As an active member of the European open-source industry, OX collaborates with other companies to promote the adoption of open-source software and open formats. We believe this is the most effective way to empower our telco and public sector clients and their end users to break free from the grip of dominant tech giants.
In recent years, policymakers in Brussels and several national capitals have embraced this concept as the most viable way to reduce Europe’s reliance on major American corporations for everyday productivity applications, such as email, contacts, calendars, documents, and cloud storage. This has eventually led to a vital policy question: Should European buyers, especially public administrations, prefer European open-source software to local and global proprietary alternatives?
The upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) is one of the regulatory dossiers in which this question is most central. The Commission is considering an “open source first” principle in public procurement; it would require public buyers throughout the Union to evaluate open source solutions first, transparently report their evaluation and only resort to closed alternatives if no suitable open source product can be found. However, this raises another question: Does the European industry have enough capacity to handle such a significant increase in demand?
OX, together with SUSE and Nextcloud, has spearheaded a rapid industry effort to provide a resounding answer: the industry is ready. An initial group of fifteen companies from multiple European countries wrote to the Commissioners in charge of the dossier, EVP Virkkunen and EVP Séjourné, in support of the “open source first” principle, committing to meet the demand. The Commission has already started to interact with the group of signatories; more parties are joining the call, and any European open source company is welcome to sign the letter (more on this website).
Europe’s leading open-source companies have made efforts and investments to integrate their products and offer solutions that can stand up to any others in terms of features and quality. Early adopters in several European countries have already proven this. Now, we need political support and recognition of these efforts. We need institutions to adopt digitally sovereign solutions and not just talk about them. The CADA can and should be the first fundamental step in this direction, and we are confident that our call will not be ignored.
