Starting April 2012.

In a posting on JoinUp, the European platform on interoperability, based on Hungarian press clippings, it is reported that Hungary has made open standards for PSI the default and mandatory option. The decision, which was made 23 December by the council of ministers, will enter into force as of April 2012.

The Ministry of Defense excepted, all ministries must complete the transition to open standards by March 31st. This, according to the press articles, is possible as ministries have been preparing for this already for months in anticipation of the final decision.

Originally the Hungarian Parliament already in December 2009 voted to make open standards mandatory. By the end of March 2012 the Hungarian government will now use open standards by default.

Open standards are a building block of open data, as they ensure no specific (proprietary) software is needed to open files. This enables easier access to those files, and lowers thresholds for re-use.