www.opencoesione.gov.it www.dps.tesoro.it/opencoesione

Open Data and the

transparency of the lists of

beneficiaries of EU Regional

Policy in Europe Department for Cohesion and Economic Development

European Commission – DG Regio

Brussels, 11th December 2013

www.opencoesione.gov.it

The benefits of Open Data

Increased openness of government datasets is emerging as a desirable feature across

Europe (Davies, 2010). Open data is seen as having significant economic potential,

generating user-driven innovation (Von Hippel, 2005) based on the availability of previously

restricted information and the creation of new firms. This can lead to the creation of new

public eServices that are both effective (user-centred) and efficient (harnessing capacity and

knowledge outside government).

In particular, Open Government Data (OGD):

(a) fosters transparency and accountability of policy choices;

(b) enables the creation of new public eServices by government, civil society and individual

citizens

(c) increases the collaboration across government bodies and with citizens and enterprises

(d) enables substantial improvements in the quality of policy making, in terms, e.g., of

quality of the spending and public value delivered;

(e) may contribute to creation of social capital through the enhancement of information

flows to and from the citizen (e.g. participation to public debates, crowdsourcing of relevant

information).

Open Data: 8 principles

1. Data Must Be Complete All public data are made available. Data are electronically stored information or

recordings, including but not limited to documents, databases, transcripts, and audio/visual recordings. Public data are data that are not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations, as governed by other statutes

2. Data Must Be Primary Data are published as collected at the source, with the finest possible level of

granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms 3. Data Must Be Timely Data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. 4. Data Must Be Accessible Data are available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes. 5. Data Must Be Machine processable Data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing of it. 6. Access Must Be Non-Discriminatory Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of registration. 7. Data Formats Must Be Non-Proprietary Data are available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control. 8. Data Must Be License-free Data are not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation.

Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed as governed by other statutes.

Open Data & Transparency EU rules and initiatives

Structural Funds Regulation 2007-13 Art. 7 Reg. 1828 8 dic 2006 “the managing authority shall be responsible for organising the publication, electronically or otherwise, of 1. the names of the beneficiaries, 2. the names of the operations and 3. the amount of public funding allocated to the operations”

Open Data & Transparency EU rules and initiatives

European Transparency Initiative (2008) - Indicative table

for setting the list of beneficiaries of EU Funding

An evaluation on the

transparency the lists of

beneficiaries of EU Regional

Policy

The goals

• To compare the performances of EU MS & Regions

• To explore the information-based strategies that

European public agencies are pursuing when

publishing their data on the web

A measure for Open Data quality

Open data and the “invisible

hand”

Public Value & Data divide

Government

should only

publish data in

open, machine-

readable

formats

Government

should consider

different users

needs (public

value) and

provide also

easy-to-access

data in

processed form

(data divide) Brito, 2007

Robinson et al., 2009

Dawes and Helbig, 2010

Gurstein, 2011

Harrison et al, 2011

Relevant literature on open data policy Current emerging practice focuses on the publication of open government data in machine-readable format,

possibly through open standards, so that the data can be easily re-used by citizens, enterprises and civil

society.

A measure for Open Data quality

Source: Dawes, S: Stewardship and usefulness: Policy principles for information-based transparency. Government

Information Quarterly 27, p. 381 (2010).

Stewardship principle includes the actions and policies addressed to data

“care” and aiming to ensure information quality and detail, reduce the risk of misuse,

and consequently increase users’ confidence in government information.

Usefulness includes the creation of added value for citizens and enterprises and

innovation promotion, thus understanding the actions aimed at making data more

accessible to end-users.

Relevant literature on open data policy

Data collection

• Web-based survey on availability and quality of the lists of

beneficiaries of EU Regional Policy

• All EU Countries and Regions included

• 434 Operational Programmes reviewed

[European Commission - DG Regional Policy database]

• Starting point: EC DG Regional Policy and DG

Employment dedicated portals

• Three waves: Oct 2010, Oct 2011, Oct 2012

• Now 2013/2014 survey is under way + back office topics

Methodology

Data collection Starting points of the web-based analysis

Stewardship

variables

October 2011

Usefulness

variables

Category) Characteristics) ETI) Italy)Av.)%)

EU27)Av.)%)

DB)consultation))through)masks))

Search'by'Fund'type'' ) 6) 29)

Search'by'Project' ) 10) 27)) Search'by'OP' ) 2) 31)

) Search'by'Axis/Object./Action' ) 6) 17)) Search'by'Beneficiary' ) 10) 13)) Search'by'Resources' ) 2) 8)

) Search'by'Territory/Area' ) 10) 19)) Search'by'Project'status'' ) 0) 7)

Advanced)Functions)

Georeferencing''through'maps' ) 0) 16)

) Visualisation'through'graphs'and'other'elaborations''

) 2) 17)

) Data'with'subEregional'detail' ) 29) 18)

'

October 2011

Co

nte

nt

(de

tail

of

info

) 2011 2012

Fin

an

cia

l d

ata

2011 2012

Qu

ali

ty o

f in

form

ati

on

2011 2012

Format

Format' Score'(%)'

PDF$ 16.7$

DOC$ 16.7$

HTML$(multiple$pages)$ 16.7$HTML$(single$page)$ 33.3$

XLS$ 50.0$

CSV$ 66.7$

XML,$JSON$ 83.3$Linked$data$model$supporting$format$(e.g.$RDF)$ 100.0$

$

A score is assigned that is directly proportional to the degree of

openness and re-usability of the information provided.

It takes into account whether the formats used are machine-

readable, open or, at best, consistent with the linked data model.

Fo

rma

t

2011 2012

Searc

h f

eatu

res

2011 2012

Ad

van

ce

d f

un

cti

on

s

2011 2012

Strategie di Open Data Evoluzione delle modalità di pubblicazione dei dati (2010-2012)

Fonte: Biagetti, M. e Reggi, L. Where does EU money go? Availability and quality of Open Data on the recipients

of EU Structural Funds, 2013. http://bit.ly/Zbu6nd

2010 2011 2012

[35%]

[23

%]

[38%]

[21

%]

[47%]

[13

%]

2011: 3 different publication strategies

19% 14%

24% 14%

57% 73%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

ERDF ESF

Group 3- Regulation-centred

Group 2-User-centred

Group 1 - Reuse-centred

28% 11% 8%

20%

21% 27%

52% 67% 61%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

CONV RCE Cooperation

Group 3- Regulation-centred

Group 2-User-centred

Group 1 - Reuse-centred

57% 44%

60%

41% 89%

12%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Decentralised Centralised

Group 3- Regulation-centred

Group 2-User-centred

Group 1 - Reuse-centred

7%

54% 19%

23% 74%

22%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

EU15 NEW MSs

Group 3- Regulation-centred

Group 2-User-centred

Group 1 - Reuse-centred

2011: 3 different publication strategies

23

Base category = PDF (logit model)

Pro

active s

trate

gy

Base categories: Centralization==0, fund=ERDF, objective=1, naz_reg

(model A)=cb | naz_reg (model B)=n, new_entries (model B)=0

2012: Relative probability of choosing a strategy

while being…

Verso un approccio bilanciato?

Usefulness

Ste

ward

ship

Closed data

Approccio

basato sulla

quaità dei dati

Approccio basato sulla

visualiz-

zazione

Approccio

bilanciato

Qualità +

fruibilità

Re-user centered

User centered

Regulation centered

Civic engagement

Some examples….

Usefulness

Ste

ward

ship

Re-user

centered

User centered

Regulation centered

DE

UK

ES

GR

BG EE

NL

DK

HU

IT

PL FR

Towards the

new

Regulation EU27 2007-2013 OPs

average level of

compliance with the

requirements set by the

Regulation for 2014-

2020

Challenges ahead and

open questions

• How do back office / information management issues influence

openness and transparency (e.g. centralization /

decentralization)?

• From open data to engagement

• citizen monitoring and evaluation

• gathering comments and suggestions

• What are the determinants of openness and transparency?

For example:

• Regional context (size, innovation, ICT diffusion, etc.)

• Transparency and Democracy indicators

• Economic variables (amount of funding, FEIs vs. grants..)

• Organizational variables

• How to compare the performance of EU27 Regions and Member

States? Open Government Index included as an indicator of

administrative capacity in Italy’s Partnership Agreement

New survey 2013/2014