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INSPIRE Knowledge Base

Legislation

The INSPIRE Directive was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007 and entered into force on the 15th May 2007

Consolidated text: 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)

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Policy Background

The Directive lays down general rules for the establishment of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe, in support of the Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

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The Directive (2007/2/EC) comes with legally binding Implementing Rules detailing requirements on data provision and non-legally binding Technical Guidance documents, specifying how the legal obligations can be implemented in practice.

The figure below illustrates the relationship between the INSPIRE Regulations containing Implementing Rules and their corresponding Technical Guidance documents.

Technical guidance infographic

Implementing Rules

To ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States are compatible and usable in a Community and transboundary context, the INSPIRE Directive required that common Implementing Rules (IR) were adopted in a number of specific areas.

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Technical Guidance

In addition to the Implementing Rules, non-binding Technical Guidance documents describe detailed implementation aspects and relations with existing standards, technologies, and practices. 

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