During the Open Source Experience event in Paris, the Minister of Transformation and Civil Service Amélie de Montchalin unveiled the action plan to increase Open Source software usage among the PA. Already 30 million euros have been allocated to fund open source solutions for local authorities, but it is only the start of a crucial journey for France.
The action plan also aims to collect on the platform code.gouv.fr all the libraries and codes published by more than 100 public organizations. The Minister hopes to strengthen the relationship between those who develop the open-source code inside and outside the administration. This way, it is possible to create more synergies and establish strong partnerships with specialized companies.
Furthermore, two additional licenses will be integrated into the existing corpus: the Eclipse Public License by the Eclipse Foundation (which substitutes the Common Public License) and the European Union Public License, published by the European Commission.
Minister Amélie de Montchalin highlighted three characteristics that make Open Source software the best option: quality, transparency, and sovereignty.
Open source means the quality of service
Many people working together on a project have more possibility to balance their skills and increase the overall quality of the work. Parcoursup, the software to help students choose their high school path, is not fully accessible, as the Minister reminds. Last year, it was tackled by the Court of Auditors due to the apparent poor quality of the source code used, the flaws, and the lack of security.
Open source assures transparency
Simply said: when the software is open source, everyone can see it and control it. There are already some products in France, which code is available, e.g., Affelnet’s one. Other products will be opened soon, such as FranceConnect, the identity management service, which collects more than 30 million users and streamlines the data transfer among different institutions, such as social security and postal service.
Open Sources guarantees sovereignty
Open Source software frees up the Public Sector, as it can choose among really compliant solutions. With close products, especially SaaS, you can’t be sure about how data are treated. For public administration departments, which treat sensitive data, it is essential to ensure that all the software in usage respects local regulations and GDPR.
For the Public Sector, open-source that helps digital sovereignty can be a choice, but sometimes it is a must-have. Discover why software based on open source code can be the best choice for the Public Sector, not only for France.