2014-03-25 20:09:38 +00:00
|
|
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
|
|
|
|
<html newsdate="2014-03-26">
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
|
|
<title>Open Letter to EU institutions: Time to support Open Standards </title>
|
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body class="press release">
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h1>Open Letter to EU institutions: Time to support Open Standards</h1>
|
|
|
|
|
2014-03-26 06:38:25 +00:00
|
|
|
<p newsteaser="yes">In
|
2014-03-25 20:11:00 +00:00
|
|
|
an <a href="http://fsfe.org/activities/os/2014-03-26.OpenLetterToVilella.en.html">open
|
|
|
|
letter</a> to the European Parliament and the European Commission,
|
|
|
|
Free Software Foundation Europe
|
2014-03-25 20:09:38 +00:00
|
|
|
and <a href="http://openforumeurope.org">Open Forum Europe</a> are
|
|
|
|
asking the European institutions to improve their support for Open
|
|
|
|
Standards. The letter is directed to Giancarlo Vilella, the president
|
|
|
|
of the European Parliament's DG ITEC and chair of the
|
|
|
|
Inter-Institutional Committee for Informatics.
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
In a
|
|
|
|
recent <a href="https://ameliaandersdotter.eu/sites/default/files/andersdotter_annex.pdf">letter</a>
|
|
|
|
to MEP Amelia Andersdotter, the EC acknowledges that is is in a state
|
|
|
|
of "effective captivity" to Microsoft. As FSFE
|
|
|
|
has <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/06/06/the-european-commissions-locked-in-syndrome/">pointed
|
|
|
|
out repeatedly</a>, this is a persistent problem for the Commission,
|
|
|
|
the Council and the Parliament.
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Recognising a problem is always the first step towards solving it. We
|
|
|
|
appreciate the Commission's newfound frankness on the subject," says
|
|
|
|
FSFE's president Karsten Gerloff. "Along with Europe's citizens and
|
|
|
|
the continent's software industry, we now expect the Commission to
|
|
|
|
take action and free itself from this captivity."
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
The letter also raises the issue of video formats. Currently, it is
|
|
|
|
difficult or impossible for Free Software users to follow the
|
|
|
|
proceedings of the Parliament and the Council in real time, because
|
|
|
|
the live video streams of these organisations rely on proprietary
|
|
|
|
technology. This is a problem which OFE and FSFE have highlighted for
|
|
|
|
many years.
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"This would be a comparatively simple measure for the European
|
|
|
|
institutions to improve the transparency of their work for ordinary
|
|
|
|
citizens," says Gerloff. "We fail to understand why there has not been
|
|
|
|
more progress on this issue over the past six years."
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
<sidebar news="openstandards">
|
|
|
|
</sidebar>
|
|
|
|
<tags>
|
|
|
|
<tag>front-page</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>os</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>dfd</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>dfa</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>en</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>Open Standards</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>EU</tag>
|
|
|
|
<tag>procurement</tag>
|
|
|
|
</tags>
|
|
|
|
</html>
|