eGA’s scoping missions assess readiness for the Data Governance Act

Experts from the e-Governance Academy (eGA) recently carried out scoping missions in Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany and Estonia as part of the ImplementDGA project. Through interviews with around 60 public institutions, our team assessed institutional readiness, identified implementation challenges and analysed the legal and strategic environment for applying the EU Data Governance Act.

The missions focused on one of the key questions facing public authorities across Europe: how to make protected public sector data available for re-use securely. Public institutions hold vast amounts of data that could help improve public services, support evidence-based policymaking and enable new research and innovation. However, much of this information remains difficult to access and re-use because it contains confidential, commercially sensitive or personal data that requires strong safeguards.

The European Union’s Data Governance Act (DGA) aims to address this challenge by creating a common framework for the secure re-use of protected public sector data.

According to Priit Vinkel, Senior Expert at the e-Governance Academy, one of the key observations from the missions was that technology is not the main barrier to implementing the DGA.

“Many of the necessary technical solutions, like secure processing environments and data-sharing platforms, already exist,” he added.

“The greater challenge is ensuring that data can be discovered, understood and re-used through clear metadata, well-defined processes and effective coordination between organisations,” he said.

Building on these findings, our team will develop practical recommendations to support national statistical institutes in Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany and Estonia in implementing the DGA more consistently and enabling the secure re-use of protected public sector data across Europe.

By strengthening these foundations, the project contributes to the broader objective of the European Data Strategy: making more high-value public sector data available for research, innovation and better public services, while ensuring that sensitive information remains protected.

The scoping missions were carried out as part of the ImplementDGA project, funded by the European Union through the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by the e-Governance Academy in cooperation with the European Commission.