My Vision for Europe

by Valentino Giudice on

Europe is the area of Eurasia which includes the westernmost part of Russia and spans West to the Atlantic Ocean. It includes my own country, Italy, and it is widely diverse culturally, linguistically, legally and politically.

Europe is home to a large and intricate web of international treaties and regional organizations. Italy is bound by numerous agreements, many of which with other European countries.

Today is the 5th of May, Europe Day. In this blog post, I discuss the European status quo and my vision for Europe.

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe, founded in 1949 through the Statute of the Council of Europe (or “Treaty of London”, ETS No. 001, UNTS: I-1168), is an intergovernmental organization in Europe counting 46 member states. Italy is among its initial members Its aim is to achieve a greater unity between members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress. The official languages of the CoE are English and French.

The stated values of the CoE, which is its mission to promote, are human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The CoE cannot make binding laws, but has produced international treaties. These have been grouped together in the European Treaty Series, continued since 2004 by the Council of Europe Treaty Series.

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (or “European Convention on Human Rights”, ETS No. 005, UNTS: I-2889), opened for signature in Rome in 1950 and entered into force in 1953, sets forth a series of rights and freedoms to be secured to everyone within the jurisdiction of any member state.

The European Convention on Human Rights established the European Court of Human Rights with the role of ensuring the observance of the engagements undertaken by member states in the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols.

The Council of Europe and the European Union are not to be confused: while they share the same flag and anthem (Ode to Joy), both adopted by the CoE first, and while some of their bodies have similar names, the two organizations are distinct.

European Union

The European Union is a union of 27 member states. Its historical roots include the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community (or “European Common Market” and later “European Community”). Italy was a founding member of the ECSC, of the EEC and of the EU.

The CoE predates the ECSC and, thus, the EU. While this isn’t technically required, all EU member states are also CoE members and no country has ever joined the EU without first joining the CoE.

The European Union is highly linguistically diverse. Multilingualism is one of its founding principles, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Of the many spoken in the Union, multiple qualify as official languages, including Italian and English.

While bearing some resemblance to both a confederation and a federation, the EU, far from a single country, remains much closer to a de facto confederation, member states being clearly distinct countries.

EU law is a system of supranational laws. There are multiple types of EU law. The legal basis for the EU is a series of treaties member states freely joined and which, as such, are sources of international law and constitute the primary law of the union. These treaties bind member states to obey the secondary law of the EU. Especially notable kinds of secondary legislative acts are directives and regulations.

Directives are legislative acts that set out a goal that member states must achieve, leaving up to each of them to devise its own laws on how to do so. Regulations are binding legislative acts that must be applied in their entirety across the EU.

The main treaties currently in force in the EU include the Treaty on European Union (or “Maastricht Treaty”, UNTS: I-30615) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (previously “Treaty establishing the European Economic Community” or “Treaty of Rome” and later “Treaty establishing the European Community”, UNTS: I-4300). They set out EU objectives, rules for EU institutions, how decisions are made and the relationship between the EU and its member states.

The EU operates through a set of institutions. The main ones are the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council of the European Union.

The European Commission acts as the primary executive body of the EU and has the right of initiative to make legislative proposals. Most EU laws are adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the EU Council following a Commission proposal, according to the ordinary legislative procedure.

The European Parliament is composed of representative democratically elected by the people, making it the only directly-elected transnational assembly.

The Council of the EU (or “EU Council” or “Council of Ministers” or simply “Council” and previously “Council of the European Communities”) brings together ministers from member states to discuss, amend and adopt laws and coordinate policies. The ministers have the authority to commit their governments to the actions agreed on in the meetings. Conversely, the European Council defines the general political direction and priorities of the EU. It includes the head of state or government of each EU member states (for example, for Italy it is the head of government), the European Council President and European Commission President.

It must be noted that the Council of Europe, the Council of the EU and the European Council are three different entities.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (or “European Court of Justice”) ensures that EU institutions and member states respect EU law and interprets it at the request of national courts. The CJEU comprises two entities: the highest court is the Court of Justice, whose name is confusingly similar to that of the whole institution, and the lower court is the General Court.

Democratic legitimacy

The democratic legitimacy of the European Union has long been debated.

European Union law is a system of supranational laws.

According to the principle of the primacy, on the grounds that member states transfer certain powers to the EU, limiting their sovereign rights, the EU judges EU law to take precedence over national law, including constitutions.

Human rights

All countries of the European Union are members of the CoE and have agreed to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty which predates the establishment of the EEC.

Historically, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice has recognized that law comprises, over and above the rules embodied in the treaties and secondary legislation, the general principles of law and, in particular, the principles and fundamental rights on which the constitutional law of member states was based.

In 1977, through a joint declaration, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Communities and the Commission stressed the prime importance of the protection of fundamental rights, citing the recognition of such rights by the European Court of Justice, by the constitutions of member states and by the European Convention on Human Rights of the CoE.

In 1999 the European Council formed the European Convention: a body entrusted with the task of drafting a charter of fundamental rights for the EU.

After being drafted by the European Commission, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was solemnly proclaimed in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. It entered into force in 2009 through the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (UNTS: I-47938), which granted it the same legal value as that of the treaties it amended.

The current consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union requires the EU to respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights of the CoE, while it’s the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that grants legally binding force to the Charter.

The Charter does not extend the field of application of EU law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power or task for the EU.

The Treaty of Lisbon provided for an area of freedom, security and justice, now established in the TFEU.

All EU member states are bound to both the European Convention on Human Rights, as CoE members, and to the Charter, as EU members. The former document inspired the latter and they largely overlap. Given the ECHR has jurisdiction over all the same countries as the CJEU (plus others), this raises issues about the relationship between the two courts.

The Treaty of Lisbon included a protocol for the European Union itself to accept, through accession, to be bound to the by the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights. The process and negotiations for EU’s actual and effective accession to the Convention has, however, been troubled. In 2014, an opinion of the CJEU identified several issues.

In 1997, the European Union established the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. In 2007 the EUMC was replaced by its legal successor, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (or “Fundamental Rights Agency”). The FRA has a larger scope than the EUMC used to and is aimed at collecting and analysing data on fundamental rights.

Euro

The euro is the official currency of 21 member states of the EU, including Italy, as well as, through specific monetary agreements, some non-EU countries, such as San Marino and Vatican City.

The euro area (or “eurozone”) is the currency union of EU member states which have adopted the euro as their legal tender. Non-EU members which have adopted the euro are not regarded as part of the euro area. All EU countries are part of the Economic and Monetary Union.

The European Central Bank is the institution responsible for monetary policy in the EU and for keeping prices stable in the euro area.

The European System of Central Banks comprises the ECB and the national central banks (Banca d’Italia for Italy) of all EU member states, whether they have adopted the euro or not. The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the NCBs of those member states that have adopted the euro and is the monetary authority of the euro area. The ECB sits at the core of both the ESCB and the Eurosystem.

The printing of euro banknotes and the minting of euro coins is carried out by member states under coordination by the ECB. Coins have a common side and a national side. The national side indicates the issuing country.

Digital transactions in Europe, including the European Union, largely depend on US companies, primarily Mastercard and Visa. As a result, personal data and transaction fees are sent to US companies. To address this, the idea of the digital euro is under consideration. If implemented, it will be an electronic alternative to cash, issued by the ECB. The aim is to be ready for a potential first issuance of the digital euro during 2029, if the necessary EU legislation is adopted within 2026.

Other organizations

The Council of Europe and the European Union are not the only intergovernmental organizations in Europe.

The Benelux Union includes Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (all of which EU member states).

The European Free Trade Association is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (all of which CoE members, but none of which EU members).

The European Economic Area, established via the Agreement on the European Economic Area, consists of all member states of the European Union and three out of four of EFTA (Switzerland having rejected the agreement through a referendum).

Schengen Area

The Schengen Area is a system of open borders among European countries that have abolished controls at their common borders. It currently includes all but two EU member states (Cyprus, which plans to join it in 2026, and Ireland being excluded), as well as all European Free Trade Association members. Certain microstates have de facto open borders with Schengen Area.

The Agreement between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders (or “Schengen Agreement”, UNTS: I-52750) of 1985, supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders (or “Schengen Convention”, UNTS: I-52750) of 1990 lead to the creation of the Schengen Area in 1995, separately from the European Community and independently of its institutions.

The free movement of persons was a core part of the original Treaty of Rome. As the Schengen Area had been joined by multiple EU members, it was eventually absorbed into the procedures of the EU through the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts (UNTS: I-47936), signed in 1997 to enter into force in 1999. The Schengen acquis is the set of rules and legislation integrated into EU law which regulate the Schengen Area. Following the Treaty of Lisbon, it is part of the AFSJ policy.

The Common Travel Area is an open-borders arrangement between the UK, the Crown Dependencies and Ireland that pre-dates both UK and Irish membership to the EU and is not dependent on it. While all other EU members had joined the Schengen Area by 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty gave the UK and Ireland an opt-out. Following Brexit, Ireland remains part of the CTA and outside the Schengen Area.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded through the North Atlantic Treaty (or “Washington Treaty”, UNTS: I-541) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 32 multiple member countries (called “NATO Allies”): 30 European ones (including Italy, one of the founding members), the United States and Canada. It acts as a system of collective security, aiming at safeguarding the freedom and security of all its members.

Europe Day

The Council of Europe celebrates Europe Day on the 5th of May, the anniversary of its founding in 1949.

The European Union celebrates Europe Day on the 9th of May, the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration of 1950, in which Schuman proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community.

Specific issues

In this section, I discuss the state of Europe with regard to four topics of special interest for this blog: freedom of speech, privacy, copyright and free software.

Freedom of speech

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and cornerstone of democracy.

The right to freedom of opinion and expression is recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UNTS: I-14668) and, in Europe, by the European Convention on Human Rights and by the CRF. However, the UDHR is not legally binding, while the other documents allow for limitations for certain stated purposes.

Consistently with the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe recognizes freedom of expression as one of the foundations of a democratic and pluralistic society.

The Council of Europe does not consider hate speech as free speech and has worked to counter it. Racist or xenophobic hate speech is forbidden in the European Union. The CoE and the EU have co-funded the Combating Hate Speech in Sport joint project to combat hate speech in sport by providing technical assistance to public authorities in member states and other sport stakeholders.

Several European countries have blasphemy laws. Hard-core pornography is regulated by individual countries, but most allow its possession, production and sale to adults. In Italy, an “ethical tax” on pornography exists.

By contrast with the United States, the European Union curtails the right to freedom of expression so as to fight hate speech.

Several restrictions to freedom of speech exist in Italy beyond those required by EU law. Vilification of the nation or its constitutional institutions or armed forces, desecration of the flag and offence to the honour or prestige of the president are illegal. Public blasphemy (bestemmia) against God is illegal, as is publicly offending a religion by vilifying objects of worship. Insult used to be a crime and is now a civil wrong. Physical newspapers must be registered on a court registry in order to be legally published and one needs to join the Order of Journalists to practice the profession. Italy further imposes a large additional “ethical tax” on material which is pornographic or incites to violence. An ongoing campaign aims to repeal it.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU censored the RT and Sputnik Russian news outlets, citing the need to counter disinformation. The decision was objected to by European Digital Rights and the European Federation of Journalists, but upheld by the European Court of Justice. Other Russian new agencies, such as TASS (state-owned) remain uncensored.

Privacy

Personal data in the European Union is protected by the General Data Protection Regulation, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive and other union and national laws. Member states are required to reconcile the right to privacy with freedom of expression and information. All EU member states have a national data protection competent authority (the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali in Italy). The GDPR has inspired privacy legislation in other countries around the world.

Following Brexit, the United Kingdom adopted the UK-GDPR, a regulation closely resembling the EU-GDPR. The national privacy authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Like EU states and the UK, all EFTA members have a data protection authority. The European Data Protection Board is composed of representatives of EEA national data protection authorities and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

Copyright (or “authors’ rights”) is a set of exclusive legal rights granted to, generally, the authors of original literary or artistic works (or, in some cases, to their employers or contractees).

Most countries in the world and all members of the Council of Europe have signed the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886, making them part of the Berne Union, and are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The EU has adopted a series of directives and regulations on copyright and related rights.

Free software

Free software (or “open source software”) is software which any user, in any field of endeavour, is free to run, copy, distribute, study and modify.

Notable free and open source software projects in Europe include the Blender 3D creation suite, the Godot game engine, VLC media player, Mastodon, Matrix, LibreOffice (fork of OpenOffice), Eclipse, ownCloud (which, however, has Enterprise-only proprietary modules) and its fork NextCloud, Parrot OS (headquartered in Italy, but governed by a community interest company registered in the UK) and the KDE community, including Krita.

The Free Software Foundation Europe is the European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation. Sadly, the FSFE has elected to suspend its cooperation with the FSF, along with any other organisation in which Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project, the FSF and the free software movement itself, has a leading position

The long ongoing Public Money? Public Code! campaign by the FSFE asks for legislation requiring that publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made publicly available under a free and open source software licence.

Originally founded to promote the use of open source software, OpenForum Europe is now a policy and research organisation with a focus on openness as a strategic enabler. OFE hosts the OpenForum Academy and the EU Open Source Policy Summit.

The European Union has adopted an Open Source Software Strategy to leverage the power of open source, which has resulted in a platform for open source development. The EU has also written its own free licence: the European Union Public Licence and runs Joinup, which also provides resources on open source software.

The European Union has passed multiple laws pretraining technologies, some of which have raised concerns in the free software community, particularly the Cyber Resilience Act and the Product Liability Directive.

The CRA imposes specific obligations upon free and open source software stewards engaging in commercial activities. It further requires each member state to designate one or more market surveillance authorities for the regulation, which are also responsible for carrying out surveillance activities regarding those obligations, working together under an administrative cooperation group. The regulation also requires manufacturers of products with free and open source software elements which fall under certain categories to demonstrate conformity with certain cybersecurity requirements.

The CRA has raised concerns by several organization in the digital freedom space, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, European Digital Rights, the FSFE, the Open Source Initiative, the Linux Foundation, the Python Software Foundation, the Debian project, Eclipse, The Document Foundation, among others.

Products with digital elements in conformity with harmonised standards will benefit from a presumption of conformity with the CRA essential requirements. The European Commision has requested the European Standardisation Organisations to draft such standards, in accordance with the Standardisation Regulation. Cybersecurity experts wrote an open letter arguing against the vulnerability disclosure requirements of the CRA.

In their current form, so as not to hamper innovation or research, the CRA, and the Product Liability Directive do not apply to non-commercial free and open source software. Unlike the CRA, the PLD doesn’t have any provision which specifically applies to (commercial) free software.

Science

Besides being dotted with centuries-old universities, Europe is home to some of the most prominent and remarkable research institutions.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. All CERN member states are in Europe except for Israel.

The World Wide Web was born at CERN in 1989. The first ever website is now archived.

The CERN Open Hardware Licence addresses the need for free and open licences in hardware technology. It exists in three versions, which are the only hardware licences approved by the Open Source Initiative. CERN also has an Open Source Program Office.

CERN, together with the European Commission, has also invested in Zenodo, home to the EU Open Research Repository.

The European Space Agency is a space agency involving 23 member states. Italy is among its founding members. ESA exists along with national space agencies, such as the Italian Space Agency and participates in the International Space Station.

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme is the space agency managing the European Union Space Programme.

The Navstar Global Positioning System is the main global navigation satellite system. The GPS GNSS is owned by the United States Space Force and funded through US public money, but is used worldwide.

The Galileo GNSS is a joint initiative of the European Commission, EUSPA and ESA. The Glileo programme is owned by the European Union, but design and development are entrusted to ESA.

The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (or “European Space Observatory”), established in 1962, features 16 member states, all of which European and including Italy. ESO partners with its host country, Chile, in South America, where it operates all its telescopes, located in three space observatories. ESO features multiple online public resources, including images, videos and even music, most of which available under the free and open Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The European Atomic Energy Community is the only remaining on of the three original European Communities. It was founded through the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (UNTS: I-4301), signed together with the Treaty of Rome (in 1957). Euratom has the same member states as the EU, but is a separate institutions. Non-EU members Switzerland and the United Kingdom partecipate as associated states.

Authoritarian drift

Both World Wars started in Europe. Italy, my own country, has been the birthplace of fascism. Democracy and the protection of fundamental human rights can deteriorate over time, as it has in the past.

Illiberal laws that would hamper fundamental and digital rights are being worked on in Europe.

The Chat Control proposal has been rejected so far, but negotiations are ongoing and it may be approved in the future.

Copyright law can curtail free expression. Copyright policies that are prone to abuse have been proposed, and passed, in Europe, including at the EU level and in Italy. The EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market didn’t ban memes, as many feared, but it is still dreadful for the web. Italy has adopted the Piracy Shield policy, after lobbying by football societies, which has actually led to wrongful takedowns.

One of the most draconian ideas in European politics concerning the digital world is that of age verification. Around the world, multiple countries are working on or have passed laws in this regard. The United Kingdom regulates online content through the controversial Online Safety Act 2023. A widely supported petition to repeal it was to no avail. The Office of Communications, the regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, is tasked with enforcing age verification policies. The European Union is also working towards a harmonised approach to age verification. Countries, including Italy, are furthermore discussing minimal ages for accessing social media.

There is no guarantee the rights that European citizens will enjoy today, nor that the erosion that has happened will reverse.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting the current phase of conflict between the two countries and the worst war in Europe since World War II.

Due to its aggression of a fellow member state, Russia became the first and only country to ever have been expelled from the Council of Europe.

Through an enlarged partial agreement, the Council of Europe established the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (or “Register of Damage for Ukraine”), a register for Ukrainian individuals, businesses, and state and municipal entities to seek compensation for damages from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The CoE and Ukraine signed an agreement establishing the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, an ad hoc international criminal tribunal, which the EU has agreed to finance.

The war continues to claim countless from both countries and has damaged the reputation of Russia. Since the 2022 invasion, Finland (which borders with Russia) and Sweden have both joined NATO.

My vision

The values of Europe should be human rights, democracy and the absolute rule of law.

EU member states accepted the European Convention on Human Rights prior to joining the EU. So long as they are part of the treaty, nothing they do, alone or in a group, not even signing other treaties or creating unions, should exempt them from abiding by the Convention or from the authority of the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Union should accede to the European Convention on Human Rights of the CoE and the European Court of Human Rights should take precedence over the ECJE on relevant matters. If the ECJE holds this is not possible under current EU law, EU law must be amended to allow it and the EU must subject itself to the authority of the ECHR, which should be regarded as a higher court than the ECJE. It should be possible for cases that involve EU law, including those that reach the ECJE, to be escalated to the ECHR.

In regard to human rights, freedom of speech, which is critical to democracy itself and necessary to determine all other rights, is especially important. It is the best protection against authoritarian drift and it gets hampered by dictatorial regimes. Europe should lift existing unnecessary restrictions, matching and surpassing the United States in this regard. I regard the Italian “ethical tax” on pornography as an utterly immoral form of censorship. I think the same of other policies to target unwelcome forms of expression. Furthermore, I support the ongoing campaign to rectify the unjust “ethical tax” and I oppose any such censorial law.

The right to privacy to control one’s own personal data follows that to free speech closely in importance and should be the primary reason for any restrictions to it. Privacy law shouldn’t be made any laxer for corporations, but it should be adapted for small platforms and decentralized systems, including darknets such as Tor and I2P.

All state institutions should exercise their power through the law only and only lawful orders should be obeyed. Holding a political office or role shouldn’t entail any de facto power beyond that which isn’t recognized by the law. The law itself should be the authority under which all legal institutions and bodies and their individuals operate. Along with freedom of speech, the rule of law is a safeguard against authoritarian drift, which requires illegal commands by despotic figures, potentially holding legitimate offices. As democracy isn’t anarchy and it’s the law that is influenced by the people, through written and common rules, the rule of law serves it.

International treaties and supranational laws constitute sources of law other than constitutional and ordinary laws.

Country leaders should never breach the constitution for any reason. Nothing they do, not even while cooperating with foreign leaders, should allow them to do otherwise. Accordingly, states should refrain from entering agreements in contrast with their constitutions and, if any conflict between their constitutional laws and international treaties or supranational law does happen, always favor their constitutional law, even at the expense of facing sanctions or being excluded from certain unions.

The judiciary should act as the neutral bouche de la loi and enforce the letter of the law. Legislators should be clear and specific and bear all political responsibility for the law.

While the EU provides access to its laws and court decisions in a user-friendly, well-organized and searchable way, through the EUR-Lex platform, the same cannot be said about all member states, and surely not about Italy. In Italy, the Normattiva platform does provide access to the consolidated version of national laws, that of finding court decisions is a messy quest. Access to legal information is empowering for citizens and, therefore, good for democracy. It must, therefore, be maximized through highly accessible and machine-readable knowledge bases.

Digital rights are of special interest for this blog.

In an increasingly digitalized world, computational freedom is a natural extension of freedom of thought and the freedom to communicate through computer networks, radio, infrared signals or the like is a natural extension of freedom of speech. I contend that the European Union should value the hobbyist and hacking community as much as or more than the computing industry.

I vehemently oppose the EU Cyber Resilience Act, copyright policies prone to abuse, including copyright filters and the Italian Piracy Shield, online age verification and similar draconian attacks on digital freedom. Copyright itself should be better balanced so as not to compromise the rights to freedom and privacy.

I support the circumvention of age-verification measures. Children are to be protected from the erosion of freedom and digital rights and from the harmful content of illiberal laws.

Any obligation specifically imposed on free and open source software, such as the Cyber Resilience Act, is unjust and absurd. It is unjust because projects, commercial or otherwise, shouldn’t be punished for granting software freedom. It is absurd because a project can easily voluntarily fail to qualify as open source by adding some trivial and mostly inconsequential restriction which nonetheless makes it fall short of the free and open source software standards.

The security of a computer program largely depends on its context and the expectations around it. A piece of code which will crash the system is not unsafe if shared as an example of how code may crash a system. Requirements for those sharing software should be mainly about representing it correctly. Optional standards committing developers to certain rules should exist.

Computer programs are akin to literary works, which is why they are covered by copyright. Hence, programming should be protected as an act of speech and programmers should enjoy the same freedom as writers.

Most free and open source software licenses carry a disclaimer of warranty and liability. While no warranty or liability should exist by default, such disclaimers should make the matter exceptionally clear. At their discretion, developers may, of course, elect to offer a warranty or assumption of liability in return for a fee.

Corporations which take advantage of the free software ecosystem by embedding open source modules in their commercial proprietary software or hardware products should bear the whole responsibility of such decisions and the burden of evaluating those modules.

The law should never be harsher on free and open source software than on proprietary software. Conversely, specifically favoring and facilitating free software, including through specific legal exceptions or exemptions, is far from absurd and would often be just and beneficial. Certain specific provisions regarding proprietary software can prevent abuse. For instance, I supported the Stop Killing Games campaign ("Stop Destroying Videogames" in the EU) that applies to proprietary videogames.

Sometimes, to access services they have a right to, including education, citizens need to use proprietary programs. This is unacceptable. The conditions that a proprietary software license agreement comes with restrain the activities that public administrations can pursue with that program beyond what has been established by democratically written laws. Proprietary software houses donate licences to schools so as to lure future users in and make their programs more palatable to businesses. From an educational point of view, proprietary software is inferior, as it often cannot be fully analyzed and the practical knowledge gained in using it is restricted in its application. Currently, Europe is strongly dependent on US remote services. The use and local deployment of free and open source software can address this. I provided feedback to the EU Commission on free and open source software.

All public institutions and educational institutions, public or private, should reject proprietary software and opt for free and open source software instead, resorting to developing it when necessary.

The common expectation that everyone carry a smartphone shouldn’t exist. Such devices can be stolen, can be lost, can break and are often a tracking hazard for the user. I wish for the (re)introduction of phone boxes and public clocks in large amounts. Carrying a digital device should be a truly optional personal choice. Not doing so shouldn’t impact one’s ability to travel, communicate and pay.

US payment processors Visa and Mastercard have been responsible, through their partners, for the financial censorship of lawful sexual material, including, in 2025, following lobbying by Collective Shout, videogames on Steam and itch.io. US payment processors shouldn’t be used in Europe.

Cash should be preferred for in-person payments, as they are the most robust and accessible means and don’t require revealing one’s identity. For digital payments, I support the use of cryptocurrencies in Europe, as well as the development and deployment of the digital euro.

While everyone in the euro area should be able to pay in digital euro free of charge, just the same as with banknotes and coins, it might be reasonable to implement small fees for transactions outside the EU and the euro area, if those are allowed. The use of cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets, not backed or managed by a central institution, should continue to be allowed and laws should be written to protect it.

The EU should strive to strengthen the role of the euro in the world. Europe as a whole should leverage cooperation to strengthen its economic power and independence.

In general, the cultural and political influence of the United States is, I believe, a net negative for Europe. This includes the idea (and the name), which some suggested of the “United States of Europe”. Europe and the European Union shouldn’t try to be like the United States, or like China, or like Russia.

I don’t think the EU in particular should have a stronger role than it currently does. European countries should retain their sovereignty.

I oppose the formation of a federal European Union and I believe it would be greatly misguided.

The European Union is widely diverse, featuring unitary states (such as Italy) and federations (such as Germany), republics (such as Italy) and monarchies (such as Belgium), different legal systems (civil law, such as in Italy, and common law) and, of course, a multitude of languages.

A joint federation of EU member states would be a space for nightmarish bureaucracy and legal juggling. The union must remain a confederation of separate countries, which must retain their sovereignty.

On international matters that allow each nation one vote, the European Union gets up to 27.

The status quo in Europe has massive room for improvement but is arguably above par if compared to its past times or today’s rest of the world. A broad and abrupt political restructuring of Europe would lead to unforeseen consequences and, possibly, a regression to mediocrity. Concentration of power could be a recipe for disaster.

I oppose to the formation of a unified military for the European Union, but wouldn’t necessarily oppose a European defensive alliance parallel to NATO and independent from the EU.

I oppose the formation of a unified law enforcement agency for the EU. Instead, I support cross-border cooperation between existing agencies, as provided for by the AFSJ policy.

I think the network of organizations which can be joined or left by countries is in some ways stronger than a federation, as different agreements don’t come as a package deal and member states can ensure their interests continue being served by their membership status. Overall, the role of the EU should be narrowed, while the other European organizations should be strengthened.

Since supranational law limits the scope of national law and raises questions of democratic legitimacy, it should always remain feasible for the legislators of a country to withdraw from an international treaty or union.

Any country should only ever apply for membership to a union or intergovernmental organization if entrance would benefit its own citizens and it should only ever be admitted if that aligns with the best interests of existing member states.

With the context of the EU, the European Parliament should be granted more power, at the expense of the other institutions, as it’s arguably the most democratic.

Both in electing a parliament, national, regional or transnational, and to allow it to perform decisions, electoral systems must be used. Collective decision making is required in democracy and voting is a means to that end. It is used at several levels. It’s how representatives are chosen, how the people express their views on referendums and how parliaments and councils reach conclusions.

There are multiple electoral systems and they can be compared on multiple criteria. I think adherence to logical criteria and resistance to tactical voting matter most.

For choosing one candidate, first-past-the-post voting is especially common and especially bad. A subreddit exists to advocate against its continued usage. Condorcet methods should be used instead.

When electing a parliament through parties, pure proportional voting with no majority bonus or electoral threshold should be used. It provides the most faithful representation of the population that can be achieved and isn’t strongly affected by parties merging or splitting.

When writing new laws, the common system of approving amendments to a draft and then voting on the final version is especially prone to fuzzy tactical games. Some more complex methods have the potential of mitigating this problem, potentially leading to better legislation and clearer stances by members of parliaments. Something along the lines of the Debian standard resolution procedure should be used. When needing to vote for quantities, median is the best measure, as the best strategy is to vote for the desired outcome, independently from others, which isn’t true for arithmetic mean.

Regardless of the voting system votes, popular votes for political elections or referendums should always happen on paper. Electronic voting is fragile, vulnerable and prone to abuse. A bad idea.

However decisions are made, I hope they make Europe a better place. I don’t think trivial economic measures such as gross domestic product are what matters the most.

I wish not for Europe to be the land of the new Apple, Microsoft, Adobe or Autodesk, but for free software to become the norm.

I wish not for Europe to dominate in the trade of coal and oil, but it to reach full energetic independence and for clean sources to be relied upon for nearly all energy production.

I wish not for the car industry to flourish the most, but, rather, for walkable cities and efficient and reliable public transportation.

I wish not for European social media companies in the fashion of Facebook to spread, but for computer literacy to be promoted and for users to choose independent platforms, online forums, the blogosphere and decentralized social media systems such as Nostr.

I wish not for wreckless and wasteful consumerism, but for durable and repairable products to dominate the economy.

I oppose discrimination on the basis of race or sex, including affirmative action. I support marriage equality for homosexual couples. Sadly, Italy provides the option of civil unions for same-sex couples, which, while providing almost all of the legal protections, benefits and rights of marriage, isn’t legally the same as marriage.

To preserve fundamental rights, democracy and the dignity of human life, it is crucial that peace is protected in Europe. I think this should be the primary focus of the EU.

I fully and loudly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wish peace and justice to the Ukranian people.

Non-profits

Several organizations exist in Europe the goals of which are, for the most part, aligned with my vision.

The Blender Foundation manages the Blender project for a free and open source 3D creation suite.

The noyb - European Center for Digital Rights non-governmental organization works to enforce data protection laws in the EU.

European Digital Rights is an association of civil and human rights organisations from across Europe.

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom promotes, protects and defends the right to a free media and freedom of expression throughout Europe.

The UK-based Free Speech Union campaigns for freedom of speech and defends the speech rights of its members.

The COMMUNIA Association for the Public Domain is an international non-profit association that advocates for policies that expand the Public Domain and increase access to and reuse of culture and knowledge.

The NLnet Foundation supports organisations and people who contribute to an open internet for all.

Further resources