ACT No. VI of 2025 AN ACT to amend the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Act, BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

I assent.

(L.S.)

MYRIAM SPITERI DEBONO

President

11th March, 2025

ACT No. VI of 2025

AN ACT to amend the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Act,

BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament

assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

(1) The short title of this Act is the Re-Use of Public Sector Short title and

Information (Amendment) Act, 2025 and this Act shall be read and scope.

construed as one with the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Act, Cap. 546.

hereinafter referred to as the "principal Act".

(2) The scope of this Act is to continue transposing the provisions

of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector

information (recast) as well as to carry out other necessary

amendments.

In sub-article (2) of article 1 of the principal Act, immediately Amendment of

after the words "and the re-use of public sector information (recast)", article

principal Act.

there shall be added the words "and its subsequent implementing acts

as well as any other related Directives and Regulations".

Article 2 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows

Amendment of

article 2 of the

principal Act.

(a) immediately after the definition "application program

interface" there shall be added the following new definition

""Directive (EU) 2019/1024" means Directive (EU)

2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public

sector information (recast);";

(b) immediately after the definition "public undertaking"

there shall be added the following new definition

""reasonable return on investment" means a

percentage of the overall charge, in addition to that needed

to recover the eligible costs, not exceeding five percentage

(5%) points above the fixed interest rate of the European

Central Bank (ECB);";

(c) immediately after the definition "standard licence"

there shall be added the following new definition

""third party" means any natural or legal person other

than a public sector body or a public undertaking that holds

the data;".

Immediately after article 7 of the principal Act there shall be

added the following new article

In the case of documents held by public

"Documents held

undertakings, such public undertakings shall ensure that

where the re-use of such documents is allowed, the said

documents shall be re-usable for commercial or non-

commercial purposes in accordance with the conditions

established in this Act.".

5. Sub-article (2) of article 8A of the principal Act shall be

substituted by the following new sub-article

"(2) Publicly funded research data shall be made openly

available, following the principle of open by default and the

FAIR principles.".

6. Immediately after sub-article (1) of article 13 of the principal

Act there shall be added the following new sub-article as follows

"(1a) Public sector bodies and public undertakings are

encouraged to, where possible, produce and make available

documents openly as established in this Act in accordance with

the principle of open by design and by default as referred to in

Directive (EU) 2019/1024.".

7. Paragraph (a) of sub-article (2) of article 15 of the principal Amendment of

article 15 of the

Act shall be substituted by the following new paragraph

principal Act.

"(a) public sector bodies that are required to generate

revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the

performance of their public tasks and a list of such bodies shall

be published online;".

Article 18 of the principal Act shall be substituted by the Substitution of

article 18 of the

following new article

principal Act.

(1)

The Minister shall

"Practical

arrangements.

(a) make

practical

arrangements

facilitating the search for documents available for

re-use, such as asset lists of main documents with

relevant metadata, accessible online where

possible and appropriate and in machine-readable

format, and portal sites that are linked to the asset

lists;

(b) where possible, facilitate the cross-

linguistic search for documents; and

(c) continue efforts to simplify access to

datasets, by providing a single point of access and

making available suitable datasets held by public

sector bodies with regard to documents to which

this Act applies, in formats that are accessible,

readily findable and re-usable by electronic

means.

(2) Public sector bodies are encouraged to make

practical arrangements to facilitate the preservation of

documents available for re-use.".

9. In sub-article (2) of article 19 of the principal Act the words Amendment of

"be transparent and made public" shall be substituted by the words "be article

principal Act.

transparent and made publicly available online".

10. Immediately after article 25 of the principal Act there shall be Addition of new

article to the

added the following new article

principal Act.

The Minister shall have the power to issue

"National policies

and, or relevant

directives or rules in order to adopt national policies

and, or relevant actions with the scope of

(a) encouraging public sector bodies to

facilitate the preservation of documents available

for re-use;

(b) encouraging where possible, public

sector bodies and public undertakings to produce

and make available documents openly established

in this Act in accordance with the principle of

open by design and by default as referred to in

Directive (EU) 2019/1024;

(c) making publicly funded research data

openly available, following the principle of open

by default and the FAIR principles.".

Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 319 of the 6th

March, 2025.

ANĠLU FARRUGIA

Speaker

ELEANOR SCERRI

Clerk of the House of Representatives

€0.54