The EU and US statistical data are already available as open data, they are not always optimized for an emerging wave of data scientists and re-users who interact with data in a different way than researchers in the past.

The European Commission’s Eurostat and the US Department of Commerce are working on making possible a joint re-use of data provided by the EU administration on the one side and the US administration on the other side.

The project has identified datasets that may be enhanced by ensuring that both EU and US data are comparable (e.g. economic indicators by industry). In addition, mapping of concepts behind EU and US datasets will be carried out to allow data users to better understand the available datasets. A newly created library in the R programming language, available online to every user in the world, will work as an API enabling the joint access to the EU and US open data. The project will also search for feedback and look at the needs of re-users to ensure a better usability of open data originating from the EU and the US.

More information to be soon published on the European Commission and US government dedicated blogs ( European Digital Single Market blog and the USG Commerce blog ).

Featured image: José Martín