Drupal is a free and open source content-management framework that can be customised and is suitable for developing simple websites or complex web applications. In the 3-day event (25-27 September 2024), the Drupal community gathered in Barcelona (Spain) to share best practices and to discover how this open source web application is used all around the globe.
The European Commission was represented in the conference by showcasing the work on promoting open source at European Union (EU) level. In particular, an initiative approved by the EU Parliament in 2021 and called FOSSEPS (Free and Open Source Software for European Public Services). Among its many objectives, FOSSEPS aims to create a first version of a European Catalogue of Open Source Solutions (OSS Catalogue), facilitating public services to share and reuse software made by other public services. The catalogue will be published in the Interoperable Europe Portal on 2025, because of the strong commitment of the Portal to the reuse of solutions, as well as to promoting open source In the EU.
The Interoperable Europe Portal was one of the first EU Commission sites to use Drupal 10 in 2023
The European Commission's Journey with Drupal and the Interoperable Europe Portal
The presentation was divided in three parts, highlighting 1) the Commission's journey on open source; 2) the link of the Interoperable Europe Portal to open source and Drupal, and 3) the demo of the upcoming Open Source Solutions Catalogue (OSS Catalogue), to be hosted on the Portal.
Miguel Diez Blanco (Team Lead for Interoperability Enablers at European Commission – Directorate General for Digital Services) intervened first by introducing the Commision’s journey on open source. A journey that started in the 2000s and that is ongoing, as demonstrated by the EC Open Source Strategy 2020-2023. Key actions of this strategy are the setting up of an Open Source Programme Office or promoting open source as default.
The second intervention by Marta Puente Carmona (Interoperable Europe Portal’s Team Member) focused on showcasing the Interoperable Europe Portal and how it will support the future European Catalogue of Open Source Solutions (OSS Catalogue). The presentation included a brief demo of the upcoming catalogue in the platform and the links between interoperability and open source.
Lastly, Claudiu Cristea, Drupal Tech Lead and co-founder of Drupal Romania Association, deep dived into the architecture of the OSS Catalogue and how it relies on the Drupal plugin system to fetch data from Member States’ open source catalogues.
If you have any question on the event, the Commission’s role in promoting open source, the OSS Catalogue to be hosted on the Portal, etc., you are more than welcome to write them in a comment below!