No digital sovereignty without open source, warns OSBA

After 100 days in office, the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) has accused the grand coalition of failing to deliver on key promises from the coalition agreement to promote open source software. Despite the announcement of record investments in the 2025 federal budget, open source and digital sovereignty have played virtually no role in the federal government's projects to date, the industry association criticized.

Important projects such as the Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS), openCode or openDesk would only receive minimal funding. According to the OSBA, ZenDiS needs at least 30 million euros a year, but only 2.6 million – is planned, which is too little to achieve the announced goals.

Open source by default?

The OSBA also sees untapped potential in the recently adopted draft of the Public Procurement Acceleration Act. A legal requirement for "open source by default" in procurement law could strengthen the position of European IT providers and reduce dependencies on US companies is, however, missing from the current draft.

The Ministry of Digital Affairs is currently working on the German stack – an interoperable, sovereign IT framework. The OSBA criticizes the fact that there has been no clear commitment to open source so far. The project can only contribute to digital sovereignty with open standards and open source software.

OSBA board member Peter Ganten called on the government to quickly establish an independent open source strategy in the Ministry of Digital Affairs, to adequately fund existing projects, to firmly anchor open source standards in the German stack. He also called on the government to establish an "open source by default" regulation in public procurement law. Otherwise, billions would flow to US big tech companies and existing dependencies would be reinforced.

Criticism also from the FSFE

The Free Software Foundation Europe also sees the demand for free software in public administration as unfulfilled. "If the German government is serious about technological sovereignty, it must consistently rely on free software. This is the decisive prerequisite for vendor independence, interoperability and genuine innovation," explains Johannes Näder, Senior Policy Project Manager at FSFE. The government must guarantee secure, long-term funding for free software and its initiatives, such as ZenDiS and prioritize free software in public procurement. This is the only way to solve the government's risky dependence on proprietary providers.

The Open Source Business Alliance represents over 240 companies in the sector in Germany. It sees open source and open standards as the central basis for digital sovereignty, innovation and security in the digital transformation. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is committed to promoting and protecting free software and strengthening digital freedoms and self-determination in Europe.

(odi)