EuroStack initiative sets up a non-profit advocacy organisation
Initial members include Nextcloud, Ecosia, Proton, Probabl, Upsun, Abilian, IONOS, Evroc, and iconomy
Several companies involved in the digital sovereignty-focused EuroStack initiative have agreed to set up a non-profit advocacy foundation to steer – and they hope grow – their cross-industry push to grow European digital infrastructure.
The move to establish the EuroStack Foundation, announced by press release on 30 October, follows a letter in March that called for reducing Europe’s reliance on US digital infrastructure by directing effort towards homegrown alternatives.
The foundation’s initial members include Swedish cloud service provider startup Evroc, German self-hosted software platform Nextcloud, German-based not-for-profit web browser Ecosia, French cloud application platform Upsun, and Swiss-based encrypted productivity software maker Proton, among others.
Competition economist Cristina Caffarra – a driving force for the EuroStack initiative from the start – will serve as the foundation’s chair.
The foundation said it will focus on three initiatives: “Buy European, Sell European and Fund European”. Its press release specifies that this will include pushing for “pro-European bias in public procurement”, a measure that’s expected at the EU level in the upcoming Public Procurement Act, due next year.
Members will also work to “coordinate technical integration” to strengthen the European tech stack’s supply side, per the announcement, and push to “catalyse” public and private investment in support of “digitally sovereign technology providers”.
The foundation said 300 companies have now signed the March letter in support of EuroStack. It added that it expects membership to continue to grow as it establishes a stronger governance model for the advocacy work.
While the press release lists nine+ initial members, some major signatories of the March letter are so far missing – including Aerospace manufacturer Airbus, cloud service providers Aruba, Scaleway, Dassault Systèmes, and OVHcloud, among others.
Athough the group is registered in the EU’s transparency register, the group writes on its website that “is not a lobby association, and none of its supporters and voices are paid for their advocacy work”.
(nl)
