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Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) has grown substantially over the past decades, becoming an essential part of the modern world. FOSS refers to software that preserves the user’s freedom to read the program’s source code, make modifications and redistribute it. Since the source code is open and accessible to everyone, the user is not only permitted, but also encouraged to make modifications to the software to fill specific needs. Corporations utilize that capability to get access to specifically tailored software for their needs, while proprietary software fails to meet that promise due to providing a standardized package of the software, adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Therefore, FOSS allows for a more efficient fulfillment of software needs. Additionally, FOSS can play an important role in the protection of human rights in the digital realm, particularly in the case of the right to privacy. Because of its transparent nature, FOSS is more respectful towards the user’s privacy, compared to proprietary software, since the latter restricts the user from knowing the program’s under the hood functionality. With closed source software, arises a problem of asymmetric information between the software company and the consumer. FOSS offers a solution to this information asymmetry, by allowing users to obtain information about the inner workings of the program they rely upon. Through FOSS, the imbalance of power between the developer and the user disintegrates.

As vaccinations against Covid-19 move forward and the health crisis will eventually reside, focus will ultimately turn solely on the economic consequences of the pandemic. Having faced a serious economic turmoil during the past decade and with the perceptions about the role of the welfare state having changed drastically in the meantime, the European Union needs to learn from its mistakes in dealing with such crises and ensure sustainable recovery for its members. In this paper, the correlation between social protection expenditure, income inequality and poverty is examined, as well as the GDP and the employment rates, using the Eurostat database for the period 2007 – 2017 (subject to data availability). By attempting to identify the mechanisms that could lead to such results, the aim of the policy brief is to paint a realistic picture of the role of social protection in the European economies. Among other things, the results show that social protection expenditure correlates positively with employment rates and the GDP per capita, and negatively with income inequality and poverty. We conclude that the welfare state retrenchment during the Eurozone crisis deepened the recession and probably led to long-term adverse effects, broadening the gap between the North and the South. Building on the measures taken during the pandemic to protect employment and the economy, post-pandemic recovery policies should focus on rebuilding strong welfare states, directly create jobs and aim at the convergence of the economies through expansionary policies and growth.