Recital (76)

Directive (EU) 2019/1024 mandates the release of public sector information in free and open formats. The overall objective of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 is to continue the strengthening of the Union’s data economy by increasing the amount of interoperable public sector data available for reuse, ensuring fair competition and easy access to public sector information, and enhancing cross-border innovation based on data. The main principle of that Directive is that government data should be open by default and design. Directive 2003/4/EC is aimed at guaranteeing the right of access to environmental information in the Member States in line with the Aarhus Convention. The Aarhus Convention and Directive 2003/4/EC encompass broad obligations related both to making environmental information available upon request and actively disseminating such information. Directive 2003/4/EC provides for a restricted list of exemptions from dissemination or disclosure of environmental information, taking into account the public interest served by the dissemination, in the event that the dissemination or disclosure of the information would adversely affect certain interests. Such interests include: public security or national defence; the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by Union or national law to protect a legitimate economic interest, including the public interest in maintaining statistical confidentiality and tax secrecy; and the confidentiality of personal data or files relating to a natural person where that person has not consented to the disclosure of the information to the public, where such confidentiality is provided for by Union or national law. Directive 2007/2/EC is also of broad scope, covering the sharing of spatial information, including data sets on different environmental topics. It is important that the provisions of this Directive related to access to information and data-sharing arrangements complement Directives (EU) 2019/1024, 2003/4/EC and 2007/2/EC and do not create a separate legal regime. Therefore, the provisions of this Directive regarding information to the public and information on monitoring of implementation should be without prejudice to those Directives.