FOSDEM 2027 opens CFP for fourth Open Source & EU Policy devroom

The Open Source Initiative has announced the call for papers for the fourth edition of the Open Source & EU Policy devroom at FOSDEM 2027, scheduled for Sunday, January 31st, 2027. The devroom is organized in partnership with APELL, Eclipse Foundation, GitHub, Linux Foundation Europe, Mozilla, NLNET Labs, Open Forum Europe, and OpenSSF. The deadline for talk proposals is December 1st, 2026 at noon CET.

The devroom serves as a bridge between FLOSS communities and European Union policymakers, including Members of the European Parliament and staff from the Parliament and Commission. Sessions will examine how ongoing and upcoming EU laws could affect the FLOSS ecosystem, with particular attention to digital sovereignty and secure, interoperable technology. The format gives community members a direct channel to raise concerns, propose improvements, and prepare collective responses to policy developments.

Devroom structure and policy focus areas

• Participating organizations: The devroom is co-organized by nine major open-source institutions spanning foundations, infrastructure providers, and security initiatives, indicating broad sectoral coordination on EU policy engagement.
• Policy scope: Talks will address specific EU legislative processes and their direct impact on FLOSS development, distribution, and funding models.
• Audience composition: The devroom explicitly targets both community participants and EU institutional staff, creating a rare direct dialogue channel between developers and lawmakers.
• Thematic priorities: Digital sovereignty and secure, interoperable technology are identified as major challenges requiring community input into legislative design.
• Submission deadline: Proposals must be submitted by December 1st, 2026 at noon CET through the softwarefreedom.net portal.

Why it matters

This devroom provides a structured venue for open-source projects to influence EU regulatory frameworks before they are finalized, which matters for compliance costs and development practices across the European Linux and open-source ecosystem. The involvement of Linux Foundation Europe and OpenSSF signals that both infrastructure and security dimensions of policy will receive attention, potentially affecting how projects handle vulnerability disclosure, software bills of materials, and cross-border collaboration.