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  1. Our thinking
  2. Tech, data and AI: The digital frontier
  3. EU Digital Strategy
  4. European Data Spaces
Common European Data Spaces

European Health Data Space

Status: In force

  • In force since 22 April, application from 26 May 2027

Open Finance Data Space

Status: In draft

  • Commission’s proposal published 28 June 2023
  • Council adopted its position on 4 December 2024
  • Parliament approved its position in December 2024

Summary

The EU Commission aims to create EU-wide common, interoperable data spaces in strategic sectors to overcome existing legal and technical barriers to data sharing. The rules for common European data spaces will cover areas like health, mobility, environment, energy and agriculture, to:

  • make better use of publicly held data for research for the common good,
  • support voluntary data sharing by individuals, and
  • set up structures to enable key organisations to share data.

Scope

European data spaces will apply on a sector level to respective key holders. The European Commission plans to create data spaces in the following sectors: health, mobility, finance, manufacturing, environment, energy, agriculture, public administration, skills, science (Open Science Cloud). 

Key elements

According to the European strategy for data, key elements of the data spaces will be:

  • A secure and privacy-preserving infrastructure to pool, access, share, process and use data.
  • A clear and practical structure for access to and use of data in a fair, transparent, proportionate and/non-discriminatory manner and clear and trustworthy data governance mechanisms.
  • European rules and values, in particular personal data protection, consumer protection legislation and competition law, are fully respected.

Challenges

The challenges for each of the planned EU data spaces will depend on the specifics of each sector with reoccurring points like data interoperability and portability and data access mechanisms.

EU Digital Strategy Hub
Data Governance Act
Data Act
European Data Spaces
Cyber Resilience Act
Digital Markets Act
Digital Services Act
NIS2 Directive
AI Act
AI Liability Directive
DSM Directive
European Media Freedom Act
eIDAS 2.0
Political Advertising Regulation
Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)
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Blogs

Blogs

Blog
Mar 21 2024
The first of its kind: exploring the European Health Data Space
We are going through what is known as the third major global economic wave at an unprecedented pace. This wave is driven by the growth...
Blog
Jun 13 2023
Important step towards European mobility data space is reached – EU agrees on rules for Intelligent Transport Systems
The EU Parliament and the Council have reached a political agreement on new rules that will require member states to use intelligent...
Blog
May 10 2022
Making the most of health data: Commission publishes proposal for a European Health Data Space
On 3 May 2022, the European Commission published its proposal for a regulation on the so-called European Health Data Space (EHDS), after...
Blog
Mar 28 2022
Data meets healthcare: EU plans for a European Health Data Space Regulation
According to a leaked draft legislative proposal by the European Commission, which is expected to be officially published this spring,...

Contacts

Contacts

Düsseldorf
Christoph WerkmeisterPartner
Berlin
Michael RambPartner
Berlin
Katharina ReinhardtPrincipal Associate
Düsseldorf
Philipp RoosCounsel
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