Implementation of the INSPIRE-Directive in Germany and Poland – Legal Point of View1

Abstract

The aim of the Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of Ministers dated 14 March 2007, establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE), which came into force on 15th May 2007, is to set up a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) and to simplify access to spatial data and spatial data services in Europe. Because of the transnational aspects and the general need to coordinate the conditions of access to, exchange and sharing of spatial information within the Community, it can only be sufficiently achieved at the Community level. Each Member State is obliged to implement the INSPIRE-Directive. In Germany the implementation procedure has to take place both on the federal and the Federal States level. Thus, good coordination of work and cooperation between the federation, Federal States and municipalities is essential. The federation and each of the federal states are together responsible for the implementation of the INSPIRE with regards to its own public authorities. In Poland, as in other non-federal states, this directive has to be implemented only by passing a new law for the whole country. But the oft amended geodesy and cartography Act passed in the People’s Republic of Poland, which is in force till now, does not make that process easier. This paper presents the works on the implementation of the INSPIRE-Directive in the Federal Republic of Germany, on the federal and the Federal States level and compare them with regulations contained in a proposal of polish implementing Act.