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Law Transposing Directive 2007/2/ec Of The European Parliament And Of The Council Of 14 March 2007 Establishing An Infrastructure For Spatial Information In The European Community (Inspire) (1)

Original Language Title: Loi transposant la Directive 2007/2/CE du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 14 mars 2007 établissant une infrastructure d'information géographique dans la Communauté européenne (INSPIRE) (1)

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15 DECEMBER 2011. - Act transposing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE) (1)



ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
CHAPTER 1er. - General provisions
Article 1er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 78 of the Constitution.
It partially transposes Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE).
Art. 2. This Act does not affect the provisions of:
- the Act of 7 March 2007 transposing the Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 17 November 2003 on the reuse of public sector information;
- the Act of 5 August 2006 on public access to environmental information.
It does not affect the existence or tenure of intellectual property rights by public authorities.
CHAPTER 2. - Definitions and scope
Art. 3. For the purposes of this Act:
1° Geographic Information Infrastructure: Metadata, Geographic Data Series and Geographic Data Services; network services and technologies; agreements on sharing, access and use; and mechanisms, processes and procedures for coordination and follow-up established, exploited or made available for this set;
2° geographical data: any data directly or indirectly referring to a specific location or geographic area;
3° series of geographical data: an identifiable compilation of geographical data;
4° Geographical Data Services: Operations that can be performed using a computer application on geographic data contained in geographic data series or metadata related to it;
5° metadata: information describing geographic data series and services and making possible their research, inventory and use;
6° interoperability: the possibility of a combination of geographic data sets and service interaction, without repeated manual intervention in such a way that the result is consistent and the added value of series and enhanced data services;
7° INSPIRE Directive: Directive 2007/2/EC of Parliament and Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE);
8° Geoportail: an Internet site or equivalent that provides access, inter alia, to services related to geographical data;
9° Public authority:
(a) a legal person or body created by or under the Constitution, a law, a decree or a rule referred to in section 134 of the Constitution;
(b) any natural or legal person performing public administration functions, including specific tasks, activities or services related to the environment;
(c) any natural or legal person with public responsibilities or functions, or providing public services related to the environment under the control of a body or person referred to in (a) or (b).
Do not fall within this definition:
- bodies and institutions with judicial competence, unless they act with a function other than judicial;
- legislative assemblies and institutions attached to them, unless they act administratively;
10° third: any natural or legal person other than a public authority.
Art. 4. § 1er. This Act applies to the geographic data series in electronic format, which relate to one of the themes in Annexes Ire, II or III of this Act, and are related to the territory on which Belgium exercises its sovereignty, provided that they are held by or on behalf of one of the following entities:
- a public authority under the federal authority and that these series, produced, received, managed or updated by that authority, fall within the scope of its public missions,
- a third party or public authority other than those under the federal authority and that these series have been linked to the federal network of services referred to in section 6.
However, to the extent only that, for reasons of federal jurisdiction, this Act imposes restrictions on public access to series and geographic data services, it also applies to series referred to in paragraph 1er held by or on behalf of the following entities:
- public authorities other than those under the federal authority,
- third parties to whom a network of services referred to in Article 11, § 1 is availableerthe INSPIRE Directive.
§ 2. When several identical copies of the same set of geographical data are held by several public authorities under or on behalf of the federal authority, the provisions of this Act, with the exception of section 9, apply only to the reference version of which the various copies are drawn.
§ 3. This Act also applies to geographic data services for data contained in the geographic data series referred to in subsection 1er.
§ 4. This Act does not require the collection of new geographical data.
§ 5. Without prejudice to Article 9, in the case of geographic data series referred to in paragraph 1erParagraph 1erin respect of which a third party holds intellectual property rights, the public authority under the federal authority may act under this Act only with the express consent of that third party.
CHAPTER 3 - Metadata, interoperability of series
Geographical Data Services and the Federal Service Network
Art. 5. For geographic data series and services, the entities referred to in Article 4, § 1erParagraph 1er, which hold them or on whose behalf they are detained, create and maintain metadata in accordance with the terms of application of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission.
For the data series for the themes in annexes Ire and II, metadata are available on December 3, 2010. For the data series corresponding to the themes in Appendix III, metadata are available by 3 December 2013.
Art. 6. § 1er. A federal network of services for geographic data series and services for which metadata have been created in accordance with this Act is established.
This network is organized within the geographic information infrastructure established and operated by the National Geographic Institute.
§ 2. The services of the federal network that are made available to the public and accessible by a federal geoportail are:
(a) research services to identify geographic data series and services based on the content of the corresponding metadata and to display metadata content;
(b) consultation services allowing at least to display data, navigate, change scale, opt for a panoramic view, or superimpose several sets of data that can be viewed and display legends as well as any relevant content of metadata;
(c) download services to download copies of geographical data series or parts of these series, and, where possible, access directly to them;
(d) transformation services to transform geographic data sets to achieve interoperability;
e) services to call geographic data services.
These services meet the requirements of the terms and conditions for the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission, and are provided within the time frames set out in it.
The processing services referred to in paragraph (d) shall be combined with the other services referred to in this paragraph so as to enable the operation of all such services in accordance with the terms and conditions of application of the INSPIRE Directive.
§ 3. The King may determine additional rules regarding the interoperability and harmonization requirements to which the series and services connected to the federal network are subject, as well as connection rules.
Art. 7. § 1er. Public authorities under the federal authority link to the federal network of services, within the time limits that the King sets, the series and the geographic data services that they hold or are held on their behalf and that are in accordance with the terms and conditions of application of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission and, where applicable, with the rules referred to in Article 6, § 3.
§ 2. Third parties and public authorities other than those of the federal authority upon request are authorized by the Minister of Defence to link geographic data series and services to the federal service network, following the advice of the Management Committee of the National Geographic Institute, provided that:
- that they create and maintain metadata in accordance with the terms of application of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission;
- that they comply with the obligations set out in Article 9;
- and that the relevant geographic data series and services comply with the terms and conditions of application of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission, as well as the rules referred to in Article 6, § 3.
The authorization may be withdrawn at the request of the third party or the public authority concerned, or at the initiative of the Minister of Defence in the event of non-compliance with the above-mentioned conditions, following the advice of the Management Committee of the National Geographical Institute.
The King may determine the terms and conditions for the introduction of the application for authorization or withdrawal of the application, as well as the authorization and withdrawal procedures.
Art. 8. The information necessary to comply with the terms and conditions of application of the INSPIRE Directive established by the European Commission as well as the rules, if any, referred to in Article 6, § 3, including data, codes and technical classifications, shall be made available by means of the federal geoportail referred to in Article 6 in accordance with conditions that do not restrict their use for this purpose.
CHAPTER 4. - Restrictions on public access to series and geographic data services
Art. 9. § 1er. Entities referred to in Article 4, § 1errestrict public access to geographic data series and services through the services referred to in Article 11, § 1er(a) of the INSPIRE Directive, where such access would result in:
1° to public security, or
2° to national defence, or
3° confidential:
- International Federal Relations
Belgium, or
- relations of Belgium with supranational institutions.
Entities referred to in Article 4, § 1errestrict public access to geographic data series and services through the services referred to in Article 11, § 1er, (b) to (e), the INSPIRE Directive or the electronic commerce services referred to in Article 14, § 3, of the INSPIRE Directive, where such access would result in one of the aspects referred to in paragraph 1er or any of the following:
(a) the confidentiality of the work of public authorities under the federal authority, where such confidentiality is provided by law;
(b) the proper conduct of justice, the possibility for any person to be tried fairly or the ability of a public authority under the federal authority to conduct a criminal or disciplinary investigation;
(c) the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, where such confidentiality is provided by Belgian legislation or that of the European Union in order to protect a legitimate economic interest, including the public interest related to the preservation of the confidentiality of statistics and tax secrecy;
(d) intellectual property rights;
(e) the confidentiality of personal data or files relating to a natural person where such person has not consented to the disclosure of such information to the public, where the confidentiality of such information is provided by Belgian or European Union legislation;
(f) the interests or protection of any person who has provided the information requested on a voluntary basis without being compelled by law or without the law being compelled to do so, unless that person has consented to the disclosure of that data;
(g) the protection of the environment to which this information relates;
(h) the confidential nature of the relations of the federal authority with the Communities and Regions.
§ 2. The grounds for restricting access, as provided in paragraph 1er, shall apply without prejudice to other grounds for restrictions established by an order or a rule referred to in section 134 of the Constitution relating to the exercise of the powers of the Communities and Regions, such as the location of rare species within the framework of environmental protection.
They are interpreted strictly, taking into account, in each case, the public's interest in access to this information. In each case, the public's interest in disclosure is appreciated in relation to the interest that would be limited or subject to conditions.
Access to emission information in the environment cannot be restricted under paragraph 1er(c), (e), (f) and (g).
§ 3. In this context, and for the purposes of paragraph 1er, paragraph 2, (e), the requirements of the Privacy Protection Act of 8 December 1992 with respect to personal data processing are met.
CHAPTER 5. - Service pricing
Art. 10. § 1er. The services referred to in Article 6, § 2, a), are made available free of charge to the public.
§ 2. Public authorities under the federal authority who provide a service referred to in Article 11, § 1er, b), the INSPIRE Directive, may collect rights that ensure the maintenance of geographic data sets and their corresponding services.
§ 3. The data made available by the consultation services referred to in Article 6, § 2, (b), may be available in a form that prevents their reuse for commercial purposes.
§ 4. When the public authorities under the federal authority impose a fee for the services referred to in Article 11, § 1er, (b), (c) or (e), of the INSPIRE Directive, e-commerce services should be available. These services may be covered by non-responsibility clauses, Internet licences or, if necessary, ordinary licences.
CHAPTER 6. - Miscellaneous and final provisions
Art. 11. Article 3bis of the Act of 8 June 1976 establishing the National Geographical Institute, inserted by article 2 of Royal Decree No. 234 of 22 December 1983, is replaced by the following:
“Art. 3.bis The Institute's mission is also to establish and operate a geographic information infrastructure in which identifiable compilation networks of geographic data and computer applications on these geographic data can be made operational and to which access can be provided, inter alia, through an Internet site or equivalent. "
Art. 12. Article 5, paragraph 1er, of the same law, as amended by article 3 of Royal Decree No. 234 of 22 December 1983, the words "and each of the two Ministers of National Education" are replaced by the words "and the minister having the computerization of the State in his powers".
Art. 13. The King shall, where appropriate, take the necessary measures to ensure the transposition of any amendments to Annexes IreII and III of the INSPIRE Directive. It may amend annexes IreII and III of this Act.
Art. 14. This Act comes into force on the day of its publication to the Belgian Monitor, with the exception of Article 7, § 2, which comes into force on the date the King fixes.
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 15 December 2011.
ALBERT
By the King:
Prime Minister
E. DI RUPO
Minister of Defence
P. DE CREM
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. A. TURTELBOOM
____
Note
(1) Session 2011 - 2012 :
House of Representatives.
Parliamentary documents: Bill No. 1719/1. - Report No. 1719/2. - Text adopted by the Commission on 19 October 2011.
Annales parlementaire : Text adopted in plenary on 10 November 2011.
Senate.
Parliamentary documents: Bill passed by the House, No. 1322/1. Not mentioned.
Annexes to the Act of 15 December 2011 transposing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE).

Annex Ire
Themes of geographical data referred to in Article 4, § 1erArticle 5, paragraph 2 and Article 12 of the Act of 15 December 2011 transposing the Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE)
1. Contact information references
Unique reference systems of geographical information in space as a series of coordinates (x, y, z) and/or latitude and longitude and altitude, based on a horizontal and vertical geodetic point.
2. Geographic mesh systems
Harmonized multi-resolution grid with a common point of origin and location as well as a harmonized cell size.
3. Geographical names
Names of areas, regions, localities, large cities, suburbs, medium cities or settlements, or any other geographical or topographical elements of public or historical interest.
4. Administrative units
Administration units separated by administrative limits and delimiting areas in which Member States hold and/or exercise their powers, for the purposes of local, regional and national administration.
5. Addresses
Location of properties based on address identifiers, usually street name, house number and postal code.
6. Cadastral parks
Areas defined by cadastral or equivalent registers.
7. Transport networks
Road, rail, air and inland water networks and associated infrastructure. Correspondence between the various networks, as well as the trans-European transport network as defined in Decision No. 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community orientations for the development of the trans-European transport network and the future revisions of this decision.
8. Hydrographic
Hydrographic elements, including marine areas, as well as all other water bodies and related elements, including watersheds and sub-basins. Conform, where appropriate, to the definitions set out in Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for a community policy in the field of water and in the form of networks.
9. Protected sites
Area designated or managed in an international legislative framework, the European Union or national, with a view to achieving specific conservation objectives.

ANNEX II
Themes of geographical data referred to in Article 4, § 1erArticle 5, paragraph 2 and Article 12 of the Act of 15 December 2011 transposing the Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE)
1. Altitude
Digital models for elevation of terrestrial, glacial and oceanic surfaces. Includes terrestrial altitude, bathymetry and shoreline.
2. Land occupation
Physical and biological coverage of the terrestrial surface, including artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, (semi-)natural areas, wetlands and water masses.
3. Ortho-imagerie
Geo-referenced images of the Earth's surface, from satellites or airborne sensors.
4. Geology
Geology characterized by composition and structure. Includes rocky substratum, aquifers and geomorphology.

ANNEX III
Themes of geographical data referred to in Article 4, § 1erArticle 5, paragraph 2 and Article 12 of the Act of 15 December 2011 transposing the Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing a geographic information infrastructure in the European Community (INSPIRE)
1. Statistical units
Units for the dissemination or use of other statistical information.
2. Buildings
Geographical location of buildings.
3. Sols
Soils and subsoil characterised according to their depth, texture, structure and content of particles and organic matter, piercion, erosion, if any medium slope and anticipated water storage capacity.
4. Land use
Territory characterized by its expected functional dimension or its current and future socio-economic object (e.g., residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, forestry, recreational).
5. Health and safety of persons
Geographic distribution of the dominant pathologies (allergies, cancers, respiratory diseases, etc.) directly related (air pollution, chemicals, ozone depletion, noise, etc.) or indirectly (food, genetically modified organisms, etc.) to the quality of the environment, and together information on the effect of it on human health (biological fertility, decline)
6. Public utility services and public services
Includes public utility facilities, such as sewage or waste management networks and facilities, energy supply, water supply, as well as public administrative and social services, such as public administrations, civil protection sites, schools and hospitals.
7. Environmental monitoring facilities
The situation and operation of environmental monitoring facilities include observation and measurement of emissions, the state of the environment and other ecosystem parameters (biodiversity, ecological conditions of vegetation, etc.) by public authorities or on their behalf.
8. Places of production and industrial sites
Industrial production sites, including facilities covered by Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 on integrated pollution prevention and reduction and water capture, mining and storage facilities.
9. Agricultural and aquaculture facilities
Agricultural production equipment and facilities (including irrigation systems, greenhouses and stables).
10. Population distribution - demographics
Geographic distribution of persons, with population characteristics and activity levels, grouped by grid, region, administrative unit or other analytical unit.
11. Management, Restriction or Regulatory Areas and Reporting Units
Areas managed, regulated or used for reports at the international, European, national, regional and local levels. Landfills, restricted areas around drinking water sources, areas vulnerable to nitrates, sea-regulated channels or large inland water, waste-discharge areas, noise-restricted areas, exploration and mining-licensed areas, hydrographic districts, associated units used for coastal reports and management areas are included.
12. Naturally hazardous areas
Sensitive areas characterized by natural hazards (all atmospheric, hydrological, seismic, volcanic phenomena, as well as refrigeration lamps that can, because of their situation, severity and frequency, seriously harm society), such as floods, landslides and landslides, avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
13. Atmospheric conditions
Physical conditions in the atmosphere. Includes geographical data based on measurements, models or a combination of both, as well as places of measurement.
14. Geographical meteorological characteristics
Weather conditions and their measurement: precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, speed and wind direction.
15. Oceanographic geographical characteristics
Physical conditions of the oceans (current, salinity, wave height, etc.).
16. Maritime regions
Physical conditions of seas and saltwater masses divided into regions and sub-regions with common characteristics.
17. Biogeographic regions
Areas with relatively homogeneous ecological conditions with common characteristics.
18. Habitats and biotopes
Geographical areas with special ecological characteristics - conditions, processes, structures and functions (of life-keeping) - favourable to the organisms living there. The terrestrial and aquatic areas that are distinguished by their geographical, abiotic or biotic characteristics, whether natural or semi-natural.
19. Distribution of species
Geographic distribution of occurrence of animal and plant species grouped by grid, region, administrative unit or other analytical unit.
20. Energy sources
Energy sources including hydrocarbons, hydropower, bioenergy, solar energy, wind energy, etc., where applicable, along with information related to the depth/height of the source.
21. Mineral resources
Mineral resources including metal ores, industrial minerals, etc., where applicable with information related to the depth/height of the resource.