Comment. I hesitate to characterize any of the responses as calling unequivocally for an OA mandate for EU-funded research. The strongest comment is from the Green Party respondent, who states that he "would work with colleagues to open access - particularly for research that has been funded by the taxpayer." The responses are brief, if you want to read them yourself.
Pirate Parties are contesting the elections for the first time. In Sweden, the Pirate Party is predicted to win at least one seat. The German Pirate Party is predicting that if it does not earn enough votes to gain a seat in Parliament, it may earn at least enough votes to qualify for public funding in the next election.
Another connection: Mattias Bjärnemalm, third on the Swedish party's list, previously worked on a statement supporting OA in the University of Uppsala's student union.
See also our past posts on OA in the European Parliament elections:
Update. Eduardo Robredo Zugasti writes (Google translation) that it remains unclear if the Spanish parties contesting the election support OA.
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 6/01/2009 11:59:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
