The EU Open Data Hub
A couple of weeks ago, the European Commission launched the EU Open Data Hub, currently in early beta. It currently contains 5815 datasets, most of which are from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
The EU Open Data Hub provides a SPARQL endpoint for access to linked data. It is a standard Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint, which means it can be used both from the browser, or from code, by providing the SPARQL query as query string in the request. An example query, tweeted by Kingsley Uyi Idehen, shows how you can get information about partner institutions in the EU FP7 Programme projects, and group them by country. The result in HTML can be seen here. Notice that the URL contains the SPARQL query and the answer format.
The Portal also provides a place for publishing Apps built on top of the Open Data from the Portal. At the moment there are only two Apps, which is expected, but the number should quickly rise, once the Portal is out of beta. After this initial public beta launch, the European Commission is seeking feedback from the Open Data community. If you have any suggestions or comments, head over to their website.