EuroCommons
Migrating together towards open source digital commons
Part of Caisse des Dépôts' €18 billion strategic plan, Horizon Numérique 2030.
€264bn
spent every year by European organisations on non-European digital technologies
A call to large European public and private organisations and to open source vendors to join collective working groups — coalitions — to plan, prepare, finance and execute concrete migrations away from proprietary software dependencies. Together. In project mode. With peers facing the same problems.
©Eurocommons
Why now
The way out is collective
Licence costs rise on average 10% per year. Some vendors have multiplied tariffs up to 10×. Even more concerning, organisations do not exercise full governance and leverage over a digital foundation that is now an even more strategic enabler for their operational efficiency and innovative capacity — with the growing part of AI services.
The open source technical alternatives exist. They are real, innovative and operational. They do not yet run at industrial scale because no single CIO has an interest in moving first and no single vendor can fund the missing developments alone.
Three strong convictions
- Migrations must be demand-driven — based on needs expressed by CIOs, and informed by a critical digital dependencies assessment through the Digital Resilience Index
- The action must be collective — coalitions of CIOs with open source vendors and digital commons players
- We must operate at European scale from day one — the only level to reach critical mass and share costs fast
The mission
To contribute significantly to the independence of European companies and public administrations from the global digital value chain, its many software components and their own digital infrastructure.
Through certified, interoperable, standardized digital commons governed by European players.
The coalitions
11 coalitions covering the critical digital components
- Digital Workplace
- Communications
- Business Applications
- IT & Project Management Tools
- Virtualization
- Cloud, Data, Databases and AI
- Security Tools
- Directories, Identity and SSO
- Desktop Operating System & Apps Engines
- Mobile Operating System & App Store
- Geographic Information & Spatial Data
Sub-coalitions of migration projects will be created depending on discussions, priorities, axes of migrations and the results of the Digital Resilience Index work. We are open to new vertical coalitions — especially if you are already a CIO working group. Contact us: eurocommons@caissedesdepots.fr
What you actually join
A working group of peers, organised by coalition. Inside each of the eleven coalitions, CIOs and open source vendors and contributors meet to:
- map shared use cases and gaps on a defined critical component
- compare and evaluate candidate solutions on real-world migration scenarios
- specify what interoperability means in concrete terms
- prepare migration plans aligned with contractual exit windows already on the table
The first wave of 16-week sprints runs from July 2026 to November 2027. Coalition outputs are tangible: shared specifications, comparative evaluations, pioneer deployments, financed developments and pilot migration plans.
No strings attached
No commitment to migrate at the end. No financial commitment at registration. No exclusivity. You bring declared intent. The working group does the work.
Joining in practice
The alternatives already exist. Most of them are mature and operational. Depending on the building block and the coalition:
Adopt what already works
Move to a mature alternative already running in production elsewhere. The risk has been taken first by others.
Co-fund the last mile, once, together
Pool funding to build the one shared piece no single vendor owns, instead of each paying full price alone.
Make solutions work together by design
Back open standards so European tools interoperate natively and can be combined or swapped without lock-in.
Assemble European winners
Combine proven products from several European vendors into one offer that rivals the integrated suites.
Move ahead instead of catching up
Skip a generation and adopt approaches built for what's next.
What you get
As a CIO
- Access to peers across borders
- Shared specifications you do not have to write alone
- Comparative evaluations of vendor solutions you can re-use in procurement
- Visibility on a vendor ecosystem you cannot organise individually
As an open source vendor or contributor
- Access to aggregated, qualified demand instead of one-by-one CIO negotiations
- Participation in transparent competitive evaluations
- Visibility on the integration, UX, support and innovation dimensions that genuinely differentiate you
By registering
- Operational support supervised by CDC or its trusted partners
- Pooled demand while keeping a voice on your functional requirements
- Coordinated migration commitments
- Cost control guarantee: no vendor lock-in, no sudden imposed cost increases
- Peer sharing from organisations that have already begun migrating
As a foundation or facilitator
- Animation of community and cooperation work needed for these working coalitions
To all participants
You participate in the co-design of a European industry-wide federated governance framework — an accord de filière — for European digital commons and infrastructure, and its financing from Caisse des Dépôts.
EuroCommons kick-off - July 1st - Paris
Salle Wagram, 39-41 avenue de Wagram, 75017
Metro: Ternes or Charles de Gaulle–Étoile
9:00 AM – 8:00 PM · Standing lunch + closing cocktail (6–8 PM)
Language: English
July 1, 2026 marks the EuroCommons kick-off, launching the first TechSprint, when around 300 large European organisations collectively take control of their own digital resilience.
As part of its €18 billion strategic plan, Horizon Numérique 2030, the Caisse des Dépôts will bring together CIOs, open-source software vendors, foundations and public institutions from across Europe to formalise the first cross-border coalitions around shared software components and commit to migrate together.
For CIOs, it is also a chance to meet peers facing the same challenges, hear from organisations that have already taken the plunge, and discover other coalitions to join.
Join a coalition
Specify your organisation, the coalition(s) you wish to join, your executive sponsor, your operational contact and your engagement level: Observer / Contributor / Lead.
Everything is modifiable afterwards. The form is a starting point, not a contract.
Register — CIOs & organisations Register — Open source community