\n\u201cThe more we cooperate, the more we strengthen Europe\u2019s digital resilience and sovereignty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nCurrently, the Commission is acting cautiously, limiting its actions to internal reviews of tools such as OpenDesk. This cautious approach has caused frustration within the open-source community. Sebastian Raible of the European Open Source Business Association (APELL) has urged the Commission to demonstrate “more courage and enthusiasm” for sovereign technology.<\/span><\/p>\nLearning from China and Munich<\/b><\/h3>\n
Global examples show what\u2019s possible – and what can go wrong:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- China<\/b>: In 2022, the government launched a plan to replace all foreign software in state-owned firms by 2027. Backed by political will and investment, the country is moving rapidly toward open-source independence.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Munich<\/b>: The German city shifted to open-source software between 2006 and 2013, only to switch back to Windows in 2017 due to high costs and technical setbacks. Still, Munich is now working with ZenDis on open-source projects – showing the story isn\u2019t over.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lesson learned? Moving away from tech giants isn\u2019t easy, but it is possible – with smart planning and the right alliances.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Commission\u2019s key challenges<\/b><\/h3>\n
Switching to open-source is more than a technical upgrade – it\u2019s a strategic decision. Here\u2019s what the Commission needs to succeed:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Political leadership: Europe\u2019s digital future depends on leaders like Henna Virkkunen, the new EU tech chief, who has already signaled support for open-source tools.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Pan-European partnerships: Initiatives like EDIC and national projects could serve as building blocks for shared European systems.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Cost management: As Munich\u2019s experience showed, going open-source can be expensive at first – but it may pay off in the long run with greater independence and flexibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The European Commission has the tools, the partners, and the public interest to start this transformation. Open-source isn\u2019t just about software – it\u2019s about <\/span>collaboration, transparency, and empowerment. These are the very values Europe stands for.<\/span><\/p>\nA city official from Munich put it simply:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\u201cThe more contributors we have, the better the software.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A watchdog rings the alarm Wojciech Wiewi\u00f3rowski, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), has consistently criticised the Commission\u2019s dependence on Microsoft. Running for a second term, he voices a concern shared by many EU officials: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":6029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1],"tags":[101],"post_formats":[18],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-general","tag-european-union","post_formats-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9072,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9071\/revisions\/9072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9071"},{"taxonomy":"post_formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=9071"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}