Because of the great impact of the public sector on the information and knowledge society, the European Parliament issued the Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information (hereinafter, “Directive”). While the Directive mandates the re-use of public sector information, it limits its reach by not including cultural, educational and research institutions. The aim of this document is to present the arguments for and against the inclusion of cultural, educational and research institutions in the scope of the Directive, and to make recommendations for further legislation based on the analysis. The initial aim of this document was to recommend amendments for the Directive, however, during the drafting of this policy recommendation, the European Commission already presented its own proposal to amend the Directive, on December 12, 2011. If the amendments considered in the proposal were to come in effect, there would be significant changes in the position of cultural, educational and research institutions. Consequently, this draft also considers the proposal. While doing so, it also makes recommendations on how to improve it. The main conclusion stemming from the research is that inclusion of cultural, educational and research institutions would be beneficial and should be endorsed and supported. However, it would be wise to conduct an extensive cost/benefit study on this topic beforehand.

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