Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive entered into force on the 15th May 2007.

The OneGeology-Europe project develops an integrated system of data to create and make accessible for the first time through the internet the geological map of the whole of Europe. The elaboration of several data sets owned by the national European geological survey is carried out in accordance with the requirements of INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe), the recent European Directive which sets guidelines for the elaboration of territorial data. Since geological data are elaborated differently from country to country, they are difficult to share. OneGeology-Europe, while providing more detailed and complete information, will foster even beyond the geological community an easier exchange of data within Europe and globally.

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.® (OGC) is a non-profit, international, voluntary consensus standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location based services.