This corresponds to the European Union Public Licence (EUPL)
The EUPL implements a common legal framework for open source licensing in Europe, with official value in 23 European languages. The current EUPL-1.2 was published in the Official Journal in May 2017. The EUPL is, by default and when no other licence looks more appropriate, the licence applied to European Commission distributed software.
It will be proposed by all EU Member State public sector software repositories, without excluding other licences when more appropriate.
It is also used by private sector and for commercial projects.
It can be used outside Europe as well: as an OSI-approved licence, the EUPL is considered world-wide as a licence that is fully compliant with the Open Source Definition. The EUPL is also considered as a "free software" licence by the FSF.
Based on European law and terminology, the EUPL has other characteristics, that differentiate it from other open source licences:
- The EUPL covers “communication to the public” (including SaaS – software as a service, for example e-Government solutions distributed through internet).
- The EUPL defines the applicable law (of the Member State of the Licensor) and venue.
- The EUPL has a realistic approach of warranty and liability (for acceptance in European case law).
- The EUPL is based on legal principles, not on fighting against specific business practices (therefore, it is more comprehensive and relatively short).
- The EUPL is neutral in its approach of intellectual property rights and patents, as long it may be compatible with open source distribution.
- The EUPL is interoperable (no restrictions or conditions to linking, according to the EU law).
- The EUPL includes a DCO (Developer Certificate of Origin) from the original licensor and from all contributors.
- The EUPL is "copyleft" regarding the original source code, but is also compatible (when distributing combined derivatives) with a range of other copyleft outbound licences: GPL, AGPL, MPL, OSL, EPL, LGPL etc.
The EUPL has specific Guidelines for users and developers