EU country grouping cleared to build sovereign digital infrastructure
The EU-level organisation – led by France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands – will develop open source alternatives in key areas like AI, cloud, and social networks
The European Commission on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a group of four countries to establish a common organisation for building open source alternatives to much-used (non-European) software.
France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands will work to develop open, European alternatives in “key areas” such as AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and – curiously – social networks.
Regional lawmakers are striking a more serious tone on digital sovereignty in the face of growing geopolitical concern about over-reliance on US tech platforms.
The Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) will also work on a “sustainable financing mechanism” to support production and maintenance of such software across Europe, a press release said.
The announcement will be music to the ears of Europe’s open source industry, which has previously called for a €350 million fund to support important open source projects.
Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Poland will also participate in the organisation as observers, per the press release, which said that other EU countries are interested in getting involved.
EDIC will be officially inaugurated on 11 December in The Hague. The four founding countries submitted founding papers back in July.
(nl)
