Open letter to the members of the Council of States

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Open letter from the Parliamentary Group on Digital Sustainability and the Opendata.ch association to the members of the Council of States

7 December 2016

Do not write off Motion 12.3335 “Legal framework for free access to weather data (Open Government Data principle)”!

Dear Sir or Madam

As part of the 2017–2019 stabilisation programme, the Federal Council proposes to write off Motion 12.3335 for free and cost-free access to weather data. The Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA thereby wants to secure annual fee revenue of CHF 4 million.

At the request of National Councillor Christian Wasserfallen, the National Council rejected the writing-off of this motion on 30 November by 117 votes to 72. We welcome this clear decision by the National Council in favour of the Open Government Data principle and ask you to confirm this decision on 12 December 2016 in your deliberations on the stabilisation programme.

The following reasons speak in favour of rejecting the writing-off of Motion 12.3335:

  • Weather data are financed with taxpayers’ money – the current fees make taxpayers pay twice and create unnecessary administrative costs.
  • Fees above all prevent young start-ups from developing innovative business models using weather data.
  • The partial revision of the Federal Act on Meteorology and Climatology (MetG) required to abolish the fees has already been drafted and met with unanimous approval in the consultation (2015).

Yours faithfully

Edith Graf-Litscher
Co-President, Parliamentary Group on Digital Sustainability

André Golliez
President, Opendata.ch association