101 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
101 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2014-12-12">
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<head>
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<title>Study: To ensure transparency, European Parliament must adopt Free Software, Open Standards</title>
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</head>
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<body class="press release">
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<h1>Study: To ensure transparency, European Parliament must adopt Free Software, Open Standards</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">
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A study released on Friday says that the European Parliament must adopt Free
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Software and <a href="https://fsfe.org/activities/os/def.en.html">Open
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Standards</a> in order to fulfil its transparency obligations. The
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authors conclude that "the Rules of Procedure of the European
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Parliament should whenever possible make Free Software and Open
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Standards mandatory for all systems and data used for the work of
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Parliament."
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</p>
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<p>
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The study,
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entitled <a href="http://www.greens-efa.eu/fileadmin/dam/Documents/Studies/Ensuring-Utmost-Transparency--Piana-Oberg-Korff.pdf">"Ensuring
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utmost transparency -- Free Software and Open Standards under the
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Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament"</a>, was prepared by
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two legal experts for
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the <a href="http://www.greens-efa.eu/free-software-and-open-standards-in-the-european-parliament-13245.html">Greens/EFA</a>
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in the European Parliament. Its authors, the legal experts Carlo Piana
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(Italy) and Ulf Öberg (Sweden), argue that the Parliament is committed
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to an even higher standard of openness than other EU institutions.
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</p>
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<blockquote><p>
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"This study sends a strong signal that Free Software and Open
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Standards are essential for the European institutions to fulfil their
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transparency obligations," says FSFE's president Karsten Gerloff. "We
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call on the European Parliament to implement the study's
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recommendations at all levels, and as quickly as possible, in
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particular with regard to access and use of documents, email and
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encryption, video streaming, and upcoming procurement decisions."
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</p></blockquote>
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<p>
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The study lists a number of concrete steps the European Parliament
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needs to take in order to fulfil its transparency obligations:
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</p>
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<p>
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<ul>
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<li>Immediate technical measures includes to enable access and use of
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documents, email and encryption with and through Open Standards. In
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other words, the European Parliament must make it possible to work
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with ODF, IMAP and OpenPGP inside the Parliament. It must also ensure
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that citizens can use these open standards to communicate with the
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Parliament, regardless of the software platform they are using.</li>
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<li>When acquiring software and services, the European Parliament
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should prefer Free Software based on Open Standards. This is not only
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allowed by the EU's procurement rules, but actually "serves the
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general economic interest of the EU".</li>
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<li>The European Parliament should continously check that its IT
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infrastructure and services comply with the Constitutional Principle
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of Openness and the Parliament's own Rules of Procedure to ensure the
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utmost transparency.</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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<p>
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FSFE and others have repeatedly criticised the Parliament for failing
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on transparency. Currently, MEPs and parliamentary staff do not have
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access to a standards-compliant email solution, and live video streams
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from the Parliament are not accessible for Free Software users.
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</p>
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<blockquote><p>
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"The Parliament needs to open itself to the world," says
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Gerloff. "Live video streams that allow all Europeans to follow the
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Parliament's work are essential to democracy in the 21st
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century. Encryption is a necessity to allow the citizens to talk to
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their MEPs in confidence. Utmost transparency is one of the EU's
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fundamental principles, and Europeans expect their Parliament to do
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better in this regard."
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</p></blockquote>
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<p>
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The Greens/EFA are soliciting <a href="http://euwiki.org/Ensuring_utmost_transparency_--_Free_Software_and_Open_Standards_under_the_Rules_of_Procedure_of_the_European_Parliament">feedback</a> for a second edition of the study.
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</p>
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<p class="hide">
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Media contact: <br />
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Karsten Gerloff <br />
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Mail: gerloff@fsfe.org <br />
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tel.: +49 176 9690 4298
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</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>front-page</tag>
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<tag content="Open Standards">OpenStandards</tag>
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<tag content="European Parliament">EuropeanParliament</tag>
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<tag>IT</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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