European digital sovereignty is moving from slogan to strategy. Faced with dependencies and in line with its resilience goals, the EU increasingly turns to open source as a pillar of its technological autonomy. Yet the debate often stalls on the questions: Where is software “made”? Who “owns” the code? And can sovereignty be achieved simply by adopting European-labelled alternatives? - all questions that often are not compatible with how open source actually works, and potentially leading to missing out on the vast potential of the global OS ecosystem for Europe.

In this panel, the speakers will focus not on trying to define “European open source” but on the fact that sovereignty is less about origin or ownership than about capability, participation, and influence. Drawing on perspectives from the industry and SMEs, as well as the global open source ecosystem, the discussion will focus on the future-looking (and pragmatic) idea of interdependent autonomy: where strategic independence is strengthened, not weakened, by deep engagement in global open source communities.

• What is the most omitted in digital sovereignty discussions, and should not be?
• If you were to point to one action that Europe should focus on in the next 10 years for its digital sovereignty, what would it be?
• What should open source foundations do in order to strengthen this interdependence, while not hampering EU’s goals of supporting its own, homegrown industry?
• How can European companies build viable business models on open technologies without retreating into protectionism or undermining global collaboration?