16-20 June 2014. Aalborg, Denmark

The call for abstracts for the INSPIRE 2014 Conference has been published.

Seven years have passed since INSPIRE was adopted as the EU’s legal framework establishing the infrastructure for spatial information in Europe serving policies and activities having an impact on the environment. During this period the framework of technical specifications necessary to underpin an interoperable infrastructure has been completed, and a major effort has taken place to implement the Directive in the Member States. It is now time for the mid-term evaluation to assess how well we are doing, and whether we are still on the right track. This conference comes therefore at a crucial stage to report on progress and get feedback from all the stakeholders involved.

The deadline for submissions is the 14th March 2014.

Details on how to submit are available on the INSPIRE Conference site: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2014/

The public consultation on INSPIRE implementation is still open.

The consultation is to seek the views of the general public and all stakeholders in order to help assess whether the actions already underway to establish an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community according to the INSPIRE directive 2007/2/EC are still on course to meet the objectives pursued.

The results of this public consultation will contribute to the INSPIRE interim-policy evaluation which according to the directive needs to be carried out 7 years after its entry into force. The outcome of the policy evaluation will be reported to the European Parliament and Council in 2014 and may lead to remedial policy action necessary to adapt current approaches so that they align better – in the light of a changing environment – with the achievement of the original objectives of INSPIRE.

The consultation is open until 24th February 2014. Full details and background information are available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/consultations/inspire_en.htm