Commercial re-use of meteorological basic data in The Netherlands ePSIplus meeting Utrecht 27 Sept Ton Donker KNMI License Office

Content A 20 years history Current situation and positions Evolutions

History (1) Till 1985 no data re-use restrictions. From 1985 onset of the private sector and government commercialization imposed on NMSs in de EU (incl. NL) 1985 WMO Resolution 40: introduction of essential (free) and additional (chargeable) data (observations, RMS data, model products, etc.) 1995 ECOMET cartel of NMSs in de EEA 1996: Database Directive 96/9/EC (1996), with (debatable) appeal by NMSs on data protection

HISTORY (2) 1996: Regulated data provison through licensing by NMSs on behalf of ECOMET, ECMWF and EUMETSAT 1996: “Market and (versus) Government” debate in NL initiated by controversial overlapping public and private activities 1997: Onset of debate in NL politics and successive initiatives directed to access to and re-use of taxpayer funded PSI 1999 WMO Resolution 25: introduction of essential and additional hydrologic data Opposition of WMO-members i.a. USA, Japan, Australië 1999 EC Green Paper; points at the vast socio-economic disadvantages of underexploitation of PSI

HISTORY (3) 1999: privatization of KNMI’s commercial arm, interim- arrangement for data provision to private weather services, media, end users, etc. 1999: KNMI Data Catalogue on the internet, implementation of data provision systems 2001: Law on KNMI, public duties, data policy, formal recognition of private entities 2002: First data policy reconsiderations by some ECOMET members, ECMWF en EUMETSAT 2003 Directive 2003/4/EC on the public access to PSI

HISTORY (4) 2003: Directive 2003/98/EC on the (commercial) re-use of PSI: remove barriers, socio-economic impulses for the “knowledge based” economies, transparancy, equal treatment 2004: OECD declaration on access to research data from public funding: remove barriers ! 2007: Directive 2007/2/EC on INSPIRE: a uniform and interoperable European infrastructure for exchange and utilization of spatial (meta)data

Present situation and positions (1) “NL public-private weather war” ended in 1999 Border conflicts continue The NL private sector is (still) growing, KNMI is (still) shrinking KNMI has come to a unique pioneering position in the (hydro)meteorological community 10 years experience in almost all “ins and outs” of cross bordering data policies The volume of real-time data provision to providers grew in 10 years with 400 %

Present situation and positions (2) Opposing policy drivers in the EU, different interpretations and mindsets Extreme distinction of practices on the national levels: e.g. free data in Norway but severe protection in France and most EU newcomers Focus of the public private debate shifting from prohibitive data policies to equal level playing field issues and unfair competition by NMSs

Present situation and positions (3) “Free meteo data” is preferable but this is one side of the picture: Compensation of the revenue losses ? Decline of business models based on data scarness; from simple data trade the way up to true value added services Inevitable re-thinking of the public and the private role in providing weather and climate services to society

Evolutions (1) Evaluation of Law on KNMI in progress Regulation of the market Future proof demarcation is an illusion No progress without a comprehensible framework for policy development and verification “What” and “How” questions, the general interest, public and private interests

Evolutions (2) Neither public nor private dominance Culture and missions of public and private bodies Efficiency considerations (y/n) Risks of discontinuity (y/n) Necessity of government intervention (y/n) Permanent dialoge and co-ordination (y/n) Complemetary functions (y/n)

Thank you for your attention And please remind that the weather goes on and does NOT care about us !!!