Strategy and Scope
On 24 September 2026, OSOR convened a webinar examining how the EU Open Source Strategy applies to government bodies across Europe. Participants explored the Strategy's goals and concrete implementation pathways through two separate panel sessions focused on rolling out and expanding open source adoption within the public administration sector.
The EU's Open Source Ambitions
Gemma Carolillo, Deputy Head of Unit E.3 Future Internet at the European Commission's DG CNECT, framed the EU Open Source Strategy as part of a broader Tech Sovereignty Package designed to reduce European reliance on external critical technologies. Open source deployment, she argued, strengthens governmental command over digital systems, enhances openness and resilience, widens vendor options, and accelerates uptake of European technology. The ecosystem faces hurdles including project upkeep difficulties, weak commercial recognition, limited funding access and obstacles in government purchasing processes.
Miguel Díez Blanco, Team Lead for Interoperability Enablers and Open Source at DG DIGIT, elaborated on the Strategy's public administration pillar. The Commission is developing an Open Digital Ecosystem reference framework built on three foundations: tools and assets, people and communities, and governance structures. Implementation includes operational guidance, a reinforced and networked OSPO (Open Source Programme Office) function, strengthened open source catalogues, collaboration with Digital Commons EDIC, and engagement with open source communities.
Panel 1: Putting Strategy Into Practice
Yusuf Barman of OSOR moderated a discussion between Ryszard Łuczyn, Deputy Director of the Minister's Office and Head of the Open Source Team at Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs, and Dirk Schrödter, Minister of Digitalisation and Head of the State Chancellery in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Both speakers drew on their respective nations' experiences developing open source roadmaps, running test deployments, curating verified software lists, establishing OSPOs and rolling out open source tools across government IT infrastructure.
Panellists stressed embedding open source in government while letting it develop organically, and underscored the value of consistent security and compliance standards, particularly for municipal administrations. The most pressing obstacles, they noted, centre on vendor dependency and capability shortfalls. Addressing these requires gradual transitions, adherence to open standards, structured change processes and redirecting government spending toward open source.
To overcome barriers at national and EU levels, the panel advocated building interconnected networks of administrations, commercial open source providers and volunteer communities across governance tiers. They also called for skills development, curated software repositories, OSPOs, unified European norms and interoperability standards, plus financial backing for deployment and ongoing support.
Panel 2: Moving Beyond Pilots
Andrea Renda, Director of Research at CEPS, steered the second discussion featuring Gemma Carolillo, Laurent Rojey (Director of Digital Commons EDIC) and Sachiko Muto (Chair of OpenForum Europe and Senior Researcher at RISE). The conversation centred on transforming isolated open source trials into replicable models deployable across European administrations and beyond.
Scaling mechanisms
Panellists identified pooled government demand, sector-wide OSPOs, procurement frameworks and open standards as levers for moving from successful tests to widely usable digital resources. The Digital Commons EDIC was highlighted as a vehicle for this transition. Success requires sustained commitment, transparent direction-setting for administrations and purchasing approaches that position governments as active participants in broader open source communities.
Long-term sustainability
When asked about the role of commercial vendors, steward bodies and communities in preserving critical open source technologies, panellists emphasised professional-grade assistance, integration work, security updates and contractual provisions for maintenance. Identifying key technical dependencies and linking real-world deployment experience, maintenance expertise and Member State priorities emerged as essential. Governments must send clear signals through budget reallocation, combined purchasing requests and procurement rules that acknowledge sustained upkeep and community work.
Priority areas
Panellists suggested beginning with domains where proven alternatives already exist, while also pinpointing critical gaps where EU-level cooperation could nurture absent technologies. Recommended focus zones encompassed team collaboration platforms, areas with significant external dependencies, operating systems, open source computing hardware, AI infrastructure, cloud-to-edge systems and staff digital tools.
Looking Ahead
Final remarks underscored the imperative for sustained open innovation momentum and policy frameworks that propel open source past isolated experiments toward mainstream adoption throughout European government institutions.
