How Open Source and Sovereign Tech Can Strengthen Europe
TL;DR: Europe’s reliance on US tech giants raises compliance, security, and sovereignty concerns. The good news? Open-source solutions offer a transparent, flexible, and truly local alternative. This empowers individuals, businesses, and governments to stay in control. It’s time to choose sovereignty over dependency.
Europe’s reliance on proprietary tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon for critical software and data services presents a growing concern to some of our customers. From concerns over data privacy to the risk of government intervention or shutdowns, experts have long warned about the dangers of depending too heavily on technology that can’t be inspected and understood .
Two Approaches - National, or Open Source
Some governments and organisations attempt to achieve digital sovereignty by developing their own national software solutions. While this strategy aims to reduce reliance on foreign tech, it often leads to fragmentation, inefficiency, and vendor lock-in, with each country reinventing the wheel in a closed, proprietary ecosystem. But replicating the same software dozens of times across different nations isn’t just wasteful – it undermines the very collaboration that a strong digital future requires.
Open Source provides a better path. It enables international cooperation while still allowing each nation to maintain control over its own infrastructure. By investing in and contributing to open-source projects, countries can achieve digital sovereignty without sacrificing interoperability, efficiency, or innovation.
Collabora Productivity, as a European company, champions this principle by contributing to global FLOSS projects that promote security, privacy, and independence for everyone, everywhere. By investing in and supporting open-source solutions, we can create technology that belongs to all, empowering individuals, businesses and governments in Europe and worldwide.
Staying on the Right Side of Regulations
The dangers of relying on US tech providers go beyond just security or privacy concerns. As European regulations around data protection and digital sovereignty evolve, ensuring compliance is becoming an increasing challenge – especially when working with platforms that operate under different legal frameworks and jurisdictions. Concerns, such as the Dutch parliaments recent call to end the country’s reliance on US software with Dutch news outlets additionally reporting that the country’s digital infrastructure is dangerously dependent on American providers, highlight the complexities organisations and governments face when balancing regulatory requirements with operational needs. Open-source solutions offer a way forward, providing transparency, control, and flexibility to meet local and international compliance standards without vendor lock-in.
Equally concerning is the apparent Euro-washing of some companies with less clear ascendancy leading to organisations such as TUBerlin moving away from other office alternatives.
The Good News
The good news? Europe doesn’t have to start from scratch – thanks to the tireless work of the open-source community, we already have a solid foundation of mature, well-supported solutions. For years, FLOSS advocates, developers, and visionary customers have invested in building sustainable alternatives, ensuring that a move away from proprietary vendors is possible, such that businesses, governments, and individuals aren’t left stranded. There are already high-quality, homegrown open-source solutions available today.
Initiatives like Germany’s openDesk are leading the way in developing sovereign digital workplaces, while platforms like GoEuropean.org help users discover secure, European alternatives to US tech giants. At Collabora Online, we are pleased to be based out of Europe, and working with many European partners – from cloud providers to enterprise collaboration platforms, offering a fully open-source, privacy-focused alternative to Microsoft Office. The tools for a sovereign European digital future are already here, it’s time to put them to use!
Why Choose Collabora Online?
- We’re Open Source! – Built on open standards, free from vendor lock-in, and developed in collaboration with a global community.
- A True Microsoft Alternative – Best-in-class compatibility with .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, and other common file formats.
- Committed to your security – Built and maintained by a company committed to digital sovereignty.
- Full Data Control – Self-hosted deployment options means no reliance or vulnerabilities from external cloud providers.
- Seamless Integrations – Already working with trusted European cloud and collaboration platforms, including openDesk, Nextcloud, XWiki, Seafile, Strato, OpenCloud, elDoc and more.
Europe already has the talent, the technology, and the vision to build a competitive and independent digital landscape. By deploying existing open-source, investing in local infrastructure, and choosing European alternatives, we can assemble the missing pieces of Europe’s digital puzzle—one that prioritizes sovereignty, security, and innovation – while also continuing to collaborate and being open to the rest of the world.
Integrate now, or explore our current integrations and solutions to see how you can be a piece of the sovereign European digital infrastructure puzzle.
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