The Directorate General for Innovation and Technological Support of the European Parliament (EP) is to produce a report on the EP's free and open source software programmes. MEP Bart Staes (Group of the Green and European Free Alliance) said on 10 May 2012 that this is a requirement for the discharge of the EP's 2010 budget committee.

In his request, Staes writes that he "expects a full report on the parliament's free software projects". The MEP also wants the EP's IT department to check if its software choices reflect the Parliament's obligation to conduct its activities with the utmost transparency.

Looking not just at its own implementations of open source, the EP adopted on 20 April 2012 a resolution on eGovernment, which welcomes the European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015, the European Interoperability Strategy (EIS) and the European Interoperability Framework (EIF).

The EIS provides a basis for the organisational, financial and operational support of interoperability of Europe's eGovernment services. The EIF provides guidance on the design and requirements of interoperability. One of the recommendations is that public administrations share and re-use software solutions.

In their resolution the EP calls on the Member States to rapidly align their strategies with the EIS and EIF. The parliamentarians also ask the EU member states and the EC to make available their publicly funded data in machine-readable form "under open licences".

The resolution moreover calls on the EU member states to develop "open educational software". The MEPs want the member states to "exchange best practices, and to develop online platforms for collaboration on educational materials and resources that are free for students and take due account of data protection and copyright rules." 

Further Information: 

• Original news article - Joinup
• European Parliament decision of 10 May 2012
• European Parliament resolution of 20 April 2012 on a competitive digital single market - eGovernment as a spearhead
• 2010 Budget Discharge - European Parliament
• Related Joinup news article - EU: 'European Parliament should adopt Open Source and Standards'