EU Open Source Policy Summit 2026

What are the concrete steps policymakers must take to address Europe’s most urgent digital challenges — and to realise the full value of open source at scale and at speed across the continent? From the Cloud and AI Development Act and the Digital Networks Act to Chips Act II, from cybersecurity regulation to industrial policy and public procurement, the Summit will examine how openness — as a governance model, an industrial policy instrument, and an innovation strategy — enables Europe to innovate, compete, and retain strategic control. Openness as a strategy connects the dots — and cuts through trade-offs.

This year’s programme will address the full spectrum of policy and implementation challenges currently shaping the digital agenda:

• The automotive sector’s shift to collaborative software development
• Open source security, in the context of the CRA and the European Sovereign Tech Fund
• The evolving cloud market: from lock-in and interoperability to public sector procurement and the EuroStack
• The need for trusted, open infrastructure for AI, digital identity, and essential public services
• The role of public sector OSPOs as engines of institutional capability
• The case for a Fourth European Standardisation Organisation (ESO) to support open development
• Opportunities for open source to support chip-level innovation — from CUDA alternatives to RISC-V

Participants will include policymakers from key Directorates-General (CONNECT, GROW, DIGIT, and BUDG), open source industry leaders, large IT users, and public administrations. Together, they will explore how open source can be mobilised to deliver practical, scalable responses to Europe’s most pressing digital policy challenges.

With its focus on alignment, governance, and cross-sectoral collaboration, the Summit will position open source not as an alternative path, but as the foundation of a sovereign, secure, and competitive European digital future.