On 3 June 2026, the European Commission published its Open Source Strategy as part of the broader Tech Sovereignty Package. After years in which open source software was treated as a technical detail rather than a political priority, it has now arrived at the centre of Europe’s industrial and geopolitical agenda. Understanding why this shift happened and what it means matters for everyone who develops, maintains or depends on open source software in Europe.
Open source misunderstood: The struggle for recognition
For decades, open source software has had to fight for legitimacy. No legislation or digital policy referred to open source explicitly. It was dismissed as too fragile for enterprise use, or too exposed for security-conscious institutions. The assumption that followed was that serious digital infrastructure required proprietary solutions, which meant paid support, contractual guarantees, a vendor to call when things broke. Meanwhile, funding remained fragmented, governance underdeveloped, and the communities maintaining some of the most critical software in existence were left to operate on volunteer time and goodwill and with no formal recognition of the economic value they were generating. The gap between how much the world relied on open source and how much it invested in it remained, for a long time, remarkably wide. As an outcome, open source was seen as an alternative, not a foundation.
The assumptions were not accurate, and the evidence has long indicated so. Open source today underpins the internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and virtually every critical digital system in the world. The economic value of the crucial infrastructure open source provides is substantial and worth investing in. A 2021 study by OpenForum Europe and Frauenhofer ISI on the economic impact of open source software and open source hardware on the EU economy, concluded that every euro of public investment in open source generates a return of between four and five euros for the European economy.
What changed: A shift towards openness in uncertain times
What shifted was not the nature of open source, but the nature of the world around it. The past few years have made visible that dependence on a handful of foreign big-technology providers is not just a market inefficiency but a geopolitical vulnerability. Services that public administrations, hospitals and public infrastructure operators depend on are mostly governed by jurisdictions outside European control.
In this context, the question of who controls the technology stack became impossible to ignore. As a response to that question, a shift towards open source software puts Europe in control of its own digital infrastructure, making it more likely that critical systems remain available, stable, and priced on European terms. Open source offers code that can be audited, forked and maintained independently. It offers an infrastructure that Europe can adopt without accepting an external point of control.
According to the Commission’s latest published documents, a large percentage of Europe’s digital products, services and infrastructure rely on non-EU providers while billions are spent each year predominantly on US proprietary IT. These are not abstract statistics. They describe a structural dependency that, in a less stable geopolitical environment, carries real risk. Recognising open source as part of the answer to that dependency is now more important than ever.
More than an Open Source Strategy
The EU Open Source Strategy that was published as part of the Tech Sovereignty Package, is not the first time the European Commission has expressed support for open source. However, it is the first time that support has been embedded in a coherent framework.
The Strategy is structured around four objectives:
- Leveraging open source for technological sovereignty
- Strengthening and promoting a vibrant open source ecosystem
- Promoting open and interoperable digital ecosystems for public administrations
- Reinforcing digital standards and international outreach
The OS Strategy proposes a range of measures including funding for open source maintenance and security, support for stewardship organisation and foundations, an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) network, procurement reforms to open the public sector to open source solutions, skills programmes for developers and public servants and a stronger EU presence in international open source communities. It is accompanied by open source provisions in the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act, which translates some of its objectives into legislative obligations for public administrations.
The Strategy treats open source as a digital commons, where it is addressed that shared public-interest infrastructures deserve sustained investment and governance. It aims to address the structural issues the open source ecosystem and the million developers that are part of it face: they generate software that underpins much of Europe’s digital infrastructure, yet the value they create is captured by large non-EU companies, which leaves the communities underfunded. The fact that the Commission’s strategy addresses this directly and frames it as the basis for future policy actions marks a shift in how the institution understands the relationship between open source and competitiveness. Making it the most serious institutional commitment to open source that European policy has produced.
What now?
The Strategy did not “just happen”. Over 1600 contributions from the open source ecosystem, including developers, foundations, businesses and public administrations shaped its content. This shows that the open source community does have a voice in the process and this voice needs to remain active.
The Strategy itself is effective immediately, meaning that it will not be negotiated under an ordinary legislative procedure, as legislation. Its implementation will be shaped by those that will actively engage with it. The stewardship structures, the procurement guidelines, the OSPO network, will be defined in the time to come. The quality of this work depends on whether the open source community remains present and active. Foundations, national associations, developers and public sector, they all have a role to play.
The recognition that has arrived with the Strategy highlights the work that the open source community has been doing for decades. These efforts are the foundation on which the Strategy was built. Open source did not need a strategy to matter. It mattered despite the absence of it. The task now is to carry this forward and to keep the momentum going, knowing that for the first time European policy is moving in the same direction.
OFE commits to remain actively involved in the implementation process. In other words, it will continue to engage with the governance structures the Strategy proposes, to contribute to the procurement guidelines that will give the “open source first principle” real meaning and it will ensure that the community’s experience continues to inform the decisions that will shape how this Strategy delivers. The foundation is here and so is the commitment to build on it.
