Add blog post: Open letter to European Commission

content/blog/2024-08-23_open_letter_to_european-commission/index.adoc

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+---
+date: 2024-08-23
+title: Open Letter to the European Commission
+author: U. Bruhin
+---
+
+The https://www.ngi.eu/about/[Next Generation Internet (NGI)] funding
+through the https://nlnet.nl/[NLnet Foundation] had a substantial impact on
+the development of LibrePCB 1.x. Without this grant, LibrePCB would not
+be where it is today -- and many other free software projects too. However,
+it seems the European Commission plans to stop this funding in 2025, which
+would be very bad news for the whole free and open-source ecosystem.
+
+With this post we are signing the following open letter to the
+European Commission,
+https://pad.public.cat/lettre-NCP-NGI[as started by Les Petites Singularités],
+to express the importance of the NGI funding for FOSS projects like LibrePCB.
+
+---
+
+_Since 2020, Next Generation Internet (https://www.ngi.eu[NGI])
+programmes, part of European Commission’s Horizon programme, fund free
+software in Europe using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example
+https://www.nlnet.nl/commonsfund[NGI0 Commons Fund]). 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 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
+organisations._
+
+_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`" footnote:[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, Faroe 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.], 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 favors 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 to address it while acting for peace and sovereignty in the
+digital world as a whole._
+
+_In this perspective, we urge you to claim for preserving the NGI
+programme as part of the 2025 funding programme._