Digital Sovereignty and Open Source: Europe’s Shifting Technology Foundations

Across Europe, public and private sector organizations have been reviewing the technologies they use as the backbone of their digital operations. The need for such strategic reassessments has become increasingly pronounced over the last year. Public debate surrounding digital sovereignty and the continued use of software from tech giants now reaching the EU parliament, the need for a new strategic outlook is more acute than ever.

Concerns over digital sovereignty and data privacy have also forced major shifts in tech policy from individual states as well. As recently as January 2026, the French parliament announced it will roll out its own domestic alternative to Microsoft Teams and Zoom as part of a broader strategy to limit its dependence on foreign tech as a response to what France, and many other countries increasingly view as a major vulnerability.

The move away from foreign, often US-based, tech providers comes against the backdrop of political and economic tensions between the EU and its largest trading partner, the United States. From issues such as tax policy for major US tech firms in Europe, to more recent concerns about the privacy of European data stored on US-owned servers, the recent political climate has forced public sector institutions and private enterprises alike to reconsider what the foundations of their tech should be.

The adoption of proprietary technologies to sustain and grow an organization’s digital presence has always come with its share of trade-offs, and as new alternatives continue to become available, adoption of open source technologies has become an appealing alternative.

Open source solutions have a long history of use by both state and private organizations. Public sector bodies in particular have been early adopters of open source solutions thanks to the increased digital and data sovereignty they offer. These factors, combined with an unrestricted access to source code and the transparency it brings, along with a lack of proprietary third-party dependencies to fill out their tech stack, have led to a wave of migrations to open source solutions across Europe.

Some of the most notable examples include Germany’s openDesk platform, designed as an alternative to Microsoft Office and 365 products, France’s aforementioned shift away from Teams and Zoom, and the adoption of Nextcloud by Austria’s Ministry of Economics Energy and Tourism.

On a regional level, several local governments have led the charge in the adoption of open source technologies, with the German state of Schleswig-Holstein leading the way in the adoption of open source solutions to power its operations in a manner that doesn’t sacrifice digital sovereignty for performance.

There are a series of factors that are driving the increased adoption of OSS solutions for digital enterprises and public sector organizations.

Project Governance

Effective governance is one of the cornerstones of successful open source projects. Centering around a clear and transparent project development strategy, where stakeholders are able to offer input and shape the trajectory of a product’s evolution, customers benefit from the clarity that this approach offers, matched with a more direct line of communication to the project itself, allowing their needs to be considered more closely when deciding on future development goals.

This is in contrast to proprietary vendors whose products have limited flexibility in their ability to cater to individual needs of specific organizations, with new feature roll-outs, and product updates not coming as the direct result of dialogue with their community. Proprietary tech often is a development “black box”, where updates are less predictable than those of well-governed open source projects, and where accountability is limited in terms of the vendors’ capacity to develop products in line with customer needs.

Such inefficiencies are pronounced in numerous instances, from the incident response process, to the access to experts who are able to train staff, address technology-related issues, and provide long-term strategic guidance.

Cost Considerations and Vendor Lock-out

Cost considerations are an important part of the procurement process for organizations seeking new service providers. Open source solutions, while free to access, do come with their own associated costs, often paid to agencies or external developers for installation, integration of extensions and third-party tools, along with maintenance and support costs.

While these costs are factors to be considered when assessing OSS solutions, the primary benefit that sets them apart from proprietary products is the shift away from the subscription model, which often sees costs rise considerably over time, as an organization continues to grow. When it comes to content management platforms, this can hinder scalability, as a growing web presence means continuously increasing costs. 

In the long-term, this can lead to vendor lock-out, where organizations become dependent on a proprietary CMS to the point that moving away from it becomes exceedingly difficult due to the costs associated with migration, among other factors. Open source solutions like TYPO3, as we’ll see in the next section, allow unrestricted access to code and vital data, delivering flexibility and improved control over an organization’s digital infrastructure.

Access to Source Code

The access to code and the ability to tailor a product specifically to an individual organization’s needs is an important benefit. The flexibility that comes with open source, along with its customization potential means that users don’t need to be limited by whatever feature set a proprietary product comes bundled with.

There are various examples of large-scale organizations molding open source software to their individual needs, and allowing them to successfully cater to their audience in the digital space.

Legislative Landscape

Cybersecurity and threat prevention is a major topic across Europe and beyond, and recent legislation is poised to impact how state actors and private enterprises alike select their tech solution providers. The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), approved by the EU parliament in 2024 sets new security and resilience standards for all digital products and services as a means of limiting vulnerabilities to cyber threats. One of the legislation’s most important implications is the shifting of liability for vulnerabilities onto organizations themselves.

Under the CRA, digital products and service providers must take cybersecurity into account from the development stage in what is referred to as “cybersecurity by design”. Additionally, strict proof requirements, declarations that a product fulfills the requirements of the CRA based on self-assessments are mandatory, as is the disclosure of any vulnerabilities or security incidents. Such incidents will be reported to ENISA through a new registry.

For organizations operating in the EU, this means investing in secure operational frameworks, trusted software, and working to fill any perceived gaps in security. Open source products like TYPO3, among others, which adhere to strict security standards, with clear update cycles, maintenance and security updates, along with active community support, offer a competitive advantage and a reliable alternative to proprietary technologies where security standards are unclear and not available for transparent assessments.

Collaboration as an Asset

On a community level, open source projects adhere to a core set of values, with collaboration as a key component. In the content management space, a series of alliances made up of open source initiatives, work together collaboratively to advocate for open source software, share information, and commit to a series of best practices and values.

In the content management space, these include the Open Website Alliance, the Open Source Business Alliance, with broader organizational structures incorporating projects from other industries also being active, including the Digital Public Good Registry.

Additionally, transparency when it comes to vulnerabilities is an important benefit of open source solutions, as the sharing of such information on a voluntary basis increases transparency as well as the credibility of participating organizations.

Ultimately, the foremost selling point open source solutions can use to stand apart from their proprietary competitors doesn’t have to do with new features or innovative technology. Accountability, human oversight, and responsiveness are the main factors that set OSS products apart in the current political and economic landscape.

Organizations are no longer just technology consumers, but they are also accountable for how that technology behaves. This is especially true as AI continues to become integrated into core operations, and where software decisions can have far-reaching impacts on consumers and organizations themselves.

The sense of accountability deeply ingrained into open source solutions stems from the fact that they are directly accountable to their own communities and end users in a way that proprietary tech giants aren't. Strategic product development is decided based on community needs, where diverse sets of stakeholders dictate how a project should evolve, as opposed to a boardroom or shareholders who seek to maximize profit, potentially at the expense of meaningful, user-centric changes. User-centricity is a core component of product roadmaps as stakeholders, who are end users themselves, play an active role in shaping product evolution.

This is why public sector initiatives like the aforementioned Schleswig-Holstein initiative are increasingly common. The primary concern isn’t about incorporating a specific feature, but about retaining human control of digital infrastructure.

Human oversight is a key parameter that sets open source apart. Open source projects can guarantee that there will be someone to reach out to within the project, whether it be a representative of an association, or a community member who also has a stake in the project’s continued success. Communication channels are clearer and the most well-governed open source projects are able to respond to end user needs quickly and effectively, and development cycles featuring new updates are community driven and transparent, as opposed to the closed vendor cycles of proprietary software.

Software choices are often made based on technical decisions regarding essential features or based on cost considerations. Increasingly, organizations are viewing the transparency, data sovereignty, and control that come with open source software as factors in a wider strategic decision that makes open source more than a fallback option.

To revisit the example of the German Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, the regional government’s move to exclusively use open source technologies for their digital governance was a direct result of their decision to make public administration less reliant on proprietary vendors, with data protection and information security being sited as key components of the decision.

The decision to adopt open source tech should be perceived as a proactive measure that ensures long-term unrestricted access, and product viability that can create a strategic advantage for companies and public sector bodies seeking to secure their digital presence.

While organizations who have adopted open source projects have done so for a variety of reasons, the common benefit that remains a key factor in them remaining with open source solutions is that they allow the end users to shape the product itself, refining it to their operational needs and industry requirements. This, combined with the security that comes with unrestricted access to source code, and data sovereignty present a compelling strategic advantage.

Open source projects, while not replacing proprietary tech, are offering a strong alternative that redefines how organizations participate in digital infrastructure.

Concerns over data privacy, primarily among European public and private sector organizations has been the catalyst for a thorough reassessment of each’s technology foundation, with open source solutions increasingly being seen as viable and sustainable alternatives. Transparency, unrestricted access, collaborative development, and data sovereignty, should be seen as strategic pillars that organizations can use as foundational elements for the continued growth of their digital presence.

Open source projects’ reliance on strong, active communities of contributors who play a role in shaping the product, and refining it so that it meets the needs of its end users is vital for any project’s long-term success. Open source solutions are only as strong as the communities that use them, making two-way contributions essential for guaranteeing long-term viability.