European strategy for data: Data Governance Act becomes applicable

The Data Governance Act entered into application on 24 September 2023. The Regulation creates a new European way of data governance based on increasing trust in data sharing.

It aims to create a safe environment for sharing data across sectors and Member States to benefit society and the economy. The Data Governance Act also allows novel data intermediaries to act as trustworthy actors in the data economy. Entities engaging in data altruism can register voluntarily as data altruism organisations. This will provide maximum trust with minimum administrative burden. The rules related to data altruism will help individuals and companies to donate data in a safe and trustworthy way in order to contribute to wider societal goals such as fighting a pandemic. The reuse of public sector data that cannot be made available as open data will also be enhanced. All of these tools will increase data flows, thereby supporting the development of common European data spaces, such as manufacturing, cultural heritage, agriculture and health.

The Regulation also establishes the European Data Innovation Board. It will issue guidelines on the development of common European data spaces and will identify standards and interoperability requirements for cross-sector data sharing.

Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency, said: “To become a truly innovative continent, we need a fair data-driven economy. The Data Governance Act will help build confidence so that any data will be shared in line with European values. The Act is a milestone for creating a safe and trustworthy digital single market.”.

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, added: “Today marks a milestone in building a European single market for data. With the Data Governance Act becoming applicable, we are increasing trust in data sharing and creating a data economy that is innovative and open on our conditions.”

The Data Governance Act was proposed in November 2020. A proposal for a Data Act, the second major legislative initiative under the European strategy for data, was adopted in February 2022 and a political agreement was reached on 28 June 2023. While the Data Governance Act creates the processes and structures to facilitate data sharing, the Data Act clarifies who can create value from data and under which conditions.