The Repository will further extend the Commission’s existing IDABC Open Source Observatory. The main innovation will be the creation of a repository of source and object code, and information on the use of applications, licences and contract material. By enabling European administrations to store and share the software code of their open source applications centrally, and to exchange open source knowledge, it aims to improve the return on investment in open source projects and to make applications more interoperable.

The resource is aimed purely at the public sector, and the Commission believes it will be successful because of the large number of similar projects being conducted by local and national governmental organisations across the European Union. Karel De Vriendt, head of the EU's e-Government services unit and one of the driving forces behind the project, said: "The new OSOR should become the preferred co-operation tool to speed up software pooling among Member States."

OSOR will be run under contract to the Commission by Unisys, the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, Belgium-based consultants GOPA Cartermill and Spain's Rey Juan Carlos University. The format of OSOR will be decided this year and it will be operational from late next year.