This paper reviews the ongoing governance efforts of the European Union and its National Member States to create a multinational infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community (INSPIRE)(Commission of the European Communities, 2007). In order to achieve this, it is necessary to establish a measure of governance between the users and providers of the information so that information and knowledge can be combined. The effective implementation of infrastructures for spatial information before 2021 requires governance by all those with an interest in the establishment of such infrastructures, whether as contributors or users. By governance we mean the structures, policies, actors and institutions by which INSPIRE is managed through decisions on accessing, sharing, exchanging and using the relevant available spatial information. Appropriate governance instruments (Verhoest and Bouckaert, 2005) which extend to the various levels of government and take account of the distribution of powers and responsibilities with the Member States should therefore be established (Masser and Crompvoets, 2015)

In this context, Member States must ensure that appropriate instruments and policy mechanisms are designated for governance, across the different levels of government, the contributions of all those actors and institutions with an interest in their infrastructures for spatial information. These governance instruments and policies will coordinate the contributions of, inter alia, users, producers, added-value service providers and coordinating bodies, concerning the identification of relevant data sets, user needs, the provision of information on existing practices and the provision of feedback on the implementation of the Directive. In turn, the European Commission will be responsible for governing INSPIRE at community level with the assistance of relevant organisations and such as by the European Environment Agency and Joint Research Centre. In order to strengthen the governance between the European and Member States levels, a contact point has to be established to be responsible for contacts in relation to this Directive. This contact point is supported by governance instruments and relevant policies taking account of the distributions of powers and responsibilities with the Member State (Commission of thee European Communities, 2007).

This paper systematically reviews the governance of INSPIRE at the European Commission as well as Member States levels based on the qualitative country reports. other implementation reports (Masser and Crompvoets, 2015), and the experiences of the INSPIRE Monitoring and Implementation groups and the Thematic Clusters. The review focuses on the different types of instruments used and how these instruments are used. The review outcomes could contribute to the creation of sustainable platforms that encourage different actors and institutions to participate, to discuss and argue various interests, and to strengthem the collaboration during policy making and implementation.