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The European Commission announced it would increase its own use of open source software for ICT projects: "For all new development, where deployment and usage is foreseen by parties outside of the Commission Infrastructure, Open Source Software will be the preferred development and deployment platform."

Valerie Rampie, spokesperson of Siim Kallas, the European commissioner on administrative affairs, declared for the IDABC open source observatory that the publication of the strategy is made "mainly for information purposes".

The new strategy paper of the Commission, that has been a supporter of open source software since 2000, explains that open-source software should be pursued provided it does not cost more and is in the best interest of European citizens.

The Commission decided that "for all future IT developments and procurement procedures, the Commission shall promote the use of products that support open, well-documented standards. Interoperability is a critical issue for the Commission, and usage of well-established open standards is a key factor to achieve and endorse it."

According to the Bloomberg News, the decision could be seen as a potential setback for Microsoft that "is trying to prevent an increasing number of defections by governments from its proprietary software toward software from open-source developers, who are allowed to modify the software source code, or underlying instructions."

But the open-source developers are more than happy with the result : "There is a growing pressure on the commission to promote open-source software," explained Carlo Piana, a lawyer for the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).

FSFE is also trying to convince other EU bodies to adopt open source software and open formats. In a public petition launched at the beginning of March 2008, FSFE has asked the European Parliament to practice what it preaches and to change its ICT system in order to allow the adoption of open standards.

EU: European Commission to increase its use of Open Source(11.03.2008)
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7403/469

EDRi-gram: European Parliament criticized for not using open standards (12.03.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.5/ep-open-standards

EU to consider buying open-source software (5.03.2008)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/05/business/open.php

Open Source Software within the European Commission - a co-ordinated strategy
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7389/5998