EE - 2024: Country Fiche

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. State of Play
    1. Coordination
    2. Functioning and coordination of the infrastructure
    3. Usage of the infrastructure for spatial information
    4. Data Sharing Arrangements
    5. Costs and Benefits
  3. Key facts and figures

Introduction

The INSPIRE Directive sets the minimum conditions for interoperable sharing and exchange of spatial data across Europe as part of a larger European Interoperability Framework and the e-Government Action Plan that contributes to the Digital Single Market Agenda. Article 21 of INSPIRE Directive defines the basic principles for monitoring and reporting. More detailed implementing rules regarding INSPIRE monitoring and reporting have been adopted as Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1372 on the 19th August 2019.

This country fiche highlights the progress in the various areas of INSPIRE implementation. It includes information on monitoring 2023 acquired in December 2023 and Member States update.

State of Play

A high-level view on the governance, use and impact of the INSPIRE Directive in Estonia. More detailed information is available on the INSPIRE knowledge base.

Coordination

National Contact Point

Coordination Structure & Progress:

Coordination structure

INSPIRE_in_Estonia_012024

Progress

Functioning and coordination of the infrastructure

Usage of the infrastructure for spatial information

The usage of INSPIRE spatial information has been stabilized in couple of years. There are also no significant changes on comparing Estonian INSPIRE view or download services. One of the main reason could be that the Estonian Land Board published in 1 July 2018 most of its spatial data as open data. As most of the Estonian INSPIRE services in 2018 and 2019 were INSPIRE I and II annexes themes and Estonian Land Board was mostly these themes data owner. New annex III services are also mostly open data and did not make a big new open data releasing effect. Local public sector preferred to use other possibilities than INSPIRE to collect data.

Data Sharing Arrangements

From 2018 the spatial data of the Estonian Land Board is available for free download to everyone. As a result, there is no need to ask spatial data from Estonian Land Board in a query format. INSPIRE data and services were also directly affected by this decision and are mostly free of charge. For the conditions of use Estonian Land Board has made their own Land Board Open Data License. Environmental spatial data is also mostly free of charge but is not so easily usable for people. To represent spatial location and basic attributes The Estonian Environment Information Centre has published simple environmental spatial data view and download services. More detailed information is exchanged with government institutions. For data exchange between government institutions there is an overall agreement that data exchange is free from charge.

Costs and Benefits

Compared to 2022 the costs of 2023 have no significant changes. Implementation of the INSPIRE Directive vary between actors and are difficult to estimate precisely. Most of the workers in the responsible authorities of INSPIRE data are doing it as part of their daily job responsibilities and do not get extra benefit for it. Coordination costs have been the salary costs of two employees in the Estonian Land Board, who coordinate the entire implementation of the INSPIRE Directive in Estonia. The workload of these two people on INSPIRE topics corresponds to 0.5 per full-time workload for the whole reporting period. In addition, the Land Board has 3 people dealing with different INSPIRE topics: communication with information holders, technical advice, participation in workgroups, metadata filling, monitoring and management, reporting, planning of Estonian geoportal development, etc. The workload of these people is estimated to be a full-time workload of 2.5 persons for the whole reporting period. Information Technology Centre of the Ministry of the Environment has made the salary costs and technical costs in a value of EUR 90 000. They have 3 workers assigned on INSPIRE whom workload corresponds to 2.5 per full-time workload for the whole reporting period. Benefits of 2023 implementing the INSPIRE Directive vary between actors. The monetary value information of the total benefits is currently unavailable. According to Estonian Land Board INSPIRE workgroup experiences, the key benefits can be summed up as:

Key facts and figures

Key facts and figures from monitoring 2023 can be found at here.