The European Union has defined in 2010, in response to the economic crises, its new strategy “Europe 2020”. Europe 2020 is a 10-year strategy that aims at "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth" with greater coordination of national and European policy. The European Commission calls Europe 2020 its growth strategy for the coming decade. It should turn the EU into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. These three mutually reinforcing priorities should help the EU and the Member States deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. Europe 2020's priorities are addressed by 7 flagship initiatives in order to boost growth and jobs. One of these flagship initiatives is the “Digital Agenda”, the strategy for the development of research and innovation. The overall aim of the Digital Agenda is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra fast Internet and interoperable applications. The implementation of these policies is supported by a financial framework of the European Union during the financial period 2014 to 2020. The financial framework is realized in a variety of financing programs such as Horizon2020, which will finance research and development in Europe starting from 2014. The overall objective of research financing is to secure Europe's global competitiveness by investing in innovation. It seems however that spatial data are not considered in such financing programs. The presentation will demonstrate that on the other hand, spatial data are regarded as an important element for European Policy as enabler of many new business opportunities, for example in mobile communications, where “location” plays a growing role. This is also demonstrated by new European initiatives such as the location framework. Other applications that receive much financing from the European Union and that need spatial data can be found in the area of environment, agriculture, space and others. Open data also becomes more important in Europe. Special emphasis of the presentation will be laid upon opportunities for the region of South-East Europe and the building of spatial data infrastructures that allow wide access to and use of data.