 Good afternoon everyone, I am Dario Presuti, policy analyst from the Free Software Foundation Europe. We are a charity that empowers users to control technology with the use of free software, also known as open source. First of all, of course, let me thank everyone involved for organizing this important consultation and also the rapporteur, Mr. Graham Falk. We in general support the proposal of the Commission on the use of the Solidarity Act, published in April 2023. And more in general also the efforts that the commission is making in order to strengthen the cross-border capacity in the U to detect, prepare and respond to cyber security threats and attacks. We also welcome the efforts of the Committee of the Region and the ACRON Commission in handling the text of these regulations. More in general, if we consider the scope of this regulation and also the commission strategy, it is clear that cyber security is also a matter of cross-border collaboration with different stakeholders, which we believe can only be achieved by prioritizing free software and including its community, and I will explain shortly why. So digital services often and used by our public administrations are the critical infrastructure of the 21st century. And in order to establish trustworthy and resilient systems, public bodies must ensure that they have full control of the software and the computer system at the core of their state digital infrastructure. And this power is only possible prioritizing the use of free software. So we need software that guarantees freedom of choice, access and competition, and we also need software that helps public administrations regain full control of their critical digital infrastructure, allowing them to become and remain independent and sovereign. And in order to do so, we free software, which gives the possibility to use, study, share and improve the source code of software, enhance these resilience and sovereignty in this matter, enhancing also cross-border cooperation. So in terms of cybersecurity, free software, thanks to these four freedoms, allows also independent external and internal audits and give prestige to the software, where security bugs and backdoors can be found easier and fixed almost immediately and independently. And also free software through collaboration as the potential to be more secure by definition. In the proposed legislation, a cybersecurity community is indeed mentioned and that shows the willingness of the commission to involve several stakeholders, but the definition of these communities is missing. The commission in the past already established fruitful collaboration in the field of cybersecurity, also with the free software community. For example, the FOSSA project and also through the open source observatory and the current join up platform. But in order to benefit from this community and guarantee this cooperation in the long term, the cybersecurity community needs to be defined in this proposal. Indeed, relevant stakeholders are not currently defined and it is not clear who those stakeholders are and in which terms they should be taken into consideration. We propose therefore the definition of cybersecurity community, meaning a community composed of representative from member states, the commission, all the relevant institutions, academia, the private sector and the civil society, meaning the free software community as well. The community would strengthen the relationship of the commission with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society and the free software community, which has already proved to be happy to help in developing digital public goods. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of the COVID-19 tracking apps. Free software allows cross-border collaboration and the community around those software will be able to collaborate in a union-wide approach, also at a local level. And free software gives autonomy to its user, helping to develop and maintain tailored software that suits the administration needs, not just the vendor business model. And far and more, a free software license allows a limitless number of installations to be run without paying extra money and providing the freedom to use the code for other projects, encouraging innovation, together we're ensuring solidarity among new institutions. And this is only possible with free software. Finally, a strong accent on this regulation is also put on interoperability in order to better respond to these cyber attacks. In these regards, we think it is essential to take into consideration also the Interoperable Bureau Act, which is a critical initiative that fosters and gives a legal framework to cross-border interoperability across the union. This act recognizes the pivotal role of free software in achieving seamless integration and harmonization of digital systems and services. And this is even more necessary when we talk about cybersecurity. Once again, by prioritizing free software, we can enhance cross-border cybersecurity. And so to summarize, once again, we strongly believe that only by prioritizing free software and by defining around that a cybersecurity community, European-wide, we can have secure but also sovereign and interoperable digital infrastructures. So that was my last point. Thank you. Thank you for those points. As you said, cross-border collaboration on software is something that we will mention in the report. And of course, we need to define the stakeholders around this also so that we can collaborate and strengthen with work when it both comes to software but also sharing information points and what kind of software that has been breached and what kind of software that you are able to use. So to strengthen your own systems.