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<br><font size=1 color=#800080 face="sans-serif">----- Forwarded by Bruce
Bannerman/DPI/VICGOV1 on 24/06/2008 03:29 PM -----</font>
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<td width=40%><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><b>Roger Longhorn <ral@alum.mit.edu></b>
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<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Sent by: owner-egip@jrc.it</font>
<p><font size=1 face="sans-serif">19/06/2008 07:03 PM</font>
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<div align=center><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Please respond to<br>
ral@alum.mit.edu</font></div></table>
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<br><font size=2><tt> From EDRI-gram this week:<br>
<br>
1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment<br>
============================================================<br>
<br>
The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the <br>
use of<br>
open source software in eGovernment, in a public speech at a seminar hosted<br>
by OpenForum Europe in Brussels on 10 June 2008.<br>
<br>
Kroes encouraged the public institutions to use open standards, underlining<br>
the positive example of Munich that have implemented open standards in
<br>
their<br>
local eGovernment projects. She suggested a much more active role of the<br>
European Commission in promoting open standards in eGovernment <br>
applications,<br>
by adopting an internal policy not to buy proprietary software: "The<br>
Commission must do its part. It must not rely on one vendor, it must not<br>
accept closed standards and it must refuse to become locked into a<br>
particular technology."<br>
<br>
The EU Commissioner's speech shows an indirect support to the Open<br>
Parliament petition initiated in March 2008 by OpenForum Europe, The<br>
European Software Market Association and the Free Software Foundation <br>
Europe<br>
asking the European Parliament to change its ICT system in order to allow<br>
the adoption of open standards.<br>
<br>
Also Kroes praised the benefits of open standards: "No citizen<br>
or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology
<br>
over<br>
an open one, through a government having made that choice first."
She also<br>
encouraged the business customers to make a difference by promoting open<br>
standards: "I know a smart business decision when I see one. Choosing
open<br>
standards is a very smart business decision indeed."<br>
<br>
Kroes mentioned a number of competition cases in ICT that are investigated<br>
by the Commission in relation with ICT standards, giving as examples Apple,<br>
the mobile phone company Qualcomm and chip maker Rambus. Also she clearly<br>
referred to Microsoft when she mentioned the problems with the well-known<br>
fines against the US software producer: "The Commission has never
before <br>
had<br>
to issue two periodic penalty payments in a competition case."<br>
<br>
Some MEPs wanted to go further and asked the European Commission if<br>
Microsoft could not be banned from the European public procurements, since<br>
it has been fined by the Commission. Heide Rühle, internal market policy<br>
spokeswoman for the Greens in the European Parliament, explained that there<br>
were provisions of the public procurement EU Directive that allow the<br>
exclusion of applicants from public procurement procedures if "they
have<br>
been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a<br>
judgement which has the force of res judicata or they have been guilty
of<br>
grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting<br>
authority can justify".<br>
<br>
But the European Commission rejected these arguments in its answer<br>
explaining that, according to the Directive, the exclusion was not<br>
obligatory. EC claimed that the fine did not count as an "criminal<br>
conviction of a criminal offence by a final judgement from a Court".
Also<br>
the second provision should "require a case-by-case assessment which
can<br>
only be done in the framework of an on-going procurement procedure."<br>
<br>
Kroes calls for open standards in eGovernment (10.06.2008)<br>
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/kroes-calls-open-standards-egovernment/article-173209
<br>
<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
<br>
Roger Longhorn<br>
co-Chair, GSDI Association Legal & Socioeconomic Working Group<br>
ral@alum.mit.edu<br>
EGIP Archive: http://www.ec-gis.org/egip/<br>
</tt></font>
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