Shortly after Vice-President Ansip broke news by announcing a public consultation at the Lisbon Council on 14 March, the Commission followed suit with the official public consultation. The new consultation on an ancillary right for news publishers and freedom of…

The National Assembly in France is discussing today the draft law on freedom of creation, architecture, and cultural heritage, which already passed the French Senate in its first reading. The provision aims to introduce a new ancillary…

On Thursday 3 March, the ISA² program was launched via a big conference in Brussels. The day thereafter, on Friday 4 March, a fourth workshop on the preparation of a new eGovernment plan was organized. Although no concrete…

Jochen Friedrich is  Chair of the OFE Standardisation Task Force and OFA Fellow. This post was originally published on his blog.  I am sure many of you participated – or at least considered…

Traditionally, Brussels is the place to go for Free Software enthusiasts and developers at the end of January. During FOSDEM, hundreds of experts talk about their beloved project and discuss the past, present and future of Open Source. It is a great place for…

The Brussels bubble quickly got lively after the Christmas and New Year break. Pressure came from several deadlines for public consultations, and anxiety is in the air – both this month, and in the following ones – relating to high-level agreements that will affect…

Today marks the end of the Commission’s public consultation on a new eGovernment Action Plan for the period 2016-2020. OFE has complemented its answer to the questionnaire with a position paper in which we expressed our support for the Commission’s initiative, but we…

The European Commission is preparing a new eGovernment action plan for Europe, covering the period 2016-2020. A roadmap has been published, and a series of workshops is being organized, as well as a public consultation – stakeholders can provide their input until 22 January 2016. Also, a…

Yesterday, the Commission published its long-awaited Communication for a modern European copyright framework. This was one of the ten priorities of President Juncker, and this Communication sets the scene for upcoming policy…

The UK is currently reviewing its legal framework governing the use and oversight of investigatory powers by law enforcement and intelligence agencies (see the proposed text of the draft Bill here). The text of this proposed new legislation is meant to update…

It is eight years since I last was able to present to a conference organised by ETSI. Then I gave to an audience solely made up of telecoms professionals the good news about the impact that Open Source was likely to have on the market,…

Today OpenForum Europe (OFE) has jointly signed two coalition letters, together with 28 other stakeholders representing civil society, news publishers, consumers and the digital industry. One letter is addressed to vice-president Timmermans, who is…