In early 2016, I expressed some satisfaction and a touch of pride regarding the multi-million USD Core Infrastructure Initiative security effort. While the corporations behind the CII are extraordinary, the European Union's commitment to the EU-FOSSA is equally unprecedented.

Yesterday, the EU announced the free and open source software audit (FOSSA)'s budget was nearly doubling, to reach nearly 2 million EUR in 2017, adding a bug bounty programme. My initial reaction includes a tiny bit of extra pride, despite the reactionary looks of these projects ("initiative" doesn't sound like an accurate qualifier). But this mostly provides a lot of relief, and a remarkable example of the difference large unions can make.

I would like to thank MEP-s Marietje Schaake (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), Julia Reda and Max Andersson (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance), as well as the European Union as a whole for this extraordinary commitment. I apologize for not being part of your unique union.

Update: EU-FOSSA 2 is over.