EU: British join French/Italian open source campaign on EP elections
The French/Italian campaign to get candidates for the European Parliament to pledge their support for free software is joined by British open source activists this week.
Close to a hundred candidates from France, Italy and Belgium have so far stated their support. Among the most recent signatories are the UK EP candidates Caroline Lucas and Derek Wall, reported the IT news site Inquirer.net last week.
It also writes that Mark Taylor, CEO of open source IT services firm Sirius, will be approaching other UK EP candidates. "A massive amount of the politics that's relevant to free software happens in Europe", Taylor told Inquirer.net. "Its phenomenaly important for people who care to ask their MEP candidate to sign the Free Software Pact."
Two Dutch candidates for the EP, Marietje Schaake end Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, this weekend declined to sign the software pact. However, both said to favour open source software. "When deciding on IT, public administrations should consider the importance of open source", Schaake commented. Gerbrandy: "Public administration should think twice before defaulting on Microsoft and others, but on the other hand, open source is not the only way forward."
The campaign was started last month by the free software advocacy associations April in France and the Associazione per il software libero in Italy.
Explaining her motive for signing the pact, French MEP Marielle de Sarnez last month said it is essential that public administrations have an interest in free software. This improves competition in Europe's IT sector and enhances technological independence, she said.
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