Open Data Directive: You gotta be kidding me!

By Chris Taggart, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, OpenCorporates Recently, the European Commission finally published the draft implementing act for the Open Data Directive. We looked at it, and looked at it again… and said: is that all there is? To remind everyone, this was the directive that promised to make available as open data … Continue reading Open Data Directive: You gotta be kidding me!

Is this a fork in the road for EU company data?

8 years ago, OpenCorporates surveyed access to official company register data in the EU. To our knowledge, this was the first time that this had been done in a systematic way.  The results were not good.  Data and access were routinely restricted on a pay-to-play basis. If you had the money, you could access it … Continue reading Is this a fork in the road for EU company data?

5AMLD launches: close but no cigar

5AMLD

The EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) came into force last week, on 10 January 2020. It was partly a response to the Panama Papers, a leak of thousands of documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca which revealed the extent to which the true beneficial owners of companies can be concealed behind a complex … Continue reading 5AMLD launches: close but no cigar

It’s official: EU Company Registers to go open data (subject to…)

Great news: last week, the Council of Europe approved the "Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information" (press release). This was the last opportunity for the directive to be rejected or changed, and it will go into force 20 days after the directive is published in the EU Official Journal (probably … Continue reading It’s official: EU Company Registers to go open data (subject to…)

Access to EU company data is very poor, Neelie

Two months ago, OpenCorporates published our ground-breaking report on access to company data in Open Government Partnership countries. The results were not good, with an average score of just 21 out of 100. Following this, Neelie Kroes, the EU Vice-President in charge the Digital Agenda, including open data, tweeted about the report, noting that the 15 … Continue reading Access to EU company data is very poor, Neelie