COMMISSION DECISION

of 28 October 2016

regarding the free software licensing (European Union Public License) of SyRIO — System for Reporting the Incidents in Offshore Oil and Gas Operations

(2016/C 420/02)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to the Decision of the Commission of 19 September 2001 (PV1536) conferring to the Directors General and Heads of Services the power to decide on the need to file an application for protection of intellectual property rights resulting from the activities or programmes for which they are responsible, the granting of licences related thereto, the acquisition, transfer or surrender or abandoning of rights, and to the Directors General the power of administrative execution related thereto,

Whereas:

(1) The Directorate General for the Joint Research Centre, within the framework of the Administrative Arrangement with the Directorate General for Energy (DG Energy), has developed a software to be used by the Competent Authorities of Member States as part of their compliance with the regulatory functions under Directive 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(1) (the Offshore Safety Directive);

(2) The Competent Authorities of Member States should use the software to report to the European Commission information about incidents and accidents linked to offshore oil and gas installations, relevant to health, safety or environmental protection. For that purpose, as well as for assisting the sourcing and analysis of the information, the Competent Authorities should make the software available for use by the operators engaging in offshore oil and gas activities within their jurisdiction, via an internet based reporting platform;

(3) The software functions in accordance with the templates provided by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1112/2014(2);

(4) Extended use of the software could benefit the worldwide harmonisation of the format for reporting of accidents, thus leading to further improvements in the safety levels in the offshore oil and gas industry. Therefore, the software could be made available to the Competent Authorities of third countries having offshore oil and gas activities within their jurisdiction;

(5) DG Energy, as DG responsible for the development and maintenance of the software and – at the same time – entrusted service for the administrative execution of decisions in the field of Intellectual Property, considers the free licensing of the software appropriate, beneficial and opportune;

(6) Release of the software under the European Union Public License(3) (EUPL) would facilitate distribution and promotion of the use of the software and avoid its exclusive appropriation,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Non-exclusive free software licence (EUPL) terms may be applied for the distribution of the software with a view to enable its use, reproduction, development, and further distribution.

Article 2

This Decision will also apply to any future releases or new versions of the software.

Done at Brussels, 28 October 2016.

For the Commission

Dominique RISTORI

Director-General

(1)  Directive 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 on safety of offshore oil and gas operations and amending Directive 2004/35/EC (

OJ L 178, 28.6.2013, p. 66

)

(2)  Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1112/2014 of 13 October 2014 determining a common format for sharing of information on major hazard indicators by the operators and owners of offshore oil and gas installations and a common format for the publication of the information on major hazard indicators by the Member States (

OJ L 302, 22.10.2014, p. 1

)

(3)  https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/eupl/og_page/european-union-public-licence-eupl-v11