3 days ago
Quartet of EU countries to cooperate on building sovereign digital infrastructure
On Wednesday, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands signed founding papers for an organisation where they plan to collaborate on building sovereign digital infrastructure.
European public administrations are highly dependent on software and services made by US tech giants, such as Microsoft's Office suite – with rising concern this makes Europe vulnerable to geopolitical shifts.
Several European countries have been planning public alternatives for some time now, with Germany working on Open Desk and France on La Suite Numerique.
Today both France and Germany, along with the Netherlands and Italy, signed founding papers for a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for Digital Commons – which they said will focus on publicly developed and publicly usable digital programmes.
Markus Richter, chief information officer of the German government, dubbed the project 'a milestone on the way to more digital sovereignty in Europe.'
The aim of the organisation will be to develop, maintain and scale strategic digital commons, secure access to financing, and establish a strong, European community around digital commons, he also wrote.
The seat of the new organisation will be in Paris.
(nl)
