Ensuring Utmost Transparency: Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament

Carlo Piana, Founder ofArray, Ulf Oberg, Oberg & Associes, and Douwe Korff, Associate of the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford

12/17/2014
(Original Publish Date: 12/11/2014)

Do public bodies in Europe have an obligation to move from closed source and lock-in to vendor independence and free software? In general probably yes, but is it also true for the European Parliament? Definitely! This is the stark conclusion of the study "Ensuring utmost transparency - Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament" by Carlo Piana and Ulf Oberg. It is clear, the study says, that the Parliament has imposed upon itself a commitment to conduct its activities with the utmost transparency. This commitment follows from the legal standing of the Rules of Procedure, and, when analysed by Piana and Oberg, it turns out the European Parliament's standard of openness is higher than that of other EU institutions. This fact has consequences.