Next Monday, the European Parliament's budget committee will consider a proposal from the Green/EFA group to pilot the use of open source encryption software, to be used by parliament members and their staff. The Green/EFA group is also asking to trial the use of open standards and open source to make available the EP's data available in machine-readable format.
If approved by the Budget Committee, the pilots will be tabled in September for inclusion in the next EP budget.
MEPs Eva Lichtenberger and Carl Schlyter from the Green/EFA group are pushing the European Parliament's IT department to increasingly turn to free and open source software, and to rid itself of IT vendor lock-in. They point out that the Parliament's statutory requirements and demands for transparency and openness also apply to its ICT solutions and argue that, by switching to free and open source, the EP will retain ownership over its documents, data and digital infrastructure.
Create synergies
The two MEPs now want the EP to involve the Debian free software community to help MEPs try out open source encryption software. This will build on a current pilot organised internally by the Green/EFA group, where ten staff members are using Debian laptops for their daily task in the Parliament. Broadening this test, the Green/EFA group hopes, will lead to synergies with other European public administrations using these free software solutions. Switching to free and open source will also make it easier for the European Parliament to contribute to ICT innovations, Lichtenberger and Schlyter write in their proposal to the Budget Committee.
In their second proposal, on open data, the two explain that they want citizens to use the data to build tools that allow them to provide input to the Parliament, follow matters of concern, and use and build the same tools as their representatives. The MEPs write that such a pilot will increase the legitimacy of the EU. Open data and open source allow citizens to find better ways to communicate with elected officials and to inform themselves about the EU's legislative process.
The documents should be available on the website of the European Parliament Budget Committee soon.