Towards a European Spatial Metadata Infrastructure to Facilitate Land Use Planning

The development of the ‘information society’ has been one of the key priorities of the European Union (EU) in recent years. A European Commission White Paper, published in 1993, identified the emergence of an ‘information society’ as one of the main opportunities to create new jobs and strengthen the global competitiveness of Europe (European Commission, 1993). The responsibilities of the public sector to address the societal impacts of the transition towards an information-based society, include the alleviation of social exclusion and the promotion of policies towards education, training, ethical issues and the protection of privacy. The public sector is the largest producer of information. In each member state, this information is useful for internal policy-making, for administration and for the citizens involved, but also for the private sector to add value to and create new products (Madame, 2000).