In context: Free, open-source software is often promoted as a cost-effective alternative to proprietary or commercial software. While widespread FOSS adoption still hasn’t happened, some European nations are trying to speed up the process by imposing new legal requirements.
Switzerland has started requiring all its public organizations to use open-source software. The new measure, known as EMBAG or the Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Performance of Government Tasks, was approved in 2023 after years of debate. As highlighted by ZDNet, EMBAG is now forcing the Swiss public sector to adopt a “public money, public code” approach with specific requirements for software provisioning and sharing.
The new law aims to promote widespread digital transformation within Switzerland’s federal administration in the e-government sector. One key area covered by the law is the creation of joint organizations between the federal government and the cantons, which are the member states making up the Swiss Confederation.
Another key point is the use of open-source software, which extends to code projects developed internally by Swiss federal bodies. If third-party rights or security concerns are not an issue, state organizations are required to share the source code of their applications to promote free reuse within the FOSS community.
The new law also requires that non-personal, non-sensitive data be released as Open Government Data for free inspection and reuse. This “open by default” approach has been heavily promoted by the European Union in recent years, although Switzerland still refuses to join the EU despite being part of the European Single Market and the Schengen Area.
The EMBAG law represents the culmination of a long effort by Swiss authorities to promote FOSS. In 2011, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court released its court application as an open-source project (OpenJustitia), and companies developing proprietary solutions for the legal system tried to fight this “open” approach for a decade.
Now that the EMBAG proposal has become part of the country’s legal framework, Switzerland can boast its bold approach to open-source adoption within the government. Other European countries are also trying to abandon proprietary software and completely switch to FOSS products, although with varying success rates. For example, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently decided to move its 30,000 employees to Linux operating systems and the LibreOffice productivity suite.