the Confederation, cantons, communes and is a record of third-party data that is relevant for the public interest. The Swiss platform has several goals as they strive to facilitate an exchange of information on Open Government Data (OGD) between data providers and data users, create an environment promoting the use of public data, and support the infrastructure for

Our data.europa.eu Academy offers a wide spectrum of courses on how open data can help make an impact. Open data can help address public challenges such as healthcare, climate change, and urban planning. It enables informed decision-making and targeted interventions, like with COVID-19 measures. On our Academy page , it is possible to filter per theme, where it shows eight courses on the Impact theme. For beginners, we have developed the courses ‘ Introducing open data ’ and ‘ Introducing data visualisation ’ . With different e-learning lessons and webinars to teach users about how open data

This month, two sessions were hosted by data.europa Academy , where no less than 575 people participated and learned more about the landscape of data privacy and governance, and data sharing. Starting with the first session on 12 July, a panel discussion was hosted by the data.europa team on ‘ Data controllership and anonymisation ’. To get an understanding of the link between non-personal and personal data, a guest speaker from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel provided insights on the General Data Protection Regulation and how personal data is defined. This was followed by a discussion on a

For governments worldwide, the market for increasing the productivity of public services with the use of technology, also known as GovTech , is worth more than 365 billion euro . GovTech shapes the future of government services by enabling governments to operate with innovation and agility by streamlining administrative processes, increasing the quality of public services, and fostering transparency . As part of the Interoperable Europe Act (IEA) that came into force in April 2024, GovTech can support interregional cooperation by providing technical solutions that can be used by multiple

This week's course highlights of the data.europa.eu Academy are those related to the Communication theme. These courses help users translate their results of working with open data into an easy-to-digest story for their audience. On our Academy page , users can filter by the theme Communication, which shows 4 different courses each containing relevant lessons. The course on ‘ Measuring the impact of open data ’ teaches users how the impact of open data usage on government, society, environment, and economy can be made tangible. Moreover, users can get inspired by the lesson on ‘ Stories from

Data.europa.eu not only hosts and provides a wide range of open datasets, we also foster transparency and collaboration by enabling various stakeholders to develop open data apps . These apps use openly available datasets to create innovative solutions that benefit the public in numerous ways. One example is ANNIF , an open-source toolkit for automated subject indexing. ANNIF integrates several machine learning and AI-based algorithms for text classification, aiding in the tagging of EU Vocabulary properties for datasets. Another useful resource is the Data in Publications Guide , which offers

Artificial intelligence (AI) significantly impacts businesses, governments, and the global economy, affecting many aspects of daily life. Our report, ‘ The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Processing and Generating New Data ’ investigates what the main legal and policy challenges are when it comes to the use of AI and provides a clear overview of these challenges. This insightful piece helps readers understand the context of how AI uses open data and what the limitations of this use are. AI systems used by many, such as the generative AI platforms Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT, can be