Workshop: Comply with EU data obligation – and use it for cities & municipalities

Time to act for digital European municipalities! New data laws of the European Union, such as the Data Act and the Data Governance Act, give municipalities and municipal companies new rights in dealing with data – and make it a municipal duty to publish data of high value, as do the requirements of the IT Planning Council. How can municipalities and businesses comply with this as quickly as possible and use the new legal basis for themselves and their community at the same time? Find out more here – and in a new workshop offering from DKSR!

The data landscape in Europe is getting into motion: With the Data Act, the Implementation Regulation on High Value Data Sets and the Data Governance Act, the EU Commission is currently laying the foundations for a new European economic order that brings together maximization of data use and technological European sovereignty.

What exactly do the new laws mean for municipalities?

By mid-2024, municipalities will be required to share high-value data in a standardized, high-quality and machine-readable way.
As operators of infrastructure, municipal enterprises will simultaneously become “product users.” According to the new legal situation, this means that they must make available the data generated by the use of their infrastructures – for example, bus fleets, charging stations, pumps or street lighting.

At first glance, this sounds like a lot of obligations and bureaucracy – but it means great potential. After all, regulation is changing the way municipalities handle data, and it is also changing the basis on which data-based services can be provided to citizens in public spaces in the future. Municipalities and municipal operations themselves will gain access to exciting new data sets: These make significant operational improvements, cost savings, and important steps in pursuing climate goals possible in the first place. Broad data availability will maximize the design sovereignty of the public and private sectors and strengthen the digital sovereignty of the individual.

New potential – new pressure to act

Many municipalities and municipal enterprises do not yet see the relevance and the pressure to act of the changes that are coming their way: Scarcity of resources, lack of competence and support make it difficult to make arrangements for the publication obligation in good time – and even more difficult to identify the great opportunities for their own city or region and to translate them into measures and applications. Yet it is clear that municipalities that are already taking action can help define structures and rules, demonstrate their innovative strength and attractiveness to the public, and even realize rapid cost savings.

It is not only traditional energy service providers that benefit from the new flood of data: Municipal housing companies, water utilities, waste management companies and transportation companies in particular can reap massive benefits from the active use of data. There are enough examples of this.

What can and should municipalities do in time to realize their obligations and take advantage of their own opportunities for action?

Step one: Take a data inventory: Where is what data located in one’s own municipality or organization? What is the quality of the data?
Step two: Define the process for publication: How do I get the data? How do I ensure the quality? Who has to release what and when?
Step three: Create the technical basis for publication: Where will the data be made available? How do customers, for example, find out about it? How can overarching standards be adhered to?

Anyone who starts this process will discover that numerous applications for the city lie dormant in the data sets with high value, which suddenly become tangible with structuring. At the same time, municipal value creation can be completely rethought in this way – especially against the background of the rapidly changing business of municipal utilities and other municipal operations. Which city and community services can be improved with dynamic and real-time data? With whom in the public services ecosystem should data be shared and partnerships forged? And what new services will be enabled that unlock value for municipal utility and municipal community alike?

Fast-track data use on new EU law

But where to start when time and staff are scarce? To get up to speed on how to repair your own data in line with the new law, DKSR is teaming up with data law expert Hubertus von Roenne to offer a one-day workshop to lay the essential groundwork for data disclosure after the steps above.

Learn more – and learn how to handle your city’s or municipality’s data according to the legal situation in a full-day workshop and how to use the data in the best possible way for municipal processes and services!