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14.12.2011 Official
Journal
of
the
European
Union L
330/39
COMMISSION DECISION
of 12 December 2011
on the reuse of Commission documents
(2011/833/EU)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
corpus of Union law freely available online. This is a
good basis to make further progress in ensuring the
availability and reusability of data held by the institution.
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union, and in particular Article 249 thereof,
(8) Commission
Decision
2006/291/EC,
Euratom
of
7
April
Whereas:
2006 on the reuse of Commission information ( 4 )
determines the conditions for the reuse of Commission
documents.
(1) Europe
2020
sets
out
a
vision
of
Europe’s
social
market
economy for the 21st century. One of the priority
themes in that context is ‘Smart growth: developing an
economy based on knowledge and innovation’.
(9) In
order
to
make
the
reuse
regime
of
Commission
documents more effective, the rules on the reuse of
Commission documents should be adapted with a view
(2)
The new information and communication technologies
to achieving a broader reuse of such documents.
have created unprecedented possibilities to aggregate
and combine content from different sources.
(10) A
data
portal
as
a
single
point
of
access
to
documents
available for reuse should be set up. In addition, it is
(3) Public sector information is an important source of
potential growth of innovative online services through
appropriate to include in the documents available for
value-added products and services. Governments can
reuse the research information produced by the Joint
stimulate content markets by making public sector
Research Centre. A provision should be adopted to
information available on transparent, effective and non-
take into account the move towards machine-readable
discriminatory terms. For this reason, the Digital Agenda
formats. An important improvement with respect to
for Europe (
Decision 2006/291/EC, Euratom consists in making

1 ) singled out the reuse of public sector
information as one of the key areas for action.
Commission documents generally available for reuse

without the need for individual applications, through
open reuse licences or simple disclaimers.
(4) The
Commission
and
the
other
Institutions
are
them
selves holders of many documents of all kinds which
could be reused in added-value information products
(11) Decision
2006/291/EC, Euratom should therefore be
and services and which could provide a useful content
replaced by this Decision.
resource for companies and citizens alike.
(5) The
right
to
access
Commission
documents
is
regulated (12) An
open
reuse
policy
at
the
Commission
will
support
through Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European
new economic activity, lead to a wider use and spread of
Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding
Union information, enhance the image of openness and
public access to European Parliament, Council and
transparency of the Institutions, and avoid unnecessary
Commission documents ( 2 ).
administrative burden for users and Commission services.
In 2012, the Commission envisages exploring with other
Union institutions and key Agencies to what extent they
(6) Directive
2003/98/EC
of
the
European
Parliament
and
of
could adopt their own rules on reuse.
the Council ( 3 ) sets minimum rules for the reuse of public
sector information throughout the European Union. In
its recitals it encourages Member States to go beyond
these minimum rules and to adopt open data policies,
(13) This
Decision
should
be
implemented
and
applied
in
full
allowing a broad use of documents held by public sector
compliance with the principles relating to the protection
bodies.
of personal data in accordance with Regulation (EC) No
45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals
(7) The
Commission
has
set
an
example
to
public
adminis
with regard to the processing of personal data by the
trations in making statistics, publications and the full
Community institutions and bodies and on the free
movement of such data ( 5 ).
( 1 ) COM(2010) 245.
( 2 ) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
( 4 ) OJ L 107, 20.4.2006, p. 38.
( 3 ) OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, p. 90.
( 5 ) OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1.

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L 330/40
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
14.12.2011
(14) This
Decision
should
not
apply
to
documents
for
which
3. This
Decision
is
without
prejudice
to
and
in
no
way
the Commission is not in a position to allow reuse, e.g.
affects Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
in view of third party intellectual property rights or
where the documents have been received from the
other Institutions,
4. Nothing
in
this
Decision
authorises
reuse
of
documents
in
a manner calculated to deceive or to defraud. The Commission
shall take the appropriate measures to protect the interests and
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
the public image of the EU in accordance to applicable rules.
Article 1
Article 3
Subject matter
Definitions
This Decision determines the conditions for the reuse of
documents held by the Commission or on its behalf by the
For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall
Publications Office of the European Union (the Publications
apply:
Office) with the aim of facilitating a wider reuse of information,
enhancing the image of openness of the Commission, and
(1) ‘document’ means:
avoiding unnecessary administrative burdens for reusers and
the Commission services alike.
(a) any content whatever its medium (written on paper or
Article 2
stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audio
visual recording);
Scope
1. This
Decision
applies
to
public
documents
produced
by
(b) any part of such content;
the Commission or by public and private entities on its behalf:
(a) which have been published by the Commission or by the
(2) ‘reuse’ means the use of documents by persons or legal
Publications Office on its behalf through publications,
entities of documents, for commercial or non-commercial
websites or dissemination tools; or
purposes other than the initial purpose for which the
documents were produced. The exchange of documents
between the Commission and other public sector bodies
(b) which have not been published for economic or other
which use these documents purely in the pursuit of their
practical reasons, such as studies, reports and other data.
public tasks does not constitute reuse;
2. This
Decision
shall
not
apply:
(3) ‘personal data’ means data as defined in Article 2(a) of
Regulation (EC) No 45/2001;
(a) to software or to documents covered by industrial property
rights such as patents, trademarks, registered designs, logos
and names;
(4) ‘licence’ means the granting of permission to reuse
documents under specified conditions. ‘Open licence’
means a licence where reuse of documents is permitted
(b) to documents for which the Commission is not in a
for all specified uses in a unilateral declaration by the right
position to allow their reuse in view of intellectual
holder;
property rights of third parties;
(c) to documents which pursuant to the rules established in
(5) ‘machine-readable’ means that digital documents are
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 are excluded from access
sufficiently structured for software applications to identify
or only made accessible to a party under specific rules
reliably individual statements of fact and their internal
governing privileged access;
structure;
(d) to confidential data, as defined in Regulation (EC) No
(6) ‘structured data’ is data organised in a way that allows
223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the
reliable identification of individual statements of fact and
Council ( 1 );
all their components, as exemplified in databases and
spreadsheets;
(e) to documents resulting from ongoing research projects
conducted by the staff of the Commission which are not
(7) ‘portal’ refers to a single point of access to data from a
published or available in a published database, and whose
variety of web sources. The sources generate both the
reuse would interfere with the validation of provisional
data and the related metadata. The metadata needed for
research results or where reuse would constitute a reason
indexing are automatically harvested by the portal and inte
to refuse registration of industrial property rights in the
grated to the extent needed to support common func
Commission’s favour.
tionalities such as search and linking. The portal may also
cache data from the contributing sources in order to
( 1 ) OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164.
improve performance or provide additional functionalities.

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EN
14.12.2011 Official
Journal
of
the
European
Union L
330/41
Article 4
document or notice pointing to it and provide an address to
which the application is to be submitted.
General principle
All documents shall be available for reuse:
2. Individual applications for reuse shall be handled
(a) for commercial or non-commercial purposes under the
promptly by the relevant Commission service. An acknowl
conditions laid down in Article 6;
edgement of receipt shall be submitted to the applicant.
Within 15 working days from registration of the application,
the Commission service or the Publications Office shall either
(b) without charge, subject to the provisions laid down in
allow reuse of the document requested and, where relevant,
Article 9; and
provide a copy of the document, or, in a written reply,
indicate the total or partial refusal of the application, stating
(c) without the need to make an individual application, unless
the reasons.
otherwise provided in Article 7.
3. Where an application for reuse of a document concerns a
This Decision shall be implemented in full respect of the rules
very long document, a very large number of documents or the
on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of
application needs to be translated, the time limit provided for in
personal data, and in particular Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.
paragraph 2 may be extended by 15 working days, provided
that the applicant is notified in advance and that detailed
Article 5
reasons for the extension are given.
Data portal
The Commission shall set up a data portal as a single point of
4. Where
an
application
for
reuse
of
a
document
is
refused,
access to its structured data so as to facilitate linking and reuse
the Commission service or the Publications Office shall inform
for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
the applicant of the right to bring an action before the Court of
Justice of the European Union or to lodge a complaint with the
European Ombudsman, under the conditions laid down in
Commission services will identify and progressively make
Articles 263 and 228, respectively, of the Treaty on the Func
available suitable data in their possession. The data portal
tioning of the European Union.
may provide access to data of other Union institutions,
bodies, offices and agencies at their request.
5. Where
a
refusal
is
based
on
point
(b)
of
Article
2(2)
of
Article 6
this Decision, the reply to the applicant shall include a reference
Conditions for reuse of documents
to the natural or legal person who is the rightholder, where
known, or alternatively to the licensor from which the
1. Documents
shall
be
made
available
for
reuse
without Commission has obtained the relevant material, where known.
application unless otherwise specified and without restrictions
or, where appropriate, an open licence or disclaimer setting out
conditions explaining the rights of reusers.
Article 8
Formats for documents available for reuse
2. Those
conditions,
which
shall
not
unnecessarily
restrict
possibilities for reuse, may include the following:
1. Documents
shall
be
made
available
in
any
existing
format
or language version, in machine-readable format where possible
and appropriate.
(a) the obligation for the reuser to acknowledge the source of
the documents;
2. This
shall
not
imply
an
obligation
to
create,
adapt
or
(b) the obligation not to distort the original meaning or
update documents in order to comply with the application,
message of the documents;
nor to provide extracts from documents where it would
involve disproportionate effort, going beyond a simple
(c) the non-liability of the Commission for any consequence
operation.
stemming from the reuse.
3. This Decision does not create any obligation for the
Where it is necessary to apply other conditions to a particular
Commission to translate the requested documents into any
class of documents, the inter-service group referred to in
other official language versions than those already available at
Article 12 will be consulted.
the moment of the application.
Article 7
Individual applications for reuse of documents
4. The
Commission
or
the
Publications
Office
may
not
be
required to continue the production of certain types of
1. Where
an
individual
application
for
reuse
is
necessary,
the documents or to preserve them in a given format with a view
Commission services shall clearly indicate this in the relevant
to the reuse of such documents by a natural or legal person.

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L 330/42
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
14.12.2011
Article 9
4. Exclusive
rights
may
be
granted
to
publishers
of
scientific
and scholarly journals for articles based on the work of
Rules on charging
Commission officials for a limited period.
1. The
reuse
of
documents
shall
in
principle
be
free
of
charge.
Article 12
Inter-service group
2. In
exceptional
cases,
marginal
costs
incurred
for
the
repro
duction and dissemination of documents may be recovered.
1. An
inter-service
group
shall
be
set
up,
chaired
by
the
Director-General responsible for this Decision, or his represen
tative. It shall be composed of representatives of the Direc
3. Where
the
Commission
decides
to
adapt
a
document
in torates-General and Services. It shall discuss issues of
order to satisfy a specific application, the costs involved in the
common concern and draw up a report on the implementation
adaptation may be recovered from the applicant. The
of the Decision every 12 months.
assessment of the need to recover such costs shall take into
account the effort necessary for the adaptation as well as the
potential advantages the reuse may bring to the Union, for
2. A
steering
committee
chaired
by
the
Publications
Office
example in terms of spreading information on the functioning
and comprising the Secretariat-General, the Directorate-General
of the Union or in terms of enhancing the public image of the
for Communication, the Directorate-General for Information
Institution.
Society and Media, the Directorate-General for Informatics and
several Directorates-General representing the data providers will
oversee the project leading to the implementation of the data
Article 10
portal. Other institutions may be invited to join the committee
Transparency
at a later stage.
1. Any
applicable
conditions
and
standard
charges
for
the
documents available for reuse shall be pre-established and
3. The
terms
of
the
open
licence
referred
to
in
Article
6
shall
published, through electronic means where possible and appro
be settled in agreement by the Directors-General responsible for
priate.
this Decision and for the administrative execution of decisions
related to intellectual property rights at the Commission,
after consultation of the inter-service group referred to in
2. The
search
for
documents
shall
be
facilitated
by
practical paragraph 1.
arrangements, such as asset-lists of main documents available
for reuse.
Article 13
Review
Article 11
This Decision shall be reviewed 3 years after its entry into force.
Non-discrimination and exclusive rights
1. Any
applicable
conditions
for
the
reuse
of
documents
Article 14
shall be non-discriminatory for comparable categories of reuse.
Repeal
2. The
reuse
of
documents
shall
be
open
to
all
potential Decision 2006/291/EC, Euratom is repealed.
actors in the market. No exclusive rights shall be granted.
3. However,
where
an
exclusive
right
is
necessary
for
the Done at Brussels, 12 December 2011.
provision of a service in the public interest, the validity of the
reason for granting such an exclusive right shall be subject to
For the Commission
regular review, and shall, in any event, be reviewed after 3 years.
Any exclusive arrangement shall be transparent and made
The President
public.
José Manuel BARROSO

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