On 20–21 November 2025, the NGI Commons initiative organized the Digital Commons Policy Summit 2025 in Brussels. The event brought together policymakers, public authorities, technologists, and open-source communities to discuss how Europe can strategically scale Digital Commons as foundational infrastructure for digital sovereignty.

Day 1 featured two panels moderated by Open Future. Watch the full day recording or scroll down for key takeaways.

Day 1: Europe’s Digital Sovereignty: Cooperation, Strategic Investment, and Member State Commitment

The Summit opened with a major announcement from Fabrizia Benini, Head of Future Internet at DG CONNECT, and Dr Monique Calisti, CEO of Martel Innovate and NGI Commons Coordinator. Benini outlined the European Commission’s emerging initiatives to strengthen Europe’s Digital Commons—most notably the Digital Commons EDIC and a forthcoming EU Open Source Strategy expected in 2026. She confirmed that the EDIC will officially launch on 11 December 2025 in The Hague, bringing together Member States and private actors to deploy and scale shared digital infrastructure.

Funding Europe’s Digital Future: Parliament and Commission Perspectives on Investment and Sovereignty

The afternoon featured a high-level discussion on Digital Sovereignty: The Role of the EU Budget and Public Investment in Shaping the Internet, moderated by Zuzanna Warso, Director of Research at Open Future Foundation. The panel included Benjamin Bögel from the Cabinet of EVP Henna Virkkunen and Dr Sergey Lagodinsky, Member of the European Parliament, who addressed critical funding gaps in EU digital policy.

Lagodinsky emphasized Europe’s continued role as a global regulatory model and the need to define sovereignty while acknowledging unavoidable dependencies. Bögel highlighted the Commission’s Digital Commons commitment, noting open source will receive special status under the Cyber Resilience Act.

On the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework, Lagodinsky outlined three priorities: magnitude (substantial funding), specification (earmarking for AI, quantum, and open source), and strategy (realistic competition assessment). He introduced the Democratic Tech Alliance, emphasizing that “we’re competing with our societal models” and that data protection and sustainability are European competitive advantages.

Operationalizing the Digital Commons EDIC

After the coffee break, Zuzanna Warso moderated a strategic session on EDIC & Member States: How to Operationalise Digital Commons at Scale. Representatives from Member States, the European Commission, civil society, and implementing agencies explored how the EDIC can scale Digital Commons across Europe.

The panel included Emma Ghariani (Head of the Open Source and Digital Commons Division, French Prime Minister Services), Adriana Groh (CEO of the Sovereign Tech Agency), Brando Benifei (Member of the European Parliament), Bartek Tokarz (Legal Officer, European Commission), and Sachiko Muto (Chair at OpenForum Europe, Senior Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden).

Ghariani emphasized that the EDIC will scale existing efforts while promoting open-source adoption and ecosystem funding. Groh argued that open source is “destined” to be handled at the EU level, calling for instruments like a Sovereign Tech Agency in every government to maintain critical infrastructure. Tokarz explained that EDICs are Member State–driven with customizable governance, offering long-term stability. Muto highlighted the need for procurement reform with non-price criteria favoring open-source contributors, pointing to Estonia’s X-Road as a successful model.

The discussion centered on four key priorities:

1. building confidence among public buyers,
2. ensuring democratic governance through Member State leadership,
3. learning from successful models,
4. and matching political ambition with adequate investment.

The session also addressed aligning EDIC goals with NGI and Commons initiatives while tackling governance, coordination, and implementation challenges across Member States.

Open Internet Stack: Digital Commons as the Foundation

The day concluded with an examination of how the Open Internet Stack depends on commons-based infrastructure. Experts discussed the critical role of Digital Commons in building a sovereign and democratic digital ecosystem.

The panel featured Mirko Presser (Aarhus University), Tom Collins (CityMesh), Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network), and Gemma Carrillo (DG CONNECT). They focused on recognizing NGI-funded projects as critical infrastructure, establishing trusted catalogues of quality open-source solutions, expanding Digital Commons beyond software to include protocols, standards, and democratic data governance, and developing certification frameworks to build confidence in commons-based infrastructure.

Day 2: From Vision to Implementation

The second day focused on practical challenges, with procurement reform emerging as a central theme. Experts recommended prohibiting vendor lock-in, prioritizing interoperability, and simplifying procedures.

Representatives from Matrix.org, Blender Studio, F-Droid, and GlobaLeaks shared their experiences maintaining essential infrastructure. They emphasized the need for stable funding, simpler grant processes, and clearer regulatory guidance.

Watch the full Day 2 recording below:

A Forward-Looking Perspective

The Summit confirmed a profound shift: Digital Commons are now recognized as foundational infrastructure for a sovereign, competitive, and democratic European digital ecosystem. Success will require coordinated EU governance through the EDIC, strategic multi-year funding, procurement reform, strong community engagement, and early visible wins. The next Summit will reconvene in 2026.

Learn more about Digital Commons and the EU’s Digital Sovereignty Agenda in this piece by Zuzanna Warso, which explores how Digital Commons are moving to the center of Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda as policymakers seek coordinated ways to fund, govern, and scale shared public-interest digital infrastructure.