ABSTRACT
The Sixth European Environment Action Programme emphasizes the need to base environmental policy on sound knowledge and participation, principles that will infl uence the European Union’s environmental policy decisions for the next decades. In response to this and other high-level European Union strategies, the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) initiative was conceived in 2001. Following
3 years of intensive collaboration with member states’ experts and stakeholder consultations, on July 23, 2004 the Commission adopted a proposal for a directive for establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe (INSPIRE). After the formal approval by the Council and by the European Parliament, the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC came into force on May 15, 2007. INSPIRE will be built on top of national spatial information infrastructures* established and operated by member states with the purpose of supporting environmental policies and policies or activities that may have a direct or indirect impact on the environment.
