**
Briefing: European Open Digital Ecosystem — Call for Evidence**
There is a European Call for Evidence out - submission deadline is tomorrow, 3.2. at midnight - to inform the EU strategy to strengthen open-source ecosystems. This is good for Open Source Projects, this is good for Plone.
=> You might want to support that and below you find a template that you can use.
Time to process and participate: 10-15 minutes.
- Why you want to do this: Your Input will inform an EU strategy to strengthen open-source ecosystems (not yet legislation).
- Why respond: Responses may be listed as input providers and referenced in the strategy. This helps to put Plone on the European table of options for the coming years.
- Deadline: 3 Feb 2026 Midnight Brussels time.
- Action: produce a concise (<=4000 chars) factual submission addressing Questions 1–5.
You find below a template to help you structure your answer, plus background information. You can use this as a starting point, adapt it, or write your own text from scratch. It is merely provided to help you get started.
See URL of the Call for Evidence:
# Answer template (edit and keep <=4000 chars)
## Q1 Strengths / barriers
Starter: "We are a small Plone company with X years of public‑sector experience; we observe that EU open‑source platforms are mature but face structural barriers."
Options:
- [OPTION] "Main barrier: procurement rules that favor market share and large references."
- [OPTION] "Main barrier: lack of operational/maintenance funding vs. short innovation grants."
- [OPTION] "Main barrier: certification costs and reference thresholds that exclude community projects."
Placeholder: Brief concrete local example (1–2 lines): e.g. "In [region], Plone runs [project], serving [users] since [year]."
## Q2 Added value and examples
Starter: "Open source enables legal and technical reuse and reduces vendor lock‑in; it supports data sovereignty and long lifecycles."
Options:
- [OPTION] "Cost: lower long‑term TCO through reuse and shared maintenance."
- [OPTION] "Risk/security: transparent code helps audits and compliance (GDPR)."
- [OPTION] "Innovation: community contributions speed up adaptation to local needs."
Concrete example placeholder: "Example: [project name] — [short fact e.g. 1.5M users, 15+ years]."
## Q3 EU‑level measures (suggested positions)
Starter: "We support targeted EU measures that fund sustainability and level the playing field."
Options:
- [OPTION] "Operational Infrastructure Fund: multi‑year maintenance grants for mature platforms."
- [OPTION] "Ecosystem diversity funding: support 3–5 platforms per use case to avoid winner‑takes‑all."
- [OPTION] "Procurement reform: remove market‑share/reference thresholds disadvantageous to communities."
- [OPTION] "Certification subsidies for community projects (BSI/ANSSI)."
## Q4 Priority areas
Starter: "Priority: public‑sector digital platforms (government, education, healthcare)."
Optional: "Also: compliance‑first AI integration for public services (transparent, auditable)."
## Q5 High‑impact sectors
Starter: "Highest impact: public administration, education, healthcare — where long lifecycles, data sovereignty and accessibility matter most."
Optional short claim: "Education example: [project] supporting [users] with GDPR‑compliant operations."
Final checklist (before submission):
- Replace placeholders and pick options (delete unused options).
- Keep the overall reply factual; avoid marketing language.
- Verify statistics and cite sources or remove uncertain claims.
- Final length: <= 4000 characters (count before submission).
=> Go to Have your say
- Log in with EU login (create account if needed).
- Paste your final text into the web form
. Next time we will be earlier!