Editor's Pick | Vol. 4 | Issue. 4

Dependency, Not Geography, is the Risk!

Dependency, Not Geography, is the Risk!

Europe’s push for digital sovereignty is gaining momentum, but much of the conversation remains superficial. Drawing on the recent analysis by Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal, the real issue is not whether governments use European or non-European vendors—it’s whether they retain meaningful control over the software that underpins public services. Dependency, not geography, is the risk. Several public institutions are beginning to act on this insight, but the structural implications remain largely unaddressed.

Dries' argument reframes open source from a technical preference into a governance imperative. Open source offers auditability, portability, and independence that proprietary systems cannot. Yet, while Europe’s public sector heavily relies on open source, it consistently fails to invest in its foundations. Procurement practices continue to channel funding toward large integrators and resellers, leaving the maintainers who secure and evolve the software underfunded and overstretched.

The result is a stark mismatch between policy ambitions and spending realities. Governments pay for delivery and compliance but neglect the upstream work that ensures long-term security, resilience, and innovation. As Buytaert makes clear, digital sovereignty won’t be achieved through strategy papers alone. It demands procurement policies that treat open-source contributions as a core public value—not an optional extra.

With that, let's move on to the important stories from the past week.

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We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now. To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn , Twitter , Bluesky , and Facebook . You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes .

Thank you.

Alka Elizabeth 
Sub-editor 
The DropTimes

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