Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure: A Detailed Case for an EU Sovereign Tech Fund

This talk is a call-to-action to join our campaign to convince the European Union that, in order to secure its digital future, it should invest in open source maintenance via an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF).

Right now, the EU is negotiating its multi-year budget for the period of 2028-2034. Traditionally, the EU budget has been focused on regional development and agriculture, but more and more policymakers are realizing that investment in our digital infrastructure is just as important as maintaining physical roads and bridges. Last year at FOSDEM, we discussed with you what an EU fund for open source maintenance should look like. A lot has happened since then: We have conducted an in-depth study into the political, legal and economic feasibility of an EU-STF, building on the successful example of the German Sovereign Tech Agency. We assembled a coalition of supporters from industry and civil society, and we have presented our proposal to the European Parliament and Member States.

Now it’s time to take the campaign to the next level and we need your support to make it happen. The goal of this session is to present the findings of the feasibility study for the EU-STF and demonstrate why mission-driven investment, coordinated by the public sector, is important for the diversification of Europe’s funding landscape. It will demonstrate concretely how such a proposal can directly improve the sustainability and health of the open source community globally, and why this is so important for Europe in achieving its digital future.