et 
this 
onal 
d in 
'ella 
phic 
the 
Dn. A 
rced 
HIC 
[I) 
it ion 
now 
GI 
nes, 
XS. 
Its mission is "Eo promote, 
stimulate, encourage and support the 
development and use of Geographical 
Information and related Technologies 
at the European level and to 
represent the common interest of 
theGeographical Information community 
in Europe". Central to the 
fulfilment "of chis rolei/4s the 
creation of an EGII. This EGII would 
be a stable set of European-wide set 
of agreed rules, standards and 
procedures for collecting, exchanging 
and using Geographic Information. 
Critical to this has been the mutual 
support that EUROGI has given to and 
received from DGXIII of the European 
Commission. Both organisations have 
facilitated the holding of a large 
number of meetings over the past 
eighteen months, the outcome of which 
together with the resultant very wide 
consultation, has led to the widely 
circulated GI2000 document. This in 
turn will lead to a submission to the 
EC" Council of "Ministers and its 
implementation within their (DGXIII) 
INFO2000 programme over the next few 
years. 
However, this alone might not be 
enough. There are a number of large 
players at the European level mainly 
those " within "^or "linked ^to "the 
European Commission (although there 
are others) who are currently 
involved in large programmes with 
large budgets which increasing 
require GI and GIS. These programmes 
need an EGII for the efficient and 
effective implementation of their 
mandates. We need therefore, a wider 
approach to the establishment of an 
EGII which involves them directly. 
EUROGI in involving these other 
actors needs to add value to the work 
envisaged in the INFO2000 programme 
and our programme for 1996 and beyond 
which already has achieved some 
success in this "direction, 1S 
designed to achieve this. 
National European views such as the 
French response to the | GI2000 
document have added invaluably to the 
debate. 
31 
THE ISSUES INVOLVED 
More directly linked to the detail of 
the EGII are a whole raft of issues 
which need to be tackled if we are to 
eliminate or minimise the constraints 
to the easy use of the technology and 
high: joonvorasó dong v21líst:- ares: the 
following. 
a. Legal Issues 
Intellectual property rights Or 
copyright, liability issues of data 
and individual‘ rights‘ and data 
protection are among some of these 
that need to be tackled.  EUROGI has 
commissioned a definitive survey of 
IPR within the 15 national European 
Union (now completed) and has 
commenced studies related to the 
others. To facilitate progress we 
have established firm links with the 
LAB (Legal Advisory Board) of the EC 
toc achieve sour -joint: aim  in- this 
area. 
b. Standards 
As the first phase of the work of the 
official European Standards 
Organisation (CEN) on GI draws to a 
conclusion and that of the 
International Body (ISO) in the same 
field  commences, the relationship 
between the work of these two 
official standardisation bodies is 
brought into" sharp: contrast and 
highlights the marked difference in 
their approach to the subject. 
Additional urgency is also required 
due to the Open Systems and 
interoperability issues currently 
being addressed by the Open GIS 
Consortium (OGC) and others which is 
concentrating the minds of many 
vendors to some of the problems that 
need to be addressed. Over the past 
few months EUROGI has been involved 
in discussions with the OGC to ensure 
that Europe will have a voice in the 
deliberations that are ongoing. 
Technology has a valuable role to 
play but a number of the 
standardisation problems are 
organisational and cultural and may 
not be ‘as: amenable to such a 
solution. 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996