Source: European Parliament
In the light of the current geopolitical situation, the Commission is giving high priority to reducing the EU’s dependencies on external digital providers.
Strengthening Europe’s capacity to develop, deploy, and maintain its own secure digital solutions is essential for long-term resilience. Open Source[1] technologies play a key role in this effort by offering transparent, interoperable, and sovereign alternatives to proprietary software.
The Commission supports this transition through strategic initiatives. The Next Generation Internet[2] (NGI) programme mobilised EUR140 million to fund over 1 400 open-source projects across decentralised platforms, trust technologies, and privacy-enhancing tools.
Its successor, the Open Internet Stack, will deliver validated, EU-compliant digital building blocks for public bodies and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Additional efforts include SIMPL[3] for data sharing in trusted Data Spaces[4], and GenAI4EU[5]/OpenEuroLLM[6], which promote European open-source artificial intelligence infrastructure.
While precise EU-wide savings are difficult to quantify due to varied national procurement practices, studies[7] suggest that open-source adoption could significantly lower licensing and vendor lock-in costs. More importantly, it enhances Europe’s strategic autonomy and digital competitiveness.
As of 2024, about 45% of software publishers used by the Commission are US-based. All are procured via EU-registered entities in full compliance with EU procurement, data protection, and cybersecurity legislation.
- [1] The European Commission adopts its new Open Source Software Strategy 2020-2023, available at https://shorturl.at/t88O5.
- [2] https://ngi.eu/.
- [3] https://simpl-programme.ec.europa.eu/.
- [4] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-spaces.
- [5] https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/eic-accelerator/eic-accelerator-challenges-2025/genai4eu-creating-european-champions-generative-ai_en.
- [6] https://openeurollm.eu/.
- [7] Practical Guide for EU Governments: Evaluating Open Source Alternatives vs. Commercial Software, available at https://shorturl.at/1jhs2.