The European Commission will spend EUR 189 million on proprietary software over the next six years, in direct contradiction to its own decisions and guidelines. The Commission last week announced a six-year framework contract to acquire a wide range of mostly proprietary software and related services.

Free Software industry criticises remarks by Commission's Vice President Siim Kallas: The European Commission (EC) has given in to the demands of lobbyists for Microsoft and SAP when it revised a key document on interoperability between electronic government services.

The final version of the Procurement and Open Source Software Guideline has been published on OSOR.eu. The study, commissioned by the European Commission as part of the "Dissemination of good practice in Open Source Software (GPOSS)" measure under the IDABC programme, gives guidelines for public administration on how and why publicly acquire open source software.

Neelie Kroes is no lightweight when it comes to open v. closed software. She spent six years as Europe's head trust-buster, and in that time, collected billions from proprietary software makers who sought to corner the market with their closed-source wares. When she spoke, big software — and everybody else — listened. In February, Ms.

One of the most surprising recent developments in the field of openness has been the rise of Europe as a key player there. This is not the result of some grand plan, despite what the conspiracy theorists in proprietary software companies might think, but simply a natural evolution of the European Union itself, and a consequence of its attempts to become more tightly integrated.

The hidden exit costs imposed by a previous software acquisition are a major reason for public administrations to tender software by naming brand names or specific products, which may be illegal, says a draft report by the European Commission's Open Source Observatory and Repository project (OSOR).

The campaign herein asks you to do 3 (three) actions :

1. sign the campaign herebelow for open standards by answering the IDABC request for comment before September 15, 2007
2. answer the request for comment of the European Commission request for comments on its websites, on CampaignECwebsites
3. ask your friends to do the same.

Should European governments favor open-source software when they hold tenders for public contracts? Economists and policy-makers appear to think so, but industry giants, including Microsoft Corp., argue that this would be discriminatory and are considering legal action to prevent this from happening.

"At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs. OpenForum Europe, The European Software Market Association, and the Free Software Foundation Europe today launched a petition to call on the EP to use Open Standards so that all citizens can participate in the democratic process. [...] The signatories are encouraging citizens and other stakeholder groups to publicly support the objectives of the petition by signing up on www.openparliament.eu ..."