Video summary
Thibaut Kleiner opens his keynote by reflecting on the dramatic shift in the perception of open source software over the past year, noting that what was once viewed as a niche hobby or an unreliable alternative is now recognized as the backbone of the global digital infrastructure, with approximately 80% of all software relying on it. He emphasizes that while Europe possesses a vast community of three million programmers contributing to this codebase, the continent has historically failed to organize itself to fully reap the benefits of this development, leaving control largely in the hands of non-European foundations. Consequently, the European Union has launched a comprehensive open source strategy as a centerpiece of its tech sovereignty package, aiming to transform open source from a side show into the primary engine for technological advancement and ensuring that Europe retains freedom by making rather than merely buying technology.
The strategy is built upon four key pillars designed to address both existing strengths and critical gaps in European technology. The first pillar focuses on utilizing current open source assets to build sovereign capabilities, acknowledging specific deficits in areas like operating systems and advanced AI while establishing new collaborative structures such as the Digital Commons to host and distribute code. The second pillar addresses sustainability by committing EU funding to maintain open source projects and ensuring that communities have proper governance and control over the code they develop, preventing scenarios where access is suddenly revoked due to external corporate decisions. Furthermore, the strategy clarifies misconceptions regarding cybersecurity, arguing that open code allows for thorough verification and collective improvement, thereby enhancing security rather than compromising it, while also promoting viable business models that go beyond simple free distribution.
To ensure widespread adoption, the third and fourth pillars focus on empowering the public sector and fostering international cooperation. Kleiner highlights the need to move beyond small-scale, isolated efforts by creating a shared catalog of solutions and establishing Offices for Open Source (OSO) to help governments navigate procurement processes and build necessary skills. The ultimate goal is to create competitive, transferable solutions that can be used across different member states and municipalities, ensuring that public money funds public code that benefits society broadly. Beyond Europe's borders, the strategy envisions open source as a tool for global sovereignty, allowing developing nations in regions like Africa and Latin America to access European code and inspiration to build their own local ecosystems while sharing results and experiences internationally.
In conclusion, Kleiner asserts that the transition from identifying challenges to executing a concrete plan marks a pivotal moment of truth for Europe's technological future. While legislation through acts like the Cloud and AI Development Act will help embed open source principles into spending and usage policies, the ultimate success depends on convincing stakeholders to embrace this path despite lingering perceptions that proprietary software is easier or more supported. He warns that failing to seize this opportunity would be a self-inflicted wound, urging the community to remain resilient and determined to make open source a mainstream solution for tech sovereignty. With a clear strategy in place and a strong community ready to organize, the focus now shifts to execution, aiming to return in a year with tangible proof that Europe has successfully delivered on its vision of an open, secure, and sovereign digital future.
Read the full video transcript
Thank you very much for the invitation.
Especially I would like to to thank the
Cypress authorities, the Cypress
Institute, Open Forum Europe.
I think it's very nice that you organize
your conferences also together with the
EU presidencies because it's an
opportunity not only to speak about open
source and about the the merits of this
technology but it's also an opportunity
to link with the local communities
because I think open source is more than
just a choice. It's also a almost a fact
of life. It's a choice about how you
relate with your fellow developers, how
you build ecosystems.
And I would say I would start by saying
what a difference a year made because
more or less one year ago I was
addressing a similar audience of
programmers and opensource uh activists
even and I was telling them look you
know we have a problem that opensource
somehow in policy making as a as a
strange image you know some people don't
take it seriously some people think AR
is just you know a bunch of you know
people who are doing this in their spare
time. Open source is not necessarily
that reliable. It's never going to be
something that large companies take very
very seriously.
And in my speech I was telling them that
we needed to fight this perception
because it's actually factually not
correct. Today the world runs on open
source. 80% of all software is based on
open source. we may not see it and the
reason is that in Europe we maybe have
been too how could I say we we've been
doing it the you know the development
but we've not organized ourselves to
reap the benefits out of open-source
development today open source is
controlled by a few foundations that are
not owned or you know controlled by by
Europe most of them and there are
something like 3 million programmers in
the EU that are contributing to the
development of code. You may not know
them but they are doing essential work
for a lot of the software we are we are
using. So what I was saying one year ago
is that maybe we need a strategy. Maybe
we need to put opensource on the map of
policy makers. And that's why I'm really
happy to be here with you today one year
later because we've delivered an EU
opensource strategy. And what is
interesting is that it is centerpiece in
our tech sovereignty package because as
was already said it's not just a choice
in terms of how you develop the
technology. It's a choice about freedom.
It's about about it's a choice about are
you just buying technology or are you
making technology and that's very much
the message also of our strategy is
first to say we have potential in Europe
about this open source we have the
potential to make it not just a sideh
show we have the potential to make it
the main show of how we develop
technologies and I think that's
something that we should not
underestimate you know linking the
communities is very much the essence of
the European Union. We don't have
hyperscalers in Europe, but we have
communities that work with standards
that work with open source with open
specifications
and together we actually very very
strong when we bring this uh in in in
terms of the communities and what is
also nice is that we actually open to
the world and I think it's great to to
see Switzerland I think you're doing
quite a lot of good stuff on on
innovation and I think ranking very very
high. We have also good member states
that are doing well across the EU. But I
think the strength is also in our
diversity in the sectors that we
represent in Europe. We have everything
that we need. We just need to pull it
together and that's what this strategy
is trying to do. We have four priorities
essentially. The first one is to say
let's use open source for sovereignity.
So we did a kind of analysis to find out
that indeed we have some strength. There
are areas in terms of European
technology where we already have the
building blocks you know it is in areas
like you know cloud infrastructure in
some of the software element we have
also gaps specifically for instance you
know operating systems we don't have any
made in Europe we have gaps in terms of
some of the AI developments and advanced
software you know the recent the few
days ago you know the fact that you know
anthropic decided not to distribute
anymore more software means basically we
don't have any alternative in Europe.
Maybe we should use the supercomputers
we are developing to actually train
models and have also the best algorithm
in the world. But today it's not the
case. So what we are saying in the first
pillar of the strategy is let's use the
open source we already have. So adopt
it, use it, deploy it. And here we are
we are counting also on group work and
collaboration with the member states.
very recently uh a structure was
created. It's called the digital commons
European digital infrastructures is
based in Paris and with already eight
member states you know have joined. The
purpose of this vehicle is actually to
host some of the coding and to actually
spread it to show that it can be tested
and adopted by governments but also by
communities more generally. So that's
the first element. use what we have and
use opensource to develop what we miss.
And in that context, we have also in the
tech sovereign package proposed the
cloud and AI development act where we
flag funding opportunities where
precisely opensource will be an
instrument so that Europe has a full
cloud and AI stack and this is very
important and we see open source as a
key ingredient here. The second pillar
is very much about making sure that we
develop the communities. We develop also
opensource as a solution which is
embedded but also which is thriving
because it is based on communities that
are funded properly because also it can
be sustainable and too often that's the
problem. We we found out we did a
consultation you know earlier this year
very successful a lot of replies more
than 1,600 people replied to the the
public consultation and all of them were
pointing at this problem that you know
it's good to develop open source code
it's even better if you maintain it over
time but who is doing that very often we
found out that this is about volunteers
it's about people who have maybe another
job and are doing this you almost in
their spare time maintaining the code,
fixing the bugs, improving it. We need
to bring more money to this activity and
that's what Europe is committing to. We
will launch a facility to maintain
open-source code in the future and put
some EU funding in this area. We also
found that too often we miss foundations
to organize and host and make sure that
the communities also not only interact
but make sure that they have some
control on the code because it's nice
when you have open source you can play
with it you can do something with it you
can develop it but if the foundation is
controlled by somebody else outside of
Europe from one day to the next it may
be taken out this is what happened
actually recently to some countries they
could not access anymore GitHub. This is
what happened a few years back when open
AI decided to go proprietary and from
one day to the next you could not access
the code anymore. So what we are calling
for is also in Europe to make sure that
we don't only have the developers, we
don't only have the good code, we also
have the governance to make sure that it
remains accessible and that for the
future it will be also an opportunity
that is maintained but also that is
credible as an alternative. And in
addition, we want to make sure that the
companies that use open source have a
good business model because if it's
free, you may wonder how do I make money
with this? Of course, open source is not
really for free. It is actually based on
services that you provide around or on
models that are maybe free until it
becomes, you know, with additional
features that you pay for. That's very
important. If we want a thriving
ecosystem, it needs to be funded and
this cannot only come from the public
sector. So again, we will try to use our
startup fund for instance startup and
scale up fund to make sure that
opensource is also a valid business. And
in this pillar also what we want to make
sure is that security is also very much
in the genetics of open source because
uh to to tell you the truth when I was
proposing you know some very uh you know
positive element on open source the
message I got back know from various
stakeholders is you know what opensource
maybe is not so good for cyber security
you know if you have it open somebody
will read the code they will find the
bugs they will exploit it so it's not so
good. The actually that's probably the
reverse that we should explain. If it's
open, it means that people can check it.
People can verify it. You can use AI
actually to verify it very thoroughly.
And in the end, if you have an open
source software, it can be better in
terms of cyber security. That's actually
what the Cyber Resilience Act recognizes
when it says that if you use open
source, you escape some elements in
terms of the risk assessment in the in
the regulation. But this is really a
collective effort. We cannot stand still
and wait for people to say that open
source is not cyber secure especially in
these days where you are facing very
rapid use of any uh you know fault any
bugs in in the software. So that's
really a call for action and that's what
the strategy also is pointing out. The
last two pillars are also very important
because they are about the uptake of
open source. First we want to make the
public sector a place where open source
is thriving. Today you know when I go
around Europe I meet many municipalities
many regions who tell me very proudly oh
I'm you know I'm not using anymore some
of this hyperscaler solution you know
I'm developing some open source. That's
very nice. But if you do this bottom up
small scale, it means that you reinvent
the wheel all the time. What we want to
do in Europe is actually to build a
system whereby we build on open source,
but we actually pull our efforts
together so that we have solutions that
are really competitive that you can
transfer from one member states to the
next from one municipality to the other.
So what we propose is to have really a
catalog of solutions whereby you know
the public sector when they use open
source and public money public code I
think is a is a great principle we'll
actually put the results in a common
repository so that we find out about it
we can use it again
and in the same vein what we want to
make sure is that we improve the public
procurement all together. What we found
is that too often the public sector
doesn't know how to procure open source
solutions. They are a bit worried that
you know it's too complicated. They
don't have necessarily the skilled
people inside the government to to make
sure that they they know how to use it.
They implement it properly. What we are
proposing is first to make sure that we
improve the the way you procure so that
we provide guidance you know guidelines
learning so that the public sector knows
how to use open source in their
tendering but we want to develop what we
call the OSO you know this offices for
open source where governments around
Europe can again develop these
capacities so that they know how to use
open source and they build a network
between them and uh develop their skills
and competencies. This we believe will
be a very positive element and it will
make open source not only as I was
saying earlier a sideshow but something
that governments bid upon and really
develop positively in the future. And
last but not least, we want to make sure
that opensource get credentials not only
in the governments, not only in terms of
adoption in society, but also in terms
of a recognized contribution in
standardization and also
internationally. In Europe, we have this
approach that we want to develop a tech
offer. We want to work internationally,
you know, not only with Switzerland, but
actually with countries in the
developing world, you know, in our
neighborhood. And open source is great
for this because actually if it is for
sovereignity in Europe, it can be for
sovereignity everywhere. It's something
you can share. And I've had very
interesting conversation with
ministries, you know, in in Kenya, in
Latin America, where they're looking at
Europe as a source of code, but also as
a source of inspiration for developing
their own ecosystems locally,
appropriating the the technology and
also making sure that we share the
results and the experience. And I think
this is a very positive message because
we can share not only about how we do
things, we can share about the solutions
to deliver on the ground in these
various countries internationally.
So overall as I said what what a
difference a year made. You know we
started from uh basically a challenge to
today having a plan and today having a
new challenge which is about how to
execute it, how to deliver really on
these elements. We will have through the
cloud and AI development act I think an
opportunity to put in legislation these
principles that you know when you spend
money you should consider open source
and also when you use it you should make
it available to others. We have the
opportunity also to make sure that
through open source we develop new
communities, new solutions. But at the
end of the day, this will require to
convince people to buy and to use open
source even more because I think this is
just the first step. And let's not fool
ourselves. The perception is still that
you know some other software that are
proprietary are easier to use are just
coming your way with the you know the
back office and the support staff. So
it's not an easy journey and I think we
need we will need to be very resilient
but also very determined if we want to
make open source really a mainstream
solution for uh you know our tech
sovereignity. But there is no
alternative. I think this is really the
moment of truth. I'm not sure we should
thank Donald Trump necessarily, but
definitely what we should do is also
look at ourselves in the mirror. If we
are not seizing the opportunity today,
we will have only ourselves to blame. So
my my goal today is to say that we have
the strategy, we have the community,
let's get organized and in one year time
I want to come back and make sure that I
can say we did it. Thank you.