Digital Commons EDIC welcomes Europe's new tech sovereignty agenda
The European Technological Sovereignty Package confirms the strategic role of open source and digital commons. On 19 June in Paris, the Digital Commons EDIC will launch its first implementation activities.
The Digital Commons EDIC warmly welcomes the European Commission’s new European Technological Sovereignty Package and EU Open Source Strategy.
The package confirms that open source and digital commons are now part of Europe’s strategic infrastructure agenda. They are essential to Europe’s capacity to act, choose, innovate, and remain resilient in critical digital domains.
“The Commission’s Open Source Strategy positions the Digital Commons EDIC as a practical cooperation vehicle for Member States to develop, adopt, and scale secure open source alternatives across Europe,” says Art de Blaauw, CIO Central Government of The Netherlands and Chair of the Assembly of Members. “That gives our work a very concrete direction: move from policy momentum to concrete implementation, with shared projects, sustainable maintenance, and real users.”
The Digital Commons EDIC was established by Member States to strengthen cooperation around digital commons: shared digital resources such as open source software, open standards, and other foundational digital infrastructure. Through the EDIC, Member States have a shared instrument to act together where isolated national efforts are not enough.
“The European Technological Sovereignty Package confirms that open source and digital commons are now part of Europe’s strategic infrastructure agenda,” says Laurent Rojey, Director of the Digital Commons EDIC. “Our task is to help Member States turn that agenda into shared operational capacity. The first implementation activities will test how to connect communities and users, deploy common solutions, and sustain the open-source infrastructure Europe depends on.”
On 19 June 2026, the Digital Commons EDIC will convene Member States, European institutions, public-sector organisations, digital commons communities, and practitioners in Paris for the official kick-off of its first implementation activities.
In addition to the Digital Commons EDIC itself, organisations involved include the French Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency and ZenDiS, and the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
These first activities will test a simple operating model:
- Connect Member States, communities, integrators, users, and public and private European actors that need to work across borders;
- Deploy useful digital commons as shared European capabilities that can be adopted in practice;
- Maintain critical open-source infrastructure so that it remains trustworthy, secure, and usable over time.
The first implementation activities will include European 100-day challenges, a pilot for a European Sovereign Tech Fund, and new efforts to strengthen digital commons communities and stewardship structures.
The 19 June kick-off will mark the transition from policy momentum to practical cooperation.