The OSOR team has published the new paper on progress and trends in national open source policies and legal frameworks. The paper analyses findings from 23 Open Source Software Country Intelligence Reports of which 19 were updates of existing reports and four were new, analysing Western Balkan countries. It examines open source adoption in European public administrations through legal frameworks, governance mechanisms, reuse initiatives, and cross-border collaboration.
The analysis shows that open source software is becoming increasingly mainstream in European digital policy. Most countries now have policies relating to open source, and digital strategies increasingly reference it as a strategic objective rather than merely a means to other ends. Multi-stakeholder governance models are emerging, with countries building partnerships between public administrations and civil society organisations.
The paper identifies that EU interoperability frameworks remain underused for strengthening cross-border collaboration. If implemented concisely in Member States it provides the opportunity to reduce duplication of efforts. Open data catalogues are already widespread, though the availability of code-sharing platforms is uneven among the countries examined, with some having up to six and others none.
This edition expands the geographic scope to include the Western Balkans for the first time, with new country reports on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia. The analysis examines how EU integration processes can shape open source adoption in candidate countries, highlighting the accession phase as an opportunity to embed open source into digital infrastructure from the outset.
The paper on progress and trends is available for is available for download from the OSOR Knowledge Centre.
