INSPIRE is an EU initiative to establish an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe that will help to make spatial or geographical information more accessible and interoperable for a wide range of purposes supporting sustainable development.

A key objective of INSPIRE is to make more and better spatial data available for Community policy-making and implementation of Community policies in the Member States at all levels. INSPIRE focuses on environmental policy but is open for use by and future extension to other sectors such as agriculture, transport and energy.

In July 2004 the EC released a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the Community - COM(2004) 516 final.

In March 2005, the Work programme 2005-2006 for the preparatory phase has been published. This document identifies the main issues to be addressed in the Preparatory Phase of INSPIRE in order to prepare the future implementation. It summarise the INSPIRE requirements, addresses the broader context and presents actions, procedures and cross references. It proposes an organisational structure and an overall process.

In November 2006, the European Parliament and the Council reached agreement on the INSPIRE directive. The joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee may be found here.

More complete and updated information may be found at the INSPIRE Website.