The Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament want to find out for once and for all if the use of free and open source software is essential for the democratic institution. The political group is asking for comments on a study linking the use of free software to the European Parliament’s principles of openness and right to information.

The rules of the European Parliament suggest that the institute should be using open source software and open standards, the Greens/EFA argue. They write that the EP has a special burden to avoid being locked in to technology. This is because IT vendor lock-in places budgetary and time restrictions on decision makers. They are not free to choose what is best.

The best way to avoid IT vendor lock-in, the Green/EFA continue, is by using open standards and free software. “Free software enhances the anti-lock-in power of the user.”

Dictators

“Truly free software solutions are outside the control of the vendor”, their study argues. “The vendor can have a temporary control or even have a stronghold over one solution, but examples exist that when this control is too tight and against the interests of the community, the ability to ‘fork’ is an essential tool that exerts a constraint on any dictatorial vendor.”

The study “Ensuring utmost transparency -- Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament” is written by two lawyers experienced with free and open source, the Italian Carlo Piana and the Swedish Ulf Öberg. The paper is supervised by Douwe Korff, an associate of the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford.

“The EP has transparency as its core principal, and we argue that has implications for the way it runs its IT systems”, Carlo Piana comments. “The Parliament’s approach to IT solutions should be strategic, and embrace open standards and free software. But the conclusions of our study are still open.”

The European Parliament should use IT solutions guaranteed to be independent from IT vendors, the authors proclaim. Instead of making IT decisions based on cost, it should prefer technologies that allow others to work with it.

Request for Comment

The Greens/EFA decided to commission the study in May last year. They had twice earlier in vain requested the EP’s Secretary General to study how its rules relate to the use of free software.

The text is open for comments until the beginning of November. The study will be published on 15 November 2014.

More information:

Ensuring utmost transparency -- Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament