The EU adopts a weakened version of the INSPIRE Directive.

After a long period of negotiation, the European Parliament reached a compromise on the INSPIRE Directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe). One of the most difficult questions was, naturally, one of those on which the parties had to accept compromise: whether to require open access to publicly-funded geospatial data. The compromise, in the words of the EU President's office, is that geospatial data "designed for the general public" will "generally" be OA although government agencies may charge cost-recovery fees "for access to data that has to be updated frequently, such as weather reports". The new directive will take effect in the summer of 2007.

INSPIRE Directive
http://inspire.jrc.it/

Here's some of the news and comment:

Rufus Pollock, INSPIRE: Where Next? Open Knowledge Foundation Weblog, November 24, 2006.
http://blog.okfn.org/2006/11/24/inspire-where-next/

Michael Cross, Britain poised for victory in Brussels, The Guardian, November 24, 2006.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1954152,00.html
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_11_19_fosblogarchive.html#116439996881900118

Better geographical data: conciliation agreement on INSPIRE, a press release from the European Parliament, November 22, 2006.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/064-81-324-11-47-911-20061120IPR00064-20-11-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_11_19_fosblogarchive.html#116447123156022924

Anon., Inspire decision, Free Our Data: the blog, November 22, 2006.
http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=79
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_11_19_fosblogarchive.html#116439956278708122

European Parliament and Council reach agreement on spatial information directive, a press release from the office of Finland's EU Presidency.
http://www.eu2006.fi/news_and_documents/press_releases/vko47/en_GB/175161/
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_11_19_fosblogarchive.html#116421660650930807

Source: Peter Suber's newsletter
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/12-02-06.htm