Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The draft amendment to the Access to Public Information Act was presented today to more than 80 representatives of the administrations of the executive authorities. The amendments concern the updated European Directive 2013/37/ЕС and introduce new rules to the reuse of the information already collected from public organizations.

The draft comes as a result of the work of an expert group with more than 20 representatives of ministries, agencies and the civil society – Information Access Program, National Association of Municipalities, Association of University Libraries, said the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Valery Borissov.

The new texts provide for the increase in the obligations of public institutions and the improvement of the conditions for access to documents for reuse. The scope of the organizations to provide the collected information has been broadened; these are universities, libraries, museums and archives. The main principle remains that the reuse fees shall be limited to the costs for reproduction and dissemination of documents.

Among the priority databases to be opened for reuse are those containing geo-spatial data, national and local cadaster and topographic maps, and administrative boundaries. Data related to environment monitoring will be open – quality of soils and waters, emission levels, etc. the schedules for all modes of transport, road works, and traffic information are also to be open. Statistical data are also a priority when related to national, regional and local demographic and economic indicators.

Worldwide the economies from the provision of open data can reach 900 billion dollars, said during the presentation Kalina Dimitrova, Director of the Communications Directorate at MTITC, citing a McKinsey survey.

During the discussions, the participants voiced the view that this is a legal act for “unprecedented transparency”. However, during the ongoing discussions and agreement procedure some of the text will be improved. Among them is the distinction between open data for commercial and non-commercial purposes.