 Good morning everybody. Thank you Graham for your kind lines, but there is still a lot to do and we have to do it together and therefore indeed I was mentioning last year I will be back if that is allowed and that is not my normal attitude thanks to my collaborators for they don't allow me to come back every year at every event but this one absolutely no discussion go go go because and that is quite interesting it is in the heart of a democracy and it is in the heart of communicating with people so we need to have a couple of lines where we anyhow get your knowledge and hopefully we can add to that also the knowledge from our side what I did say last year and you certainly remember that is we badly need more and better standards recognized and created in Europe and that is not because just talking as a European commissioner it should be Europe but it is because we are a main player and we should be a main player on the globe map so to say and better use made of those standards is essential and improve interoperability from my former portfolio I was already quite well known that interoperability is very very interesting but not only very interesting it is a must we have to improve the interoperability even where there are no standards so let's make that line quite clear and I promised that I would keep coming back and speaking to you until we achieve everything so if we are not delivering then I will be back and back even if you don't want me I knock on the door here I am we have to go on and by the way rightly mentioned by you Graham we have achieved a lot and sometimes it's also a point that you are aware of that but we haven't achieved everything and you were mentioning that too there's still a lot to do so here I am and of course ladies and gentlemen I am eager to tell you today what we have done since last year and let me start with that but after that I also want to talk about what we are doing in the area of the other big topic of this event the openness of governments and data openness openness openness in all sectors standards and standardization drive competitiveness promote innovation and benefit consumers through competition therefore I'm so delighted that I first had that experience by the way with Carl together in the competition portfolio for that was a very solid base to go in this portfolio far more creative far more innovative but also challenging standards are indispensable for openness for freedom and for choice and likewise in the ICT sector having the right standard setting procedures and interoperability rules creates the level playing field needed for all part of the machine to fit together devices applications data repositories services and networks and remember that the ICT revolution would not be what it is without the standards and without the protocols which underpin the internet for then it wouldn't be there and in principle every node of the internet can communicate with every other using the same language it's quite fascinating next Monday it is the European day of languages this is the language that we should communicate so that is the answer to Jack for he was asking in what language do you want to communicate on Monday well let's do it via this and so very clear and without that the internet wouldn't much resemble the phenomenal engine of innovation that it is we need to wear that in mind when thinking about the many new possibilities out there public service from e-government to e-identification applications from health transport innovation from the internet of things to cloud computing and so on and so forth because if we are to unlock the power of any of those new developments to are built on the philosophy of shared standards so that within these new systems there is cooperation and interaction just as there is between nodes on the internet and we in Europe are now one huge step closer to better standards in June the commission proposed a new legal framework for European standardization and the proposal underlines that given the pace of change of ICT standard setting in this field needs to be faster and more flexible quite clear we also need to stop wasting time and resources reinventing the wheel please let's get the advantage of something that is already experienced and in reality many usual standards do not come from European standardization organizations but from other bodies around the world so where it makes sense let's be pragmatic and reuse others good results indeed our proposal sets out a process to do just that and the result will be a level playing field between standards from different sources and a boom for interoperability if all goes well we will have begun to implement the first element of this process the creation of an ICT multi-stakeholder platform by the end of this year that new group will assist the commission in assessing ICT standards and in the coming years we will be working with the council and the european parliament to make absolutely sure the new standardization framework becomes law as soon as possible we have also taken steps to improve the quality of standards in the area of competition law we have revised our guidelines on the assessment of horizontal cooperation agreements and the new horizontal guidelines adopted last december include an expanded section on standardization agreements they should further enhance the efficiency of the standardization processes through clearer ex-ante rules on the disclosure of both IPR and licensing conditions moving from standardization to interoperability policies it is worth recalling that we have also managed at the end of last year to put behind us a controversy that took more than two years to resolve don't ask me why that took so much time but let's be happy with the result and the result is a document with the unassuming title of the european interoperability framework 2.0 what was all that fuss about in the end and i would forgive you to ask me the question for i asked the question myself but i'm not absolutely certain that i can fully answer it but okay i know that mid-juice controversy mainly about one small section we have created a pretty decent overall result and certainly the best solution for now so we have a solution that will help us bring more and better interoperability to at least cross border public services in europe and we will continue to work with member states to make sure those good principles are put into practice that's what we have done but there's much still to do before the end of the year we will be looking further into the guidelines on making best use of ict standards in public procurement to enhance efficiency and reduce the risk of dependency on a single provider and we will consult on measures to make it easier to have interoperability even in the absence of formal standards whether it is through exception obligations or some other kind of incentive to grant licenses to do de facto standards always striking the right balance between the needs of our stakeholders so that's the asiana on interoperability but rightly mentioned by graham this conference is about an open vision for europe and you couldn't touch upon a more important issue and that's about much more than just standard protocols it's also about promoting sharing knowledge to empower individuals boost businesses spread the results of scientific research and we are going to take action we are going to open up europe's public sector i'm convinced ladies and gentlemen that the potential to reuse public data is significantly untapped such data is a resource a new and valuable raw material and if we became able to mine it that would be an investment which would pay off with benefits for all of us and one of the speakers of today will touch upon that one and i'm certain that you will be inspired by him benefits for the citizen and for society because making good use of public data can make your life better whether it's routes planning using public geo information or public transport data a local community crowd sourcing its maintenance and priority and decision-making built on statistics of all shapes and sizes or data journalism that helps explain our world second benefits for the economy as business opportunities to use such data increase and especially if we spread data as wide as possible to give every idea chance rather than looking it up in exclusive licensing arrangements and i want to see many companies turning their ideas into revenues and many citizens benefiting the third one benefits for science because research in genomics pharmacology or the fight against uh cancer increasingly depends on the availability and sophisticated analyzers of large data sets and sharing such data means researchers can collaborate can compare creatively explore whole new realms and we can't afford for access to scientific knowledge to become type of luxury and the results of publicly funded research publicly funded research in particular should be spread as widely as possible and number four of course there is some self-interest in this as well this are benefits for the public sector itself think of the potential efficiency gains many that thought the they knew it all will be inspired and humbled by what offers will make of their data and others will simply be learning by example how to better analyze and use it and perhaps most importantly benefits for democracy because it enhances transparency take that word transparency accessibility and accountability and after all what could be more natural than public authorities who have collected information on behalf of citizens using their tax money giving it back to those same citizens new professionals such as data journalists are our allies in explaining what we do and since 2003 the directive on the reuse of public sector information has regulated that field establishing the principle that public authorities should make data available and let individuals businesses make use of it and our consultation on the review of that directive got a wide response and the consensus was that the principles of the directive are valid namely the importance of public sector information as a raw material and the economic and social value in its reuse but we need to clarify how those principles are put into practice and maybe get rid of a few exceptions or loopholes and so at the end of November I will be proposing to my fellow commissioners that we adopt our next steps on the reuse of public sector information and a proposal for an improved directive and I want requirements to be more encompassing and specifications improved in particular ladies and gentlemen we shall be looking at the way data is disclosed the formats and the way data licenses operate to make reuse straightforward in practice and we shall also be looking at charging regimes because expensive data isn't open data in short getting out the data under reasonable conditions should be a routine part of the business of public administrations it shouldn't be an exception it should be the daily way of dealing with it and before you ask me let me confirm of course the commission should practice what it preaches and I'm aware that will be a little bit of a fight but with that type of backing of you I'm ready for the fight so we will also be updating the rules for the reuse of our own data and I hope those rules will find champions in other European institutions too we are planning two data portals to give simple and systemic access to public data at European level first we should have by next spring a portal to the commission's own data resources and second for 2013 I'm working on a wider than European data portal eventually giving access to reusable public sector information from across the EU federating developing existing national and regional data portals if we are able to just be yeah in that situation that the portal is there then we are really a step forward so to say will she really be able to pull all of that you may wonder again some of you show me that in your body language and again let me tell you that I am as determined as ever to bring about the change now it has to happen so just as I promised last year Graham I promise to keep coming back if my digital agenda permits it and I can assure you I won't fly away until we achieve it all but I hope that in between my actions will speak for themselves and that you will be aware we need each other and I'm looking forward to that common a trip that we are making and time is not our friend we are speeding up thank you