Europe's Tech Sovereignty Package: Insights from the NGI Commons Community

On 22 June, the NGI Commons project organised a webinar bringing together officials from the European Commission, private-sector leaders, experts and advocates for digital commons to analyse in detail the ‘technological sovereignty package’ recently announced by the EU, a wide-ranging strategic response to Europe’s structural digital dependencies.

Speakers including Gemma Carolillo (DG CONNECT), Astor Nummelin Carlberg (SUSE), Andrea Gallo (RISC-V), David Szegedi (Red Hat), Zuzanna Warso (Open Future Foundation), Dr Giovanni Rimassa (Martel Innovate), Laszlo Igneczi (OpenForum Europe) and Dr Monique Calisti (Martel Innovate) examined the package’s core pillars: the EU Open Source Strategy, the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), Chips Act 2.0, and the digitalisation roadmap for energy and AI.

Panelists welcomed the package as the most ambitious Open Source strategy of its kind globally, and praised concrete wins like the “Open Source First” procurement principle and the planned network of Open Source Programme Offices. But they also flagged gaps, including weak enforcement language, unresolved cloud bundling practices, and a lack of transparency requirements for IT intermediaries, as areas where continued community pressure could shape the legislation still being negotiated.

With key legislative files such as CADA, the Digital Networks Act, and the Public Procurement Reform still open for input, the webinar closed with a clear call to action: this is the moment for the Open Source and digital commons community to engage.

📄 Want the full picture? Download the complete webinar report for detailed insights from every speaker, the five key policy wins identified by NGI Commons, and a full roadmap of upcoming legislative opportunities for community engagement.

NGI Commons webinar series