EU Open Source Policy Summit 2026

Registration and coffee

Opening

Keynote (To be announced)

Keynote: Dirk Schrödter

Panel: Europe’s Software Challenge

Industrial policy is once again at the centre of Europe’s strategic agenda — in Brussels and across Member States. Yet while hardware, physical infrastructure, and data centre strategies are comparatively established, software requires a distinct approach. Competitiveness and sovereignty in software depend on long-term capability, open collaboration, and public–private alignment.

This opening discussion will explore how openness can underpin a European software policy that enables innovation, reduces dependency, and strengthens digital sovereignty. Bringing together policymakers, government leaders, and industry executives, the panel will consider how Europe can position its software ecosystem as a pillar of industrial strength and what frameworks are needed to make openness a defining element of European competitiveness.

Sponsor Keynote: SUSE

Panel: Europe as the World’s Home for Open Source

Can Europe position itself as the global home of open source excellence — and what would it take to make that ambition real? This session will examine how Europe’s regulatory frameworks, investment instruments, and research policies interact with the open source ecosystem, and what conditions are needed to sustain innovation at global scale.

Panellists will discuss the role of initiatives such as the EU Sovereign Tech Fund, the impact of legislation including the DMA, AI Act, and CRA, and the importance of open governance, skills, and IT user capacity. Drawing comparisons with international strategies the discussion will explore whether Europe’s advantage lies in its developers, companies, foundations, or all of them together.

Sponsor Keynote: GitHub

Coffee

Panel: Open Source & Economic Security

The EU’s economic security agenda calls for reduced dependencies in critical and emerging technologies, supported by forthcoming initiatives such as the Chips Act 2.0, Quantum Act, Cloud and AI Development Act and the Commission Strategy on Open Source. Open source is already used by companies to manage dependencies and maintain control over strategic components. The policy question is how governments can apply these practices.

This session will consider how the Commission can use regulatory instruments to support open source adoption and development as a means to reduce structural dependencies. Panellists will examine what public authorities can learn from private-sector strategies and identify concrete policy measures to embed open source in economic security, industrial policy and standard-setting to strengthen resilience across the Union.

Sponsor Keynote: Red Hat

Lunch

Panel: OSPOs as Sovereignty Engines

Delivering digital sovereignty requires more than regulation and investment — it depends on institutional capability. This session will focus on how large organisations, both public and private, are building the structures needed to adopt and sustain open approaches.

Panellists will discuss the role of Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs) as engines of institutional learning, collaboration, and governance, and the potential for a EU policy to accelerate this transformation. Drawing on examples from critical sectors — including energy, transport, and public administration — the discussion will explore how organisational capacity can strengthen Europe’s digital resilience and enable openness at scale.

Sponsor Keynote: Eclipse

Panel: Building Alternatives – Cloud & AI

Europe’s ability to ensure digital sovereignty depends on viable, competitive alternatives to dominant global platforms. This session will examine how open source can underpin new ecosystems across cloud and AI — from infrastructure layers such as EuroStack and the Open Internet Stack to emerging open AI models and collaborative frameworks.

Panellists will discuss what is required to align regulation, procurement, and industrial policy to support European providers and users. They will also consider how openness can drive innovation while ensuring interoperability, trust, and strategic control in critical digital infrastructures.

Coffee break

Panel: Deep Dive: Competitiveness & Open Source in the Automotive Industry

Europe’s automotive sector is restructuring around software-defined mobility, with manufacturers, suppliers, open source organisations, and technology providers adopting shared development models to manage complexity and maintain strategic control. This session will examine how open source can strengthen competitiveness across the automotive value chain, drawing on perspectives from industry leaders, software suppliers, and the European Commission.

Panellists will consider how collaborative platforms support interoperability, reduce duplication, and enable long-term capability, and how these industry efforts align with the Commission’s Automotive Action Plan and broader transport innovation agenda. The discussion will address the regulatory and organisational conditions needed to sustain shared development, ensure safety and compliance, and support deployment at scale. It will also explore how insights from software-defined vehicle initiatives can inform open approaches across other strategic sectors.

Sponsor keynote: Linux Foundation Europe

Panel: Sovereignty & Procurement

Procurement shapes markets. Yet discussions on digital sovereignty often focus narrowly on public sector procurement, overlooking the shared dependencies and opportunities across Europe’s industrial and critical sectors. This session will examine how non-price criteria — such as openness, interoperability, and sustainability — can strengthen strategic autonomy and innovation across both public and private demand.

Panellists will explore what happens when procurement is viewed through the lens of IT users and IT vendors rather than institutional boundaries, and how this perspective can help align incentives, avoid “open washing” and “sovereignty washing”, and build capacity across Europe’s digital economy. The discussion will also ask: what precisely is Europe’s strategic interest in procurement — and how can it be implemented coherently across sectors?

Closing

Networking drinks