The Danish report does not suggest that open technologies are a panacea, nor that organisational change is cost-free. Its cautious treatment of skills, security and governance is well founded, but it is not specific to open source. These considerations apply to all software, whether proprietary or open.

OSPOs provide a practical way to address these challenges systematically. By embedding skills, governance and reuse into a standing organisational mandate, OSPOs raise the maturity of how public administrations engage with software overall, regardless of licensing model. Through this shift, the public sector can move from being a passive consumer of digital products to an active, informed user and steward of digital systems.

For policymakers in Brussels, the takeaway should be that achieving all competitiveness and sovereignty does not require trade-offs, if Europe builds its public sector digital strategy on open source. Without the systematic consideration of open source technologies, public spending forgoes a proven lever for achieving digital sovereignty and competitiveness.