Ministers at theEuropean Ministerial
eGovernment Meeting and Conferenceare poised
to commit to putting open-source software on the same footing as
Microsoft software when government contracts are
awarded.
The fifth of these meetings, which take place every year, is
being held in Malmo, Sweden. The UK is represented by
Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith.
The ministers will sign a declaration which sets out the goals
for Europe-wide IT issues for the next five years.
"The declaration, which has been negotiated by the Cabinet
Office, includes commitments to putting open-source solutions on an
equal footing when it comes to awarding government contracts, and
to making non-personal government data publicly available for
re-use," said the Cabinet Office.
Both policies have already been adopted by the UK
government.