Euro-Office: European Tech Coalition to Challenge Microsoft with Open Source
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Digital sovereignty is shaping up to be the tech topic of the year — at least among public authorities, organizations, and corporations in Europe. A coalition of leading European technology companies and organizations has now unveiled the office suite Euro-Office. The solution is intended to provide a fully sovereign, Microsoft-compatible alternative to established productivity platforms, targeting companies, public authorities, and civil-society organizations that want to strengthen their digital independence. A technical preview is already available on GitHub, with the first stable release expected in summer 2025.
Background and Objectives
The initiative emerged against the backdrop of growing concerns about European organizations’ dependence on non-European software vendors. Geopolitical developments and legal frameworks such as the US CLOUD Act have recently intensified the debate around digital sovereignty. Euro-Office relies on open-source licenses, transparent governance, and a codebase free of trademark restrictions.
According to the initiative’s founders, existing alternatives on the market frequently exhibit weaknesses in compatibility with Microsoft formats, carry licensing risks, or are developed without open participation structures. Euro-Office aims to close these gaps by combining a familiar user interface with a sustainable, independent community structure.
“Given the geopolitical developments of the past year, Europe urgently needs a reliable, fully Microsoft-compatible, and easy-to-use sovereign office solution. Our initiative offers a suite with a familiar interface that covers all the features needed to work with documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.” – Achim Weiß, CEO of IONOS
Technical Foundation
Euro-Office supports editing common document formats, including DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX as well as open ODF formats. The suite is designed for seamless compatibility with existing Microsoft workflows in order to minimize migration effort for organizations. The source code is published under open-source licenses and is publicly accessible.
Participating Organizations
The initiative brings together commercial open-source companies, independent developers, and civil-society actors under a shared governance framework. The following table provides an overview of the participating organizations and their areas of focus:
| Organization | Origin | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| IONOS | Germany | Cloud hosting, digitalization for SMEs, 6.6 million customers in 17 markets |
| Nextcloud | Germany | Privacy-focused collaboration platform, most widely used in its category worldwide |
| EuroStack Initiative | Europe | Industrial policy initiative for European digital infrastructure and cloud ecosystems |
| bTactic | Catalonia, Spain | Cloud collaboration based on free software, with a focus on technological sovereignty |
| Soverin | Netherlands | European email platform, ISO-certified, NIS2- and GDPR-compliant |
| Abilian | France | Open-source solutions for the digital transformation of SMEs and public administrations |
| XWiki | France | Open-source knowledge management and wiki platforms, founded in 2004 |
| OpenProject | Germany | Open-source project management for classic, agile, and hybrid working methods |
Governance and Community
Euro-Office explicitly sees itself as a community initiative and invites further companies, public bodies, and civil-society organizations to get involved. Development is intended to take place through a transparent process that enables public oversight and participation. All participating organizations have committed to providing substantial resources for the project.
“Europe has had the technical building blocks for years. What was missing until now was an initiative to bring them together into a meaningful overall solution. With Euro-Office, we are not starting from scratch — we are taking responsibility for an important piece of digital infrastructure.” – Frank Karlitschek, CEO of Nextcloud
A Similar Initiative: Office.eu Already Launched
Euro-Office is not the only European initiative in this space. Office.eu recently went live — an all-in-one work environment likewise based on Nextcloud Hub, which was officially launched in The Hague in March 2026. The offering is aimed primarily at private individuals as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, with broad availability across Europe planned for the second quarter of 2026. Both projects pursue comparable goals with regard to data sovereignty, GDPR compliance, and independence from non-European providers.
Outlook
The technical preview of Euro-Office is available on GitHub as of now. Interested organizations and individuals can test the core functionality, check compatibility, and submit feedback. The first stable release is planned for summer. The consortium explicitly calls on further European actors committed to open standards and digital sovereignty to get involved.
