TOWARDS A EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE 
M J D Brand BA FRICS - President EUROGI 
Special Session, IUSM 
KEY WORDS: Geomatics/GIS, Cooperation, EUROGI, GI Infrastructures, European 
Geographic Infrastructures, Legal GI Issues, GI Standards, Data Availability 
ABSTRACT 
Parallel to initiatives in the USA (NSDI) and similar ones in other parts of 
the world, Europe has been agonising over its own requirement for an EGII. The 
necessity for it, the issues involved, the organisational structures that may 
be needed are some of the subjects that have been addressed in particular by 
EUROGI and DGXIII of the European Commission. The latter have progressed the 
matter through its GI2000 initiative and will implement some of it through its 
current INFO2000 programme.  EUROGI while being fully involved and supportive 
of these efforts has identified a requirement to widen the process and to add 
value to these and the many other projects that are currently either being 
planned or implemented at the European level. 
The major issues involved are well known. They include data availability, 
standards, pricing and a whole raft of legal issues many of which impact 
differently at the European as opposed to the National level. Most are also 
cross-disciplinary. 
The EGII would be a stable European wide set of agreed rules, standards, and 
procedures for collecting, exchanging and using Geographic Information. It 
would also ensure that European wide base datasets are readily available and 
that metadata services exist so that data can be easily located by potential 
users. 
In working towards the creation of the EGII EUROGI is committed to helping to 
clear the barriers along this vital part of the Information Superhighway. 
In so doing it would place Europe in a position to participate in and to 
influence the moves towards a Global Infrastructure as many of the problems at 
an inter-national level would have been addressed and some solutions found 
which may have wider implications. 
INTRODUCTION many disciplines. It "go tnis 
multi-disciplinary and cross-national 
The awareness of the value of impact which led those involved in 
Geographic Information (GI) its use the creation of the European Umbrella 
and that of its related technologies Organisation for Geographic 
is spreading more widely and it is Information (EUROGI) to perceive the 
involving and ‘impacting on an necessity for such an organisation. A 
increasing number of disciplines and necessity which has been reinforced 
activities. Although there are many by the passage of time. 
definitions of CI in this context GI 
is defined as that which is spatially 
referenced in its widest sense. EUROGI AND THE EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHIC 
However, while this trend continues INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE (EGII) 
apace a number of constraints to 
development and to the ease of its Created" as a European foundation 
use have been identified, many of under Dutch law in 1993 EUROGI now 
which are common to a number of represents 16 National GI 
applications at the National, associations and 6 pan European ones, 
European and Global levels and across together with a number of observers. 
30 
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