The EU's top antitrust official said that member governments should use open-source software.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that no citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one through a government having made that choice first. Speaking to the OpenForum Europe, a nonprofit group that advocates open standards, Kroes said that choosing technology formats that can be used by different vendors, often without paying a fee, is "a very smart business decision."

When the European Commission picks software standards for its own use "it must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology," she added.