Traditionally, Geographic Information grew and developed as a support tool for a quite limited number of operators in fields such as military expansion, navigation, diffusion of trades in faraway countries, or colonisation.

In the context of the modern Information Society, Public Administration and Utilities need detailed and updated geographic data to manage the territory, technological networks, and the Land Register. Increasingly, they have to interact with citizens on these themes through the Internet. At the same time, many Public Administrations at regional, national and European levels need geographical databases, updated in a timely fashion, in order both to monitor the evolution of environmental phenomena, and to enable applications concerned with economic and social development in the European context.

Additionally, geographic base data is essential for a growing number of private companies (from support to logistics to market analysis, etc.), as well as for the general public, considering that the use of the Internet (or satellite-supported) services is growing rapidly. These services require the use of geographic data, ranging from a search for a house to purchase or for a holiday location, to in-car navigation services.

In Europe, a valuable patrimony of geographic data in digital format does exist, although with remarkable differences among the countries, and often within the countries themselves; there is evidence that, in many cases, these data are not easily available or not accessible at low cost, with differences in the data organisation and even semantic differences, and that makes it difficult to use them at a European scale. In addition, the updating levels are often not fit for most of the services and uses on the web.

Many European countries are investing in the adaptation of geographic databases, but only in a few cases does there seem to be the awareness of the added value - in terms of development of the private sector and of new jobs connected with the services which use geographic information - of a common infrastructure of geographic data at the European level.

The basic aim of the ETeMII project is so simple that it appears difficult to concretely realise to many traditional operators in the GI field:

• to find consensus on the realisation of a common infrastructure of geographic data at a European level (ESDI), with a view to meeting the greatest part of the exigencies posed by the most diffuse applications of interest for the private and public operators.

That means to exploit the existent patrimony of geographic data, though letting it evolve consistently with the exigencies of the Information Society, and that requires:

• the definition of reference data for some priority set of data - geodetic reference system, orthophotographic support, main topographic layers (road and hydrographic networks, buildings, administrative boundaries, etc.), address database and cadastral data (parcel identifiers) - which are needed for most applications.
• the definition, for these reference data, of the compliant data models and the conditions for their interoperability; that is, what geographic data is needed in order to be used via the Internet, and as part of specific applications which must integrate the reference data into specific geographic and non-geographic databases;
• to ensure the accessibility, management and continuous updating of the data, beginning with the data of local interest, which represent the majority of the applications; that involves solving demanding organisational problems and adopting solutions which allow the availability of the data at low cost.
the availability of the necessary metadata, in a short time with a view to using different existent databases; in the medium term, to document the updating and the quality of the data, and to support the solution of more complex problems of a semantic nature (beginning with the different meaning of words apparently similar in different languages).

One of the objectives of general interest is to avoid "repeating" many times the public and private investments on the same reference data, realising only once the necessary investment, and guaranteeing the updating and the quality of that data.

It should be stressed that ETeMII is specifically addressing the first of the above issues, i.e. definition of reference data, while taking into consideration its impact and relationship with the remaining three issues.

The way to reach these objectives has been discussed, pointing out some intermediary results: while a two year period can be foreseen as necessary to define the structure of the reference data for the ESDI, it will take 4 to 8 years in the individual countries (considering the different situations) to realise the corresponding databases; however, in 3-4 years the equivalent of the topographic bases at a scale of 1:10,000 for the enlarged European Union could be made available - derived from existing databases but correspondent to a unique data structure. From this, the databases at "minor scale" (1:50,000, etc.) could be derived and kept updated.

Also at the global level, a process of convergence on these themes does exist; the definition of common positions at the European level could well encourage and accelerate such a process.

At any rate, the implementation of the ESDI presents several difficulties to overcome. The overall investment is relatively limited, but it is necessary to create a convergence among the investments made in every country by Local Governments, by the regional level and by the national one; the indispensable cooperation in every country between the Local and regional Governments and the National Mapping Agencies is still - in many countries - an objective or a result to consolidate. The political investment on GI as an essential component of the Information Society is still lagging behind, even while offering the perspective of creating at least 500,000 new qualified jobs (only in the bigger European countries).

The ETeMII project has identified the field of intervention and the ground of the actions to be developed, and endeavoured to involve the main stakeholders in GI in the public and private sector in Europe. Other recent initiatives seem to be moving along the same lines, such as that of DG Environment of the European Commission.

The effort of the ETeMII project will be continued through initiatives and proper tools both for the concrete definition of the technical specifications and measures for the effective realisation of the ESDI. The European workshop held in Rome in October 2001, and the conclusive initiatives of the project represents the basis for further extending the consensus reached so far and for veryifying the conditions to develop subsequent initiatives.