Recital 15

To simplify the business-to-government data sharing framework under Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 and to clarify ambiguities that previously imposed broader obligations on businesses, it is necessary to narrow the scope of Chapter V of that Regulation from ‘exceptional need’ to ‘public emergencies’. The concept of ‘public emergencies’, which is defined under Article 2(29) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, ensures that the obligations laid down in that Chapter are invoked only in well-defined, urgent situations, which are unforeseeable and limited in time, reducing the technical, administrative and legal challenges that businesses faced under the previous regime. This would ensure that data requests are relevant and proportionate to responding, or supporting the recovery from public emergencies. While ‘responding to’ a public emergency presupposes an ongoing public emergency, which has been determined or officially declared in accordance with the relevant procedures under Union or national law, ‘supporting the recovery from’ a public emergency covers measures undertaken after the public emergency has been determined or officially declared over. The third alternative of ‘mitigating’ a public emergency under Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 should be deleted because it is already covered by the notion of ‘responding to’ public emergencies. Given that the scope of Chapter V is narrowed substantially and to simplify the request mechanism, a body requesting data to ‘support the recovery from’ a public emergency should not be obligated anymore to exhaust all other means at its disposal to obtain such data before launching the request, such as purchasing the non-personal data on the market by offering market rates. Instead, it should be sufficient that the requesting body was unable to otherwise obtain the data in a timely and effective manner and under equivalent conditions. Since the updated Union framework on European statistics under Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council¹¹ does not address public emergencies, it is essential to preserve the role of official statistics under Chapter V of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 to ensure clarity and effectiveness when the production of official statistics is required to respond to or support the recovery from a public emergency. It is also necessary to clarify the compensation regime for situations where microenterprises and small enterprises are required to provide data to respond to a public emergency, in which case such enterprises are allowed to claim compensation.