Proposal for a Regulation on European data governance (Data Governance Act)

The proposal is the first of a set of measures announced in the 2020 European strategy for data. The instrument aims to foster the availability of data for use by increasing trust in data intermediaries and by strengthening data-sharing mechanisms across the EU.

The Regulation will facilitate data sharing across the EU and between sectors to create wealth for society, increase control and trust of both citizens and companies regarding their data, and offer an alternative European model to data handling practice of major tech platforms.

The Regulation includes:

• A number of measures to increase trust in data sharing, as the lack of trust is currently a major obstacle and results in high costs.
• Create new EU rules on neutrality to allow novel data intermediaries to function as trustworthy organisers of data sharing.
• Measures to facilitate the reuse of certain data held by the public sector. For example, the reuse of health data could advance research to find cures for rare or chronic diseases.
• Means to give Europeans control on the use of the data they generate, by making it easier and safer for companies and individuals to voluntarily make their data available for the wider common good under clear conditions.

Feel free to read here the full text of the "Data Governance Act".

Lastly, this is the recently released DIN Position Statement on the Proposal for a Data Governance Act, that points out how standards can help to achieve the policy objectives of the DGA to ensure full interoperability, transparency and sustainability and thus create the basis for trust in secure data exchange and GDPR-compliant data use.