ECOMET is the economic interest grouping of the national meteorological services in Europe. The aim of ECOMET is the free and unrestricted exchange of meteorological data between the national weather services. ECOMET also promotes the availability of meteorological basis data for commercial purposes.
The creation of meteorological data is coordinated on a Europe-wide as well as worldwide scale. In order to guarantee access to data for commercial purposes, meteorological services also sell each other's data. Since the meteorological services have differing tariff rules, it falls to ECOMET to regulate and organise the distribution of the income that is generated.
The meteorological basis data that is available for commercial purposes are listed in the ECOMET catalogue. ECOMET has also created a legal framework which establishes the same conditions for both the private and public sectors with regard to the exchange of meteorological data. Since ECOMET was founded, the amount and variety of available data and products has grown substantially, and at the same time, the prices of these have dropped.
ECOMET was founded in 1995 and is based in Brussels. It was preceded by the creation of a common market for meteorological data in the EU. There are currently 27 members of ECOMET, Switzerland having joined in 2000.