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On March 5th, 2025, from 13:30 to 15:00 CET, NGI Commons hosted a webinar on “Public Policies for Digital Commons”, bringing together key experts to discuss the evolution of digital commons policies in Europe.
Jan Krewer, policy analyst at Open Future, presented key findings from the report “From Open Access to Collective Governance: Two Decades of Digital Commons Policies in the European Union that we published in January this year.
In a keynote speech titled “The Case for a European Sovereign Tech Fund,” Felix Reda—former MEP and Director of Development Policy at GitHub—advocated for funding critical lower-level tech infrastructure. Reda emphasized that supporting “tech that builds tech” creates the strongest societal impact, drawing lessons from initiatives like EU FOSSA and the Log4Shell vulnerability response.
Paul Keller moderated the subsequent panel discussion featuring Emma Ghariani from the French Prime Minister Services’ Open Source and Digital Commons Division and Diego Naranjo, an independent digital rights expert.
Emma Ghariani emphasized the importance of well-designed distribution mechanisms for open source investments, advocating for a “call for commons” in public procurement to promote cooperation over competition.
Diego Naranjo highlighted the global significance of funding open technologies, noting how tools like Signal can be vital for safety in certain countries, and voiced support for initiatives like EuroStack.
For information about upcoming webinars in the series, visit the NGI Commons events section.
