Press-release of the Free Software Foundation Europe For immediate release
"Free Software Foundation Europe aiming for more coordination between Free Software Developers."
(Essen) On May 6th 2001, the first general assembly of the Free Software Foundation Europe took place at the Villa Vogelsang in Essen, Germany. It was the first meeting of the members of the recently founded sister organisation of the FSF (Boston,USA). Representatives from France, Germany and Sweden agreed on future areas of engagement for the FSFE.
"Coordinating Free Software based organisations and establishing local chapters throughout Europe is one of our primary long-term goals." says Georg C. F. Greve, President of the FSF Europe. "So is beginning our work as a competence center for Free Software, aimed primarily at journalists and politicians who will be able to find authoritative information about Free Software from the Foundation."
Most Free Software is released under the license of the Free Software Foundation, the GNU General Public License. One of the first projects will be to harmonize it better with local European laws in order to keep up with current changes and developments.
The Foundation will also further Free Software in the educational sector where it will seek to coordinate and strengthen efforts by organizations and individuals dedicated to that task.
At the same date, the first general assembly of the FSF Europe - Chapter Germany has taken place.
"We want the advantages of Free Software to be known to almost everybody in Germany. German developers are already playing a major role as contributors to the GNU project and Free Software in general." says Bernhard Reiter, German chancellor of the FSF Europe. "The FSFE will help to leverage these efforts on a european level and make sure that we it will stay legal to develop Free Software for all needs."
About the FSF Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe is the sister organization of the Free Software Foundation created 1984 by Richard M. Stallman in the United States of America.
Main purpose of the FSF Europe is to coordinate Free Software initiatives throughout Europe, to provide a Free Software competence-center for politicians and journalists and to provide infrastructure for Free Software projects and especially the GNU Project.
Further information about the FSF Europe can be found at
Contact: Europe Georg C. F. Greve greve@gnu.org Tel: +49-40-23809080 Fax: +49-40-23809081 France Frederic Couchet fcouchet@april.org Tel: +33 6 60 68 89 31 Germany Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de Tel: +49-541 - 335 08 - 33 Italy Alessandro Rubini rubini@gnu.org Tel: +39-0382-529.554 (o .424) Fax: +39-0382-529.424 Sweden Jonas Öberg jonas@gnu.org Tel: +46-21-144831
Further press contact information is available at