NGO will take EZD case to Supreme Administrative Court
The source code for software solutions developed for and owned by public administrations in Poland does not have to be made public under European rules on public sector information, a regional court in Warsaw (Poland) has ruled. The case was brought before the court last November by the ePaństwo Foundation, an NGO promoting open government, requesting the publication of the source code of the EZD document management system, which is owned by the public administration of the Podlachia region.
The Podlachia region makes its EZD application available for free to other public administrations. EZD is used by more than 200 organisations in the country.
The ePaństwo Foundation will appeal to the ruling, taking its case to Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court.
At a hearing on 23 May, the court in Warsaw sided with the regional government and Poland’s Ministry of Digitisation, saying that computer programmes are not covered by the European Public Sector Information directive (PSI Directive). “We are now waiting on the official, written ruling, to be able to file an appeal”, says Krzysztof Izdebski, Fundacja ePaństwo’s programme director.
Later this month, the NGO will publish a report on the consequences of the PSI directive for public administrations, from government ministries to public cultural institutions.