The adoption of the Interoperable Europe Act (proposed on 18/11/2022) would constitute a major progression towards the – non binding – implementation of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) formulating the EU interoperability strategic policy since 2010. It will reinforce the use of the European Union Public Licence (EUPL) as our common legal interoperability licensing tool. After assessment and based on consensus, the proposal of a directly applicable Regulation was considered as the most appropriate legal instrument for promoting public sector cross-border interoperability. As…

Through GRNET, the National Infrastructures for Research and Technology Company, the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance launches one of the most ambitious and advanced Digital Europe projects: DigiGOV-innoHUB. The aim is to develop an ecosystem of digital transformation actors by promoting innovation in Public Administration through the National Portal for Public Services. All pilot projects will be implemented using open standards, while their source code and documentation available under the European Union Public License (EUPL) and published on the European Commission’s Joinup platform…

The Dutch government uses several login methods: SMS verification, Username and password, Identity card reader and a specific application: DigiD app, which is presented as the easiest way to log in securely. This is because users no longer have to remember a complicated password, but only a device PIN code of their choice. DigiD app users can arrange everything for their digital ID, such as changing their e-mail address or the language setting. The app can be used on up to 5 different devices. The DigiD source code has been disclosed on GitHub in response to a request under the Dutch Open…

Complementary to Joinup, which distributes information related to multiple software, semantic and data sharing projects from a wide variety of private and public project managers, code.europa.eu is the code development platform for open source projects shared by the institutions of the European Union (Commission, Parliament, Council, Court of Justice...). code.europa.eu was created following Commission Decision of 8 December 2021 on the open source licensing and reuse of Commission software 2021/C 495 I/01, which you can read here. It is one of the outcomes of the Commission Open Source…

Under the title “Rekommendation om öppna licenser och immaterialrätt” (Recommendation on open licenses and intellectual property rights) the Swedish policy details the licensing options regarding the distribution or communication of both public sector data and computer source code. Regarding public sector data, the policy details the various disribution possibilities provided by the Creative Common (CC) licences: CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA - adding, when appropriate, the provision "ND" (no derivatives allowed) or "NC" (no commercial use allowed). Regarding computer programs (source code and object…

The German Federal IT Cooperation (FITKO) develops the Federal Development Portal as a part of the IT Planning Council project “FIT-Connect the Federal”. This portal (source code licensed under the EUPL) is the central place for technical documentation, development resources and implementation examples on standards and interfaces of the IT infrastructure of the German Federal State and of the 16 federated Länderns. The Portal is also a central contact point for software developers. Developers play a central role in the implementation of digital applications for the administration. They must be…

It may look strange and even quite extraordinary, but until today (December 3, 2021) the European Union Public Licence (EUPL) was not yet considered as a “Legal Licence” for use by administrations in France. This omission is now repaired by a Décret n° 2021-1559 of 1st December 2021 adding the EUPL as a "Legal licence" in the Code of Relationship between the Public and the Administrations (CRPA). Before this Décret, French public administrations wanting to make use of the EUPL had to justify it case by case in a long administrative process. Since the EUPL is a reciprocal licence stating that…

For nearly ten years soon, and in conformity to the global strategic plan that has been set up in 2012 already for the Portuguese Council of Ministers by the PGICT (Project group for Information and Communication Technologies), the Portuguese Council resolution n°12/2012 promotes “the use of open software created by the State, the private sector or the civil society according to the European license for open software, EUPL, approved by the European Commission” (section 8.1 – Measure 21). AMA – the Portuguese Agência para a Modernização Administrativa continues the sharing and distribution of…