One of the most surprising recent developments in the field of openness has been the rise of Europe as a key player there. This is not the result of some grand plan, despite what the conspiracy theorists in proprietary software companies might think, but simply a natural evolution of the European Union itself, and a consequence of its attempts to become more tightly integrated.

That's simply not possible unless open standards are used, since it is plainly impractical to force every member-state to do things in exactly the same way when it comes to computing. Instead, an open framework provides the best mix of local freedom – that strange EU concept of “subsidiarity” - without sacrificing the “union” part of the entity's name.

Given that companies favouring closed-source, proprietary approaches can hardly argue with that logic, the battle has moved on. What we are seeing now is a desperate rearguard action to redefine “open standards” to embrace elements that are decidedly closed.

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