Belgium

National level

In regard to the OSOR report on Belgium the "Belgian Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA DG DT)is the only federal entity working on OSS" and actively contribution to Open Source Software.

Belgium is a federal state (see the Regions listed below) where the Regions have the means to implement Free and Open Source Software policies or guidelines independently.

Laws

Since 2004, federally commissioned software must be delivered with the source code. Federal authorities are recommended to acquire Free Software, but final decisions should be based on total costs.

Starting 2008, Belgian federal government services are obliged to use the Open Document Format (ODF) when exchanging documents.

Initiatives

Belgium's Federal Public Service's (FPS) Policy and Support delivers on Digital Transformation policies, including those related to the ODF standardisation, freeing up public code as a resource in the process. The institution was set up in 2017.

Since 2015, an open government platform, Open Police, was adopted for the national police force. This is a decision that has been taken at the police level across the country, with 126 police platforms across the country reusing the software.

The OSOR report for Belgium also lists several other Open Source Software

• eID middleware

• Oss in Education
• OSS in Enable
• OSS in Walloon municipalities

• Check your House

• Desktop system running on open source
• Local Decisions as Linked Open Data

• Athramhasis an online SKOS editor.

• OpenFed

• Orthanc

• Digital Signature Service

Policies

There is also a git repo called "Open Police website", where software projects can be made public soon under the GPLv3 software licence (see here for more information).

Regions

Flemish Region

Wallonia Region

The OSOR report also mentions that the Wallonia Region promotes the use of OSS solutions by public administrations (OSOR 2020.

Brussels-Capital Region

In the OSOR report it is also mentioned that next the the Wallonia Region the Brussels-Captial Region encourages the use of OSS by the public administration as well OSOR 2020.