In its submission to the Commission’s public consultation on public procurement, APELL welcomes the Commission’s efforts and recommends a shift in public investments towards Open Source, and with it a priority for the broader policy goal of increasing digital sovereignty in the European Union.
The Commission’s public consultation that closes today is the next step of the Commission’s effort to revise the public procurement framework. The set of laws has last been updated in 2014, and while ICT procurement is not its main or only target, the revision provides the European legislator with the opportunity of improving digital sovereignty along the way.
Public procurement of ICT makes up more than half of global IT budgets. By shifting investments towards Open Source, the EU has the option of leveraging its strategic advantages for more digital sovereignty. APELL further recommends exploring buyer networks, joint procurement, and sharing of procured solutions, as well as public sector open source projects to make spending more sustainable in the long-term.
Furthermore, the public sector as well as the private sector should establish Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs) to institutionalise Open Source skill and knowledge. OSPOs establish a single contact point that can support Open Source procurement in less experienced authorities or companies.
Read APELL’s full feedback in this PDF Download.
(Title photo credit: Münzeinsatz in Geldkassette 2011: 4028mdk09, CC-BY-SA/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
