The European Union has found that in pursuing its goal of making Europe more competitive, increasing the security of, trust in, and control over digital infrastructure, Open Source is the go-to business and innovation model. At the same time, the European Commission's updated Open Source Strategy understands that while Open Source provides freedoms, these can only be used if sufficient capacity (e.g. in terms of data centres and solution providers) and capability (in terms of skill and availability of Open Source development experience) exist.
To create both, Public Procurement plays an important role in that it provides a lever to increase both capacity and capability. With its newly proposed Public Procurement Act, some important steps are taken to make Open Source procurement easier, but are they enough, and how can it be improved to make Procurement the lever for competitiveness and sovereignty in the digital sector that it can be?
Objectives: Identify practical procurement barriers and opportunities to strengthen Europe’s open-source capacity and expertise.
Participants can expect perspectives from open-source businesses, policy and legal practice, with most of the session reserved for discussion and questions.
Webinar Agenda
| Time | Content | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00-14:02 CET | Welcome and brief introduction | Sebastian Raible |
| 14:02-14:14 CET | Panelist introductions | Amandine Le Pape (COO & Co-Founder of Element) Felix Kronlage-Dammers (Country Manager Germany at Adfinis Germany) Martin Von Willebrand (CEO at Double Open) |
| 14:14-14:58 CET | Panel discussion and questions Proposed focus: practical procurement barriers, supplier capacity and skills, and how procurement can support open-source innovation and digital sovereignty. | Panelists and audience members |
| 14:58-15:00 CET | Closing remarks | Sebastian Raible |