Live images of me gesturing reverently to the projector screen as if it was some kind of eldritch horror (this did indeed suffice to get it working ) #FOSDEM

Good morning from #brussels #euopensourceweek #EUOpenSourcePolicySummit, opening with an address from the executive vice president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and democracy (The EU's digital minister), Henna Virkkunen

#EUpol #EUOpenSourcePolicySummit2026

The first in person speaker today is Dirk Schrödter, Minister of Digitalisation of #schleswigholstein, which recently completed a transition to #OpenSource software!

Telling us: "Sovereignty today depends on the ability to understand, control & develop digital infrastructure. When the government doesn't control the software its IT systems rely on, it loses control of the ability to govern". "It cannot be right that we export public money and import foreign dependency"

What a start 🔥

#EUpol

Moving on now to a panel bringing together politicians and business leaders. Member of the European Parliament, Aura Salla opens with a bombshell: (paraphrased): "If the US threw a kill switch our public authorities would collapse within the hour". 😱😱

#EUpol

Of Europe's dependence on proprietary tech, "anyone can understand today that the threat is actually real" says Element CEO @Amandine

"A multi-supplier strategy enables healthy competition between suppliers, leading to taster innovation and competitiveness" says Andrea Galio of #RiskV

On resilience, Daniel Glazman, CTO of Thales, says "being resilient in software is not easy. Change doesn't't happen overnight. Even if you use one component in VMware, switching is extremely complicated and costly. Because of that cost, very often we aren't making that move"

When asked how Europe can strengthen and scale it's Open Source ecosystem, @Amandine replies: more contributions to Open Source software. Reforming procurement can achieve that by mandating upstream contributions. Governments could take the approach or "if you don't contribute back to the software you've built on, I won't buy from you"

She also highlights challenges for developers to go from a project to a business, and the need to push for interoperability to break down switching barriers!

Of the AI bubble, Daniel Glazman says "Juniors are let go, seniors are unharmed for now. Software engineers are moving to studying AI, putting Open Source at risk because we are losing software engineers"

Could this be a place for Europe to shine ?

We are now hearing from Frank Feldmann, the chief strategy officer at #SUSE!

"Developers and policy folk have one thing in common: if you write code, you probably have trouble understanding what policy does, and if you write policy, you probably have trouble understanding what code does!"

FYI: The event is livestreamed here! You just have to register! https://summit.openforumeurope.org/

Frank highlights a fear: if we build the infrastructure without the software, the infrastructure will just be a small-margin European host for big-margin software from abroad.

"We don't need one software giant, we need 10, 20, 30 giants, ideally all competing with each other!", says Frank

And now for a panel provocatively titled "Europe as the world's home for Open Source", moderated by the venerable James Lovegrove from Red Hat. #OSI is very well represented with our ED, Deb Bryant and board member and Apache President Ruth Suehle!

Ruth Suehle is talking about the CRA, pondering it create new funding or business models for Open Source, talking specifically about the voluntary security attestations for Open Source in the CRA!

"The CRA is a floor for community not a ceiling for development" says Ruth! I couldn't agree more!

#OSI's ED, Deb Bryant is now talking, "The best way to extract value from Open Source is to participate in it", says Deb.

Deb also highlights the financing challenges, in particular given layoffs in OSPOs at corporations who previously contributed significantly to Open Source projects, and highlights the need for changes in procurement to incentivise participation!

Fabrizio Benini of the European Commission highlights the vital role of the Open Source Community in Europe in her closing statement

Drupal board chair, Baddy Sonja Breider closes by thanking the European Commission as both a big user and participant in the Drupal community!

Deb Bryant from #OSI closes with a warning against isolationism: "Please remember that Open Source has always been a global community, it brings me a lot of hope that we can collaborate together". Daniel Stenberg agrees: "With Open Source there are no borders".