Open Letter to the European Commission

With my sign-off.

Signed-off-by: Matthieu Baerts (NGI0) <[email protected]>

Author: matttbe

_posts/2024-07-18-EU-free-software-funding.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Open Letter to the European Commission"
+---
+
+As mentioned in the [About](about) page, this project is currently funded
+through [NGI0 Core](https://nlnet.nl/core), a fund established by
+[NLnet](https://nlnet.nl) with financial support from the European Commission's
+[Next Generation Internet](https://ngi.eu) program.
+
+<center><img src="https://nlnet.nl/image/logos/NGI0_tag.svg" alt="NGI Zero Logo" width="20%" /></center>
+
+Today, it is important to sign and share the following letter from
+[les petites singularités](https://pad.public.cat/lettre-NCP-NGI), to have such
+free and open-source projects like ours to be able to continue to be supported,
+and make sure to have a better and safer Internet space for everyone.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## The European Union must keep funding free software
+
+Open Letter to the European Commission.
+
+Since 2020, Next Generation Internet ([NGI](https://www.ngi.eu)) programmes,
+part of European Commission's Horizon programme, fund free software in Europe
+using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example NLnet's
+[calls](https://www.nlnet.nl/commonsfund)). This year, according to the Horizon
+Europe working draft detailing funding programmes for 2025, we notice that Next
+Generation Internet is not mentioned any more as part of Cluster&nbsp;4.
+
+NGI programmes have shown their strength and importance to supporting the
+European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund
+digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this
+transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and
+economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most
+established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European
+technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide
+structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is
+key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure.
+Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from
+European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly
+initiated by small-scaled organizations.
+
+Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 million euros to:
+
+- "Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in
+   Europe" ;
+- "A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI,
+   that enables better control of our digital life" ;
+- "A structured ecosystem of talented contributors driving the creation of new
+   internet commons and the evolution of existing internet commons".
+
+In the name of these challenges, more than 500 projects received NGI funding in
+the first 5 years, backed by 18 organisations managing these European funding
+consortia.
+
+NGI contributes to a vast ecosystem, as most of its budget is allocated to fund
+third parties by the means of open calls, to structure commons that cover the
+whole Internet scope - from hardware to application, operating systems, digital
+identities or data traffic supervision. This third-party funding is not renewed
+in the current program, leaving many projects short on resources for research
+and innovation in Europe.
+
+Moreover, NGI allows exchanges and collaborations across all the Euro zone
+countries as well as "widening countries" [^1], currently both a success and an
+ongoing progress, likewise the Erasmus programme before us. NGI also contributes
+to opening and supporting longer relationships than strict project funding does.
+It encourages implementing projects funded as pilots, backing collaboration,
+identification and reuse of common elements across projects, interoperability in
+identification systems and beyond, and setting up development models that mix
+diverse scales and types of European funding schemes.
+
+While the USA, China or Russia deploy huge public and private resources to
+develop software and infrastructure that massively capture private consumer
+data, the EU can't afford this renunciation.
+Free and open source software, as supported by NGI since 2020, is by design the
+opposite of potential vectors for foreign interference. It lets us keep our data
+local and favours a community-wide economy and know-how, while allowing an
+international collaboration.
+This is all the more essential in the current geopolitical context: the
+challenge of technological sovereignty is central, and free software allows
+addressing it while acting for peace and sovereignty in the digital world as a
+whole.
+
+[^1]:
+    As defined by Horizon Europe, widening Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia,
+    Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lituania,
+    Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Widening associated
+    countries (under condition of an association agreement) include Albania,
+    Armenia, Bosnia, Feroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldavia, Montenegro,
+    Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine. Widening
+    overseas regions are : Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Reunion
+    Island, Mayotte, Saint-Martin, The Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands.