The European Commission’s European Tech Sovereignty package, published in early June, sets a far-reaching approach to steering the EU’s technological development, creating healthier markets and securing the continent’s digital autonomy. In addition to addressing semiconductors, AI and cloud ecosystems, the package contains the first comprehensive open source strategy, which fosters and supports open innovation across industrial sectors.
Although not directly in the focus of the European Tech Sovereignty Package, one of the sectors strongly influenced is defence and space. The defence industry is often at the forefront of technological innovation, and the European Commission’s defence strategy recognises the need to keep pace with technological change, as the geopolitical situation shifts. “Preserving Peace – Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030” was published in late 2025 and follows a white paper by the Commission and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas. The roadmap sets out a plan to enhance Europe’s security by addressing identified defence industry capability gaps in key areas by 2030.
New opportunities to drive the European strategic objectives in both domains, open innovation and defence, arise where these two strategies meet. Perhaps the strongest connection lies in procurement. For example, procurement could be leveraged to help new companies enter the defence market. As the Readiness 2030 white paper notes, SMEs are crucial for fresh innovation but lack the necessary funding. Procuring open source technologies that are used for both civilian and military purposes (dual-use) benefits SMEs directly. It also reduces the barrier to entry for future market entrants and ensures efficient, transparent use of public money.
The same logic applies to defence spending. According to the European Defence Agency, the EU countries spent an estimated €381 billion on defence in 2025. Given that digital infrastructure runs largely on open source, part of this could go towards maintaining critical dual-use software, or towards defence research and innovation with open source. Allocating just half a per cent of EU defence expenditure to open source would double the €2 billion the Commission aims to mobilise for the open source strategy.
The European Tech Sovereignty package includes a plan to boost European semiconductor manufacturing. As a core component of modern technology, chips also power drones and other unmanned vehicles. Heavy reliance on external suppliers makes these supply chains particularly vulnerable. Here, the open hardware ecosystems, such as RISC-V, play a key role, and defence funding could boost the open standard development for microchips, possibly benefiting the development of civilian aerial vehicles too.
At the same time, Europe needs protection from hostile drones. The Readiness 2030 roadmap introduces European Readiness Flagships on urgently needed capabilities, one of which is the European Drone Defence Shield. Six NATO countries share a border with Russia and Belarus. Joint procurement on open technology-based drone and missile defence systems would allow interoperability by default and, in a crisis, rapid expansion of coverage to other EU countries. Investment in open source drones would also create new opportunities to support and learn from the experiences of Ukraine.
The defence innovation certainly has its specificities when it comes to degrees of openness. Each industry has its own needs and characteristics. As OpenForum Europe’s previous work shows, Open Source Programme Office (OSPO) is a well-established governance model for managing open source use sustainably within organisations. Aligning with the Commission’s objective to strengthen the European public sector OSPO’s, militaries could use the opportunity to learn from the public sector and establish their own equivalent model.
The underlying principle is not so different from other sectors, such as energy, networks, and transportation, where collaboration on core digital elements benefits everyone, and openness creates more robust systems. To address the security challenges Europe faces, the open source ecosystem, policymakers and the defence industry together need to identify the capability gaps where open innovation would have the most impact. With decades of experience, OpenForum Europe is committed to facilitating that conversation and identifying areas where open source policy meets European defence and security priorities.
If you would like to speak to OpenForum Europe about the package in the context of the European defence industry, please contact Senior Policy Advisor Jaakko Karhu at jaakko@openforumeurope.org.
