Commission makes software available to all to benefit businesses, innovators and areas of public interest

Today, the Commission has adopted new rules on Open Source Software that will make its software solutions publicly accessible whenever there are potential benefits for citizens, companies or other public services. The recent Commission study on the impact of Open Source Software and Hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy showed that investment in open source leads on average to four times higher returns. The Commission services will be able to publish the software source code they own in much shorter time and with less paperwork. An example of the benefits of open sourcing is the Legislation Editing Open Software (LEOS), the software used across the Commission to draft legal texts. Originally written for the Commission, LEOS is now being developed in close collaboration with Germany, Spain and Greece. These rules follow the Commission’s Open Source Software Strategy 2020-2023, which under the theme ‘Think Open’, has set out a vision for encouraging and leveraging the transformative, innovative and collaborative power of open source, its principles and development practices. The Strategy contributes to the goals of the overarching Digital Strategy of the Commission and the Digital Europe programme. For more information, please consult our press release.