Recital 24a

The consolidation of the rules should in particular maintain the principle that the rules under Section 3 of Chapter VIIc should not create an obligation to allow the re-use of certain categories of protected data held by public sector bodies. In particular, Member States should therefore be able to decide whether such protected data is made accessible for re-use, also in terms of the purposes and scope of such access. The rules under Chapter VIIc Section 3 should complement and be without prejudice to more specific obligations on public sector bodies to allow re-use of protected data laid down in sector-specific Union or national law. Public access to official documents may be considered to be in the public interest. Taking into account the role of public access to official documents and transparency in a democratic society, Chapter VIIc of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 should also be without prejudice to Union or national law on granting access to and disclosing official documents. Access to official documents may in particular be granted in accordance with national law without imposing specific conditions or by imposing specific conditions that are not provided by Chapter VIIc Section 3 of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854.

The re-use regime provided for under Section 3 of Chapter VIIc should apply to protected data the supply of which forms part of the public tasks of the public sector bodies concerned under law or other binding rules in the Member States. In the absence of such rules, the public tasks should be defined in accordance with common administrative practice in the Member States, provided that the scope of the public tasks is transparent and subject to review. The public tasks could be defined generally or on a case-by-case basis for individual public sector bodies. The protected data held by public undertakings should not be covered by Chapter VIIc Section 3 of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854. Protected data held by cultural establishments, such as libraries, archives and museums as well as orchestras, operas, ballets and theatres, and by educational establishments should not be covered by the rules under Section 3 of Chapter VIIc, since the works and other documents they hold are predominantly covered by third party intellectual property rights. Research-performing organisations and research-funding organisations could also be organised as public sector bodies or bodies governed by public law. The rules relating to protected data should apply to such hybrid organisations only in their capacity as research-performing organisations. If a research-performing organisation holds protected data as a part of a specific public-private association with private sector organisations or other public sector bodies, bodies governed by public law or hybrid research-performing organisations, i.e. organised as either public sector bodies or public undertakings, with the main purpose of pursuing research, those protected data should also not be covered by the rules governing the re-use of protected data. Where relevant, Member States should be able to apply the rules on protected data under Section 3 Chapter VIIc to public undertakings or private undertakings that exercise public sector duties or provide services of general interest. The exchange of protected data, purely in pursuit of their public tasks, among public sector bodies in the Union or between public sector bodies in the Union and public sector bodies in third countries or international organisations, as well as the exchange of protected data between researchers for non-commercial scientific research purposes, should not be subject to the provisions concerning the re-use of certain categories of protected data held by public sector bodies.