Latest EU study shows Europe has developed a solid Open Data policy but still needs further strategic action and awareness

The 2018 report provides an updated methodology to measure Open Data maturity across Europe. It introduces two new dimensions this year – impact and data quality – to complement the policy and portals dimensions assessed from 2015 to 2017. With this update, the landscaping exercise aims to achieve a deeper granularity in its assessment of Open Data maturity and to better capture its different facets. The 2018 benchmark also aims to incentivize national governments to take measures to boost Open Data efforts in new strategic areas.

Europe is not yet reaching its full potential

With an overall maturity score of 65%, the report reveals that Europe is not yet reaching its full potential. The assessment of the four dimensions shows a mixed picture, with areas of very good progress – such as the policy dimension – and areas in which action is still needed to ensure that countries remain on track towards achieving the goals set at European level.

“We see maturity in the varying speeds and challenges that we’ve assessed and measured this year,” said Gianfranco Cecconi, Principal Consultant at Capgemini Invent managing the European Data Portal on behalf of the European Commission.  “It is an illustration of how the European countries are striving to meaningfully move beyond the basics, such as the right policy and the right portal, to deliver consistent and sustainable impact.”

In terms of policy maturity, an overall maturity of 82% was achieved in the EU28 in 2018, indicating the EU Member States have developed a solid foundation in terms of their Open Data policy frameworks. Against this solid foundation, countries are now setting new focuses: less mature Open Data countries chose to take the natural next step and focus on modernizing their national portals; the more advanced Open Data countries have now shifted to actions to increase the quality of data publication. In Europe’s top performing countries, such as Ireland, Spain and France, the focus is on monitoring and capturing the impact derived from Open Data reuse.

Prioritization now needs to shift to the impact of reusing Open Data

The report concludes by underlying the need for more strategic action to enable faster progress at a national level and the urgency to develop a strategic awareness around Open Data reuse and impact. Demonstrating such impact will remain the main challenge for national Open Data decision makers. At the same time, demonstrating impact remains pivotal to sustaining the required political leadership, enabling further data publication and the fostering of a more intense reuse of available data.      

“The EU countries needs to step up the game in order to reap the expected benefits from open data. Targeting certain priority domains to capture and demonstrate the impact will be key. Incentivizing high-quality data publication and understanding how to maximize the reuse of Open Data will also be pivotal to capturing impact in these domains,” concludes Dinand Tinholt, Vice President and EU Lead at Capgemini Invent.