Public Procurement as a Strategic Lever for Digital Sovereignty
Public bodies in the EU are among the largest buyers of digital technologies. Yet procurement decisions have, by default, reinforced the dominance of proprietary and non-European providers, locking institutions into closed ecosystems, weakening autonomy, and leaving open source alternatives without the demand-side support they need to scale.
This does not have to be the case. Procurement is not only a mechanism for purchasing technology. It is also a tool through which public authorities can shape markets, influence how technologies develop, and align investment with long-term public interest. Used strategically, it is one of the most powerful levers available for advancing digital sovereignty.
This policy brief—the second in our Policy Building Blocks for Digital Commons series—sets out a framework that prioritizes open source, interoperable, and sovereign technology providers. It is part of Open Future’s work within the NGI Commons project, informing advocacy ahead of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034).
The brief proposes a set of concrete procurement conditions and criteria, including:
- Requiring source code availability and auditability, and the legal ability to inspect, modify, and reuse software independently of the original supplier.
- Applying a total cost of ownership approach that makes long-term licensing fees and exit costs transparent and comparable.
- Conditioning tender fulfillment on providers contributing improvements back to the shared codebase, in line with the principle of “public money, public code”.
- Mandating interoperability and guaranteed exit rights, including the ability to port data in standard formats and demonstrate live migration to competing platforms.
- Requiring multi-sourcing for contracts of significant value or critical importance, with at least one EU-based provider.
- Channeling demand at the software and platform layers toward cloud providers that meet defined sovereignty criteria.
- Supporting pre-commercial procurement and innovation partnerships to fund the development of open solutions tailored to public needs.
The brief also makes the case for coordination, including pooling expertise across contracting authorities, developing shared model clauses and guidance, and expanding the role of central purchasing bodies so they embed public value—not just price—in procurement decisions.
The forthcoming revision of the Public Procurement Directives and the Cloud and AI Development Act present concrete opportunities to embed these reforms in binding law. Alongside them, the European Open Digital Ecosystems Strategy is expected to set priorities for the adoption of Digital Commons and inform future procurement guidance. Acting now—before the legislative cycle closes—could ensure that sovereignty-oriented criteria are not only defined, but consistently applied.
