European Commission has presented an Open Data Strategy for Europe

The European Commission has presented an Open Data Strategy for Europe setting out clearer rules on making the best use of government-held information. The proposed Open Data Strategy will make it easier for business and citizens to find and re-use information held by public sector bodies in the Member States and by the Commission itself. Primarily, the Commission plans to update the 2003 Directive on the re-use of public sector information. The Commission is also updating its own re-use rules so as to make its data available in machine-readable format and to include data from research by the Joint Research Centre. In spring 2012 the Commission will launch a web portal making it easy for industry and citizens to search for Commission data. This is a step towards a single-access point for re-usable data from all EU institutions, bodies and agencies and national authorities.

More information can be found here