FSFE in battle for European interoperability
FSFE has unleashed an advocacy push in order to prevent the European Commission from hollowing out an important European reference document on interoperability. A draft for a new version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) leaked to the press last week.
Where the current version strongly encourages the public sector to use Free Software and Open Standards, the draft threatens to replace this with meaningless statements which leave the European public sector at the mercy of proprietary software vendors.
As the EC was gathering comments from Member States, FSFE contacted senior government staff across Europe, emphasising the danger posed by the new text and asking them to reject the draft. FSFE's President Karsten Gerloff explained the importance of the document, the problems in the draft, and the total failure of transparency in the processes which led up to the current text.
Karsten Gerloff says: "FSFE will keep its eye on the ball as the situation develops over the coming days and weeks. With the help of our friends and supporters, we will work hard to fight off the current threat to interoperability in the public sector. We will seek the best possible result through constructive dialogue with Member States and the European Commission."