, research and development programmes, such as Info2000, 5th Framework Programme; - it is a market actor, making use of geographic information to plan and manage European policies: environment, transport, agriculture, fisheries, etc.; - it has a political
role, defining rules and regulations. It tries to organize the market, creating favourable conditions for a sustainable market growth. The main political initiatives are the Green Paper on access to public data and GI2000, which proposes to develop