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65 lines
2.4 KiB
65 lines
2.4 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2014-03-26">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Open Letter to EU institutions: Time to support Open Standards </title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Open Letter to EU institutions: Time to support Open Standards</h1>
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<p>In
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an <a href="/freesoftware/standards/2014-03-26.OpenLetterToVilella.html">open
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letter</a> to the European Parliament and the European Commission,
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Free Software Foundation Europe
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and <a href="http://openforumeurope.org">Open Forum Europe</a> are
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asking the European institutions to improve their support for Open
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Standards. The letter is directed to Giancarlo Vilella, the president
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of the European Parliament's DG ITEC and chair of the
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Inter-Institutional Committee for Informatics.
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</p>
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<p>
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In a
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recent <a href="https://ameliaandersdotter.eu/sites/default/files/andersdotter_annex.pdf">letter</a>
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to MEP Amelia Andersdotter, the EC acknowledges that is is in a state
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of "effective captivity" to Microsoft. As FSFE
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has <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/06/06/the-european-commissions-locked-in-syndrome/">pointed
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out repeatedly</a>, this is a persistent problem for the Commission,
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the Council and the Parliament.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Recognising a problem is always the first step towards solving it. We
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appreciate the Commission's newfound frankness on the subject," says
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FSFE's president Karsten Gerloff. "Along with Europe's citizens and
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the continent's software industry, we now expect the Commission to
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take action and free itself from this captivity."
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</p>
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<p>
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The letter also raises the issue of video formats. Currently, it is
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difficult or impossible for Free Software users to follow the
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proceedings of the Parliament and the Council in real time, because
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the live video streams of these organisations rely on proprietary
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technology. This is a problem which OFE and FSFE have highlighted for
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many years.
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</p>
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<p>
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"This would be a comparatively simple measure for the European
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institutions to improve the transparency of their work for ordinary
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citizens," says Gerloff. "We fail to understand why there has not been
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more progress on this issue over the past six years."
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</p>
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</body>
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<sidebar>
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</sidebar>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="dfd"/>
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<tag key="openstandards"/>
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<tag key="european-union"/>
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<tag key="procurement"/>
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<tag key="public-administration"/>
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<tag key="policy"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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