‘For many years, Europe has relied on American software and therefore created a certain dependency risk’, said the Office.eu CEO.
A lot has happened in the last few years for Europe not to strengthen its dominance of data in the region.
Many comments from the US president Donald Trump threatening to take action against the EU for its perceived acts of discrimination against US Big Tech, the possibility that the US government could force US technology companies to share data with the EU, and, not to mention, the same Big Tech companies that dominate the regional market, while also violating its laws.
For example, Microsoft 365 was found to be illegally tracking the data of EU school students. Apple was found to be preventing EU users from opting out, and Meta was forcing users to pay or consent to its data tracking.
Last November, nearly 900 policymakers met in Berlin to discuss ways to make Europe more technologically strong, and less dependent on the US.
France and Germany took the main stage, announcing a joint group for digital independence, which aims to
“The Digital Sovereignty Summit sends a clear signal – Europe has what it takes to lead the digital age,” commented French president Emmanuel Macron at the time. “Europe is stepping up to accelerate the development of European innovations, support strong data protection, and call for fairer market conditions.”
The concept of digital sovereignty has finally taken hold in Europe, after years of the region running its business and governance on an infrastructure made elsewhere.
It’s no surprise, then, that a European subsidiary of Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, called Office.eu, debuted last week, promising to empower organizations to regain control of their data and digital operations.
“We have realized more and more how important it is to be independent and depend on a software system built according to European standards,” said Maarten Roelfs, CEO of Office.eu. The Hague-headquartered company was founded in 2024 and began operations earlier this year.
“For many years, Europe has relied on American software and therefore created some dependency risks, but we have also given up control over our data. Office.eu proves that we now have a strong European alternative, with sovereignty, privacy and transparency at its core.”
Office.eu operates entirely in European data centers. Built on an open source foundation, the platform offers a cloud drive, tools such as email, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar, and video conferencing services.
Early Access already has nearly 15,000 applicants, Office.eu told SiliconRepublic.com. A phased European rollout is planned for the second quarter.
Office.eu’s Office Suite is not the first of its kind, however. Infomaniak, which describes itself as “an ethical cloud with no nonsense”, is launching ‘kSuite’ back in 2022, an alternative to Microsoft Teams called ‘kChat’, and the option to use Microsoft Office with documents hosted in Switzerland.
OpenDesk, created by the German Center for Digital Sovereignty, offers similar tools for use by German administrators. There are also others, such as NextCloud, which offer self-hosted file storage, file and chat functionality.
“The Rubicon has been crossed. American technology firms can no longer give guarantees to European companies that their data sovereignty will be protected,” Roelfs told Story of Purpose.
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