Green Renaissance Highlighted at INSPIRE Conference

Policy-makers and hands-on professionals from all over Europe and beyond gathered last week in Florence, Italy, to discuss developments related to INSPIRE. The yearly INSPIRE conference, this time with the theme 'The Green Renaissance' was held in the Firenze Fiera, Florence's convention centre, and started out with two days of workshops, ahead of the official start on 25 Tuesday 25 June.

The official start consisted of the plenary sessions in which Maria Betti, director with the EU, JRC-IES, Dr Francesco la Camera, director general of the Italian Ministry of Environment and Bernardo de Bernardinis, president of ISPRA welcomed the delegates and at the same time showed that INSPIRE is well underway, but still needs a lot of development.

Later on Hugo de Groof, INSPIRE policy officer with the European Union, stated that the "sharing in INSPIRE" is paying off in enhancing air- and water quality in Europe and therefore increasing quality of life for its citizens, really causing a Green Renaissance. The INSPIRE conference lasted until Thursday 27 June.