= EU to fund Free Software code review =
[ Online lesen: https://fsfe.org/news/2014/news-20141219-01.de.html ]
The European Parliament has approved funding for several projects
related to Free Software and privacy. In the EU budget for 2015[1],
which the European Parliament adopted[2] on December 17, the
Parliamentarians have allocated up to one million Euro for a project to
audit Free Software programs in use at the Commission and the Parliament
in order to identify and fix security vulnerabilities.
Even though these institutions are tightly locked into non-free file
formats, much of their infrastructure is based on Free Software.
“This is a very welcome decision,” says FSFE's president Karsten
Gerloff. “Like most public bodies, the European institutions rely
heavily on Free Software for their daily operations. It is good to
see that the Parliament and the Commission will invest at least a
little in improving the quality and the programs they use.”
The European Commission's Directorate General for Informatics (DIGIT)
will be in charge of implementing the pilot. FSFE urges the Commission
to work closely with upstream developers. The EC should make the audit
results public as soon as possible, and contribute any improvements it
makes to the upstream projects.
The budget further lists a project to encrypt communications among the
EU institutions, funded with EUR 500,000; and a pilot that uses Free
Software and Open Standards to help civil society actors participate in
lawmaking, by improving AT4AM, the software that MEPs use for drafting
legislation, which the Parliament published as Free Software in 2013[3].
Another project is intended to enable the European Commission to make
unclassified documents publicly available by default.
“Taken together, these projects are a first step towards more
transparent policy making in Europe,” says Gerloff. “We will
continue to work with the Commission and the Parliament to help them
along the path of engaging more consistently and effectively with
the Free Software community.”
Media contact:
Karsten Gerloff
Mail: gerloff fsfe.org
tel.: +49 176 9690 4298
--
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1. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/budget/data/DB2/2015/en/SEC03.pdf
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20141027STO76315/ht…
3. http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/07/18/helping-the-european-parliament-to…
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/
= Study: To ensure transparency, European Parliament must adopt Free Software, Open Standards =
[ Online lesen: https://fsfe.org/news/2014/news-20141212-01.de.html ]
A study relesead on Friday says that the European Parliament must adopt
Free Software and Open Standards[1] in order to fulfil its transparency
obligations. The authors conclude that "the Rules of Procedure of the
European Parliament should whenever possible make Free Software and Open
Standards mandatory for all systems and data used for the work of
Parliament."
The study, entitled "Ensuring utmost transparency -- Free Software and
Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European
Parliament"[2], was prepared by two legal experts for the Greens/EFA[3]
in the European Parliament. Its authors, the legal experts Carlo Piana
(Italy) and Ulf Öberg (Sweden), argue that the Parliament is committed
to an even higher standard of openness than other EU institutions.
"This study sends a strong signal that Free Software and Open
Standards are essential for the European institutions to fulfil
their transparency obligations," says FSFE's president Karsten
Gerloff. "We call on the European Parliament to implement the
study's recommendations at all levels, and as quickly as possible,
in particular with regard to access and use of documents, email and
encryption, video streaming, and upcoming procurement decisions."
The study lists a number of concrete steps the European Parliament needs
to take in order to fulfil its transparency obligations:
- Immediate technical measures includes to enable access and use of
documents, email and encryption with and through Open Standards. In
other words, the European Parliament must make it possible to work
with ODF, IMAP and OpenPGP inside the Parliament. It must also ensure
that citizens can use these open standards to communicate with the
Parliament, regardless of the software platform they are using.
- When acquiring software and services, the European Parliament should
prefer Free Software based on Open Standards. This is not only allowed
by the EU's procurement rules, but actually "serves the general
economic interest of the EU".
- The European Parliament should continously check that its IT
infrastructure and services comply with the Constitutional Principle
of Openness and the Parliament's own Rules of Procedure to ensure the
utmost transparency.
FSFE and others have repeatedly criticised the Parliament for failing on
transparency. Currently, MEPs and parliamentary staff do not have access
to a standards-compliant email solution, and live video streams from the
Parliament are not accessible for Free Software users.
"The Parliament needs to open itself to the world," says Gerloff.
"Live video streams that allow all Europeans to follow the
Parliament's work are essential to democracy in the 21st century.
Encryption is a necessity to allow the citizens to talk to their
MEPs in confidence. Utmost transparency is one of the EU's
fundamental principles, and Europeans expect their Parliament to do
better in this regard."
The Greens/EFA are soliciting feedback[4] for a second edition of the
study.
Media contact:
Karsten Gerloff
Mail: gerloff fsfe.org
tel.: +49 176 9690 4298
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <https://fsfe.org>
FSFE News <https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss>
Upcoming FSFE Events <https://fsfe.org/events/events.en.rss>
Fellowship Blog Aggregation <https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml>
Free Software Discussions <https://fsfe.org/contact/community.en.html>
1. https://fsfe.org/activities/os/def.en.html
2. http://www.greens-efa.eu/fileadmin/dam/Documents/Studies/Ensuring-Utmost-Tr…
3. http://www.greens-efa.eu/free-software-and-open-standards-in-the-european-p…
4. http://euwiki.org/Ensuring_utmost_transparency_--_Free_Software_and_Open_St…
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org/