New EU Software Rules Give FOSS the Inside Track

“New public procurement rules for technology issued by the EU
encourages open specifications and open source software. Public
administrations may decide to use less open options if open
technologies don’t exist or don’t meet their functional
interoperability needs. However, critics say the rules should
include provisions for more funding for critical open source
projects.

“The European Union has announced public procurement rules for
technology that appear to favor open source.

“The European Interoperability Framework sets out
interoperability standards to create a trusted information exchange
between public administrations of member countries.

“The EIF encourages open specifications for the framework.

“Members of the Business Software Alliance, which offer
proprietary software, are apparently contesting this
provision.”

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