What is the CRA Expert Group?

The CRA Expert Group is a consultative body set up by the European Commission to provide it with advice and expertise during the implementation of the CRA. It is composed of 60 members which include:

• individual experts appointed in their personal capacities,
• industry representatives,
• trade and business associations,
• NGOs,
• member state authorities (plus the Norwegian Communications Authority), and
• ENISA.

Open source is particularly well represented, as the following open source organizations are members:

• the Apache Software Foundation,
• the Eclipse Foundation,
• OpenSSF, and
• the Sovereign Tech Agency.

As described in Article 9, the CRA Expert Group is consulted by the European Commission as it:

• prepares Guidance as described in Article 26,
• prepares the technical descriptions of the important and critical product categories described in Article 7 and Article 8, and listed in Annex III and Annex IV respectively, and
• undertakes preparatory work for the evaluation and review of the CRA.

In practice, the CRA Expert Group meets in plenary sessions 2-3 times a year. It has multiple work strands on specific topics, including one on open source, which meet on an ad-hoc basis. The agenda and minutes of the plenary sessions are public and are available on the CRA Expert Group's offical page. Draft regulation and guidance shared with the CRA Expert Group may not be shared publicly until it is officially published.

You can find an explainer on expert groups in general on the European Commission's website.