The EU's central point of access to open data — covering DCAT-AP metadata standards, FAIR principles, the legal framework from 2003 to 2025, and the European Open Data Space.
🇪🇺 Publications Office of the EU🗂️ DCAT-AP · RDF · FAIR🌐 24 EU Languages
24EU Languages
2003First PSI Directive
2021Portal Consolidation
9HVD SPARQL Queries
FAIRQuality Framework
The Portal
A metadata catalogue and central access point, managed by the Publications Office of the EU.
A well-informed EU, empowered by timely and effective access to trustworthy information and knowledge and benefiting from all the opportunities this brings to society and the economy.
The European Data Portal (data.europa.eu) aggregates metadata from international, EU, national, regional, local and geodata portals. In 2021 it consolidated the former European Data Portal (data from EU Member States) and the EU Open Data Portal (data from EU institutions) into a single portal funded by the EU and managed operationally by the Publications Office of the European Union.
The portal is a metadata catalogue, not a data host. It uses DCAT-AP, an RDF-based application profile, to ensure cross-border comparability. All metadata is translated into all 24 EU official languages via eTranslation.
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Data Providers
Official representatives from supranational, national, and local public administration who publish metadata on the portal autonomously.
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Data Users
NGOs, businesses, academics, students, and the public who access and consume data for any purpose.
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Data Literacy
Training and resources to build the ability to read, understand, create, and communicate data as information.
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Interoperability
DCAT-AP and the European Open Data Space enable cross-border discoverability and reuse of public data.
Legal Framework: 2003 – 2025
Two decades of EU open data legislation, from the original PSI Directive to the High-Value Dataset reporting exercise.
2003
Directive 2003/98/EC — PSI Directive
Established the legal basis for re-use of public sector information. Foundation of EU open data policy.
2011
Commission Decision 2011/833/EU
Established the basis for the former EU Open Data Portal, operated by the Publications Office (2012–2021).
2013
Directive 2013/37/EU
Amended the PSI Directive, expanding its scope and strengthening re-use obligations.
2019
Directive 2019/1024 — Open Data Directive
Recasts previous PSI Directives. Sets minimum requirements for accessibility of public data; introduces high-value datasets.
2020
European Data Strategy (COM/2020/66)
Aims to create a single market for data for businesses, researchers, and public administrations.
2022
Data Governance Act (EU) 2022/868
Framework for voluntary data sharing beyond open data. Entered into force 2023.
2024
Regulation 2023/138 — High-Value Datasets
Mandates open publication of datasets with high economic and societal impact potential. Entry into force 2024; first reporting in 2025.
Portal Services
Tools, resources, and services provided by or accessible through data.europa.eu.
🗂️ DCAT-AP Metadata Catalogue
RDF-based metadata standard ensuring cross-border comparability of published datasets across all member state portals.
Metadata Standard
🌐 eTranslation
Machine translation of metadata descriptions into all 24 official EU languages, powered by the EC's eTranslation service.
Multilingual
📊 FAIR Quality Dashboard
Assesses metadata quality against FAIR indicators (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) with actionable feedback.
Guides data providers and users through open data licence selection and compatibility.
Legal Tool
📈 Open Data Maturity Report
Annual study assessing the state of open data across EU Member States alongside the Economic Impact of Open Data study.
Research
HVD SPARQL Query Service
The European Data Portal exposes its full metadata catalogue — including all harvested High-Value Datasets — via a Virtuoso-powered SPARQL 1.1 endpoint. Because the portal actively harvests Member State endpoints, the query service always reflects the most recent state of affairs.
The portal harvests actively the Member State endpoints — it shows the most recent state of affairs. The following queries allow a snapshot of the data to be downloaded from the European Data Portal SPARQL endpoint.
Builds a full RDF snapshot of a Member State HVD catalogue. Replace <?MScat?> with the catalogue URI. Covers datasets, distributions, data services (APIs), and their properties via four UNION branches. Pagination required.
Looks up the Member State catalogue URI needed as the <?MScat?> parameter in other queries. Returns all catalogues containing at least one HVD resource.
select distinct ?c where {
?s <http://data.europa.eu/r5r/applicableLegislation>
<http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/138/oj>.
?c a <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#Catalog>.
?c ?p ?s.
} group by ?c
📋 Query 3 — HVD Datasets per Catalogue (with original IDs)SELECT
Returns EDP dataset identifiers and original source identifiers (from dct:identifier on the catalogue record) so Member States can cross-check against their own registries. The EDP harmonises identifiers during harvesting.
Returns mandatory DCAT-AP for HVD metadata: title, description, and HVD category. English language filter applied. Note: results may reflect eTranslation machine-translated text.
Returns all distributions per HVD dataset including access URLs. One dataset may have multiple distributions. HVDs are subject to bulk download obligations under the HVD IR.
🔌 Queries 6 & 7 — HVD APIsSELECT
APIs are a primary HVD IR obligation. DCAT-AP supports two association patterns — via dcat:distribution / dcat:accessService and via dcat:servesDataset — and both are queried via UNION. Query 7 extends Query 6 with title, description, HVD category, endpoint URL, and endpoint description.
Query 8 retrieves access rights, licences, and rights for all APIs. Query 9 (sub-queries 9.1–9.3) assesses licence permissiveness using SKOS exactMatch, narrowMatch, and broadMatch against the EU Vocabularies name authority list — enabling automated CC-BY 4.0 compliance checks. Three sub-queries cover API licences (9.1), distribution licences (9.2), and all licences per catalogue (9.3).
How to Publish Data on the Portal
Five steps to become a data provider on data.europa.eu.
Structure your dataset metadata according to DCAT-AP. Ensure descriptions, keywords, licences, and contact information are complete in at least one EU language.
Apply a recognised open licence (e.g. Creative Commons, CC0). Use the Licensing Assistant to identify the right licence for your use case and verify compatibility.
Use the FAIR Metadata Quality Dashboard to check your datasets against FAIR indicators. Address any findability, accessibility, interoperability, or reusability gaps.
Keep metadata current. Monitor the quality dashboard regularly, respond to feedback, and stay aligned with evolving DCAT-AP requirements and high-value dataset obligations.
Frequently Asked Questions
data.europa.eu is the EU's central point of access to open data from international, EU, national, regional, local and geodata portals. In 2021 it consolidated the former European Data Portal (EU Member State data) and the EU Open Data Portal (EU institution data) into a single portal managed by the Publications Office of the EU.
DCAT-AP is the Application Profile for Data Portals in Europe — an RDF-based metadata standard. The portal uses it to ensure cross-border comparability of datasets and to facilitate interoperability across national, regional, and local portals. It is the lingua franca of European open data metadata.
Data providers are official representatives from supranational, national, and local public administration — EU institutions, EU agencies, European countries, and research projects. They are autonomous in publishing their metadata. The portal is updated whenever new datasets and content are available from registered sources.
FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The portal's Metadata Quality Assessment Dashboard evaluates datasets against FAIR indicators, helping data providers identify and fix gaps in their metadata quality.
High-value datasets are defined under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/138 as datasets with high potential for economic and societal impact. EU Member States were required to make these available from 2024, with the first reporting exercise in 2025.
The portal provides translations of metadata descriptions in all 24 official EU languages using eTranslation, the European Commission's machine translation service. In some situations, machine-based translation may not be as efficient as human translation.