EU open Source Policy Summit 2026 - Panel: Sovereignty & Procurement

Procurement shapes markets. Yet discussions on digital sovereignty often focus narrowly on public sector procurement, overlooking the shared dependencies and opportunities across Europe’s industrial and critical sectors. This session will examine how non-price criteria — such as openness, interoperability, and sustainability — can strengthen strategic autonomy and innovation across both public and private demand. Panellists will explore what happens when procurement is viewed through the lens of IT users and IT vendors rather than institutional boundaries, and how this perspective can help align incentives, avoid “open washing” and “sovereignty washing”, and build capacity across Europe’s digital economy. The discussion will also ask: what precisely is Europe’s strategic interest in procurement — and how can it be implemented coherently across sectors? Speakers: Michał Kobosko (Member of the European Parliament (Renew Europe)), Pamela Krosta-Hartl (Managing Director, ZenDiS), Dominic