Why European Governments Are Building Their Own Microsoft Alternative

The Euro-Office consortium, comprised of eight European tech companies, launched an open-source office suite to challenge Microsoft's dominance in European public sector productivity software. This initiative aims to provide European governments and agencies with a sovereign alternative, addressing legal and political pressures related to U.S. data access under the CLOUD Act. Euro-Office, a fork of OnlyOffice, offers full compatibility with Microsoft formats, removing a significant barrier to adoption. Several European governments are already migrating to open-source solutions like LibreOffice, with Schleswig-Holstein projecting €15 million in annual savings. Microsoft's attempts to offer sovereign cloud solutions are viewed skeptically by some, who argue that true data sovereignty requires open-source software. The trend towards sovereign cloud infrastructure is expected to grow, with Gartner projecting European spending to triple by 2027.