Digital sovereignty in Europe is taking another step forward. Office.eu has officially launched in The Hague. This new cloud service is positioning itself as a fully European, open‑source‑based alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The service promises digital sovereignty, strict compliance with European Union (EU) law, and a familiar cloud‑office experience for organizations wary of US platforms.
The new service is operated entirely by European owners and runs solely on EU-based infrastructure and data centers. This design, the company argues, keeps customer data "under European jurisdiction" and insulated from foreign legal regimes, such as the US CLOUD Act. By tying its technical and corporate structure to European territory, the company is directly tapping into long‑running concerns among EU policymakers and public bodies about dependence on US cloud giants for everyday productivity tools.
In a statement, Maarten Roelfs, CEO of Office EU, made this position clear: "We have seen more and more how essential it is to become cloud-independent and to rely on software that is built around European values. For many years, Europe has relied on American software and, therefore, created a certain risk of dependency. We have also given away control over our own data. Office.eu proves that we now have a strong European alternative, with sovereignty, privacy, and transparency at its core."
Roelfs isn't trying to convince people to change. With the change in government in the US, many EU governments and agencies are dumping American-based cloud services as fast as they can. This movement includes France, which is dumping Microsoft Teams and Zoom, the Austrian military, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, Danish government organizations, and the French city of Lyon. These governments and agencies are dropping Microsoft programs in favor of homegrown European alternatives.
Built primarily on the EU-based, open-source Nextcloud Hub, Office.eu bundles file storage and sharing, email, calendar, online document editing, and chat plus video calls into a single, browser‑based platform. The service deliberately mimics the look and feel of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace to ease migration.
Office.eu suggests most migrations will be fast and easy because core components rely on standard formats and protocols. For example, email via IMAP and calendars via CalDAV. For documents, Office EU supports common Microsoft Office formats such as DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX. Office.eu will provide migration tools, though it hasn't said what these tools will be.
The company also provides desktop sync clients for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, as well as mobile apps. You can also use the web interface if you don't want to install anything.
However, Office.eu recognizes its service isn't right for everyone. Microsoft 365 is a strong choice when you want the widest feature set and the most familiar experience, especially if your team already lives inside Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft identity.
Office EU is the better choice when you want a Europe-hosted workspace by default, a more transparent foundation, and a simpler place for daily work. For many teams, that makes it the best alternative to Office 365, not because it tries to copy every Microsoft feature, but because it reduces complexity and gives you a clearer sense of control over where your data lives, who can access it, and how dependent you are on decisions made outside your organisation.
Still, for many Europeans, Office EU will prove an excellent choice. If privacy and control are important to you, Office EU deserves your attention.
(Score: 4, Informative) by ataradov on Monday March 09, @07:34PM (3 children)
There is nothing there to try. Their FAQ is full of "will do this" and "will do that". When it will do any of this and what is the point of launching absolutely nothing?
They claim it is open source. Where is the code?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Monday March 09, @08:18PM (2 children)
They said it was primarily built on nextcloud hub. So if you are familiar with that, most if not all of the code they plan for the suite already exists and you can try it out for yourself now. Cloud file and document storage, and collaboration, email/messaging/video chat/meetings etc. Presumably they're slapping some branding on it, and will manage EU based hosting, compliance, and IT / end user customer support for you (??); if that's all they're doing they could be up and running pretty quickly.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ataradov on Monday March 09, @09:40PM (1 child)
Sure, but the fact that it is based on NextCloud was guessed from screenshots. Their site never mentions that, or extent to which things were customized.
You can't just say go use NextCloud, it is basically the same thing. Their argument for open source is that it can be audited.But what is the point of audit if it is not the exact version that is running?
The whole thing feels like a scam and chap attempt to capitalize on EUs desire to move to local tech.
(Score: 2) by ataradov on Monday March 09, @09:42PM
Also, their wording everywhere implies that this is some EU government initiative, but it looks like it is just a commercial company with a nice domain address.
(Score: 3, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Monday March 09, @07:37PM (6 children)
"keeps customer data 'under European jurisdiction'"
"built around European values"
So there is a mechanism for alerting the authorities when you need to be prosecuted and imprisoned for your document containing "hate speech" or "misinformation"?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09, @07:45PM
Ha ha! I see what you did there.
(Score: 4, Touché) by hendrikboom on Monday March 09, @10:11PM (1 child)
I don't know about "hate speech" or "misinformation", but there are already laws in most European countries against hate speech and misinformation.
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Monday March 09, @10:44PM
Woooooooosh....
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday March 09, @10:11PM
You might be in the ballpark [youtu.be].
(Score: 2) by Lester on Friday March 13, @04:30PM (1 child)
Yes there is, also for your web.
But It must be ordered by a court, not by political government's agenda.
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Friday March 13, @05:42PM
No. We have the first amendment.
Other than incredibly narrow restrictions, like yelling "fire" in a crowded movie theater, you can say whatever you want, and Americans are given the respect to determine for themselves whether or not it's misinformation or hate speech. Activists judges in our lower courts sometimes try to thwart the first amendment, but that's almost always rectified when it reaches the Supreme Court.
(Score: 2) by Deep Blue on Monday March 09, @07:52PM
Let's see, maybe people and companies can get a little further away from the MS and Google dominance. Now we really need a phone OS, that's not subject to the insane rules of Google and Apple and reasonably priced phones for it, cause i'm getting really tired of both of them.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday March 09, @07:59PM (2 children)
MS's grip was loosening anyway. But politics has spurred people to move faster.
Wonder if MS regrets donating to the fascists? I guess what MS really regrets is the fascists being heavy handed dumbasses, and not the general direction the fascists are going. MS, and their fellow commercial tech giants such as Oracle, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook still agree in principle with many fascist ideas. Their whole business strategy is founded on the idea that most users can't program. Occasionally, they fight with one another, and for weapons reach out to libre software. These days, IBM is that sort. IBM too tried the proprietary software model with OS/2, but after they lost to MS, they hooked up with Linux. These tech bros are too much like many of the big industrialists of Nazi Germany.
If they were wise, they'd work out fair ways to fund software development without resorting to IP law and DRM.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday March 09, @11:58PM (1 child)
Modded you +1 Rose coloured glasses everyone should wear.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday March 11, @01:48AM
I'll raise you the s*** covered lenses that the pushers of false scarcity want everyone to wear.
A glass can be considered half empty and half full. Glasses can be both rose colored and s*** covered, or one of those things, or neither. So that means eye glasses are more flexible than drinking glasses?
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday March 09, @08:42PM
Just point out that it does not have 'Teams™' and people will flock to it.
Teams™ is a blessing unto Nuggan [lspace.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by KritonK on Wednesday March 11, @10:44AM
TFA says that Office EU is primarily based on Nextcloud [nextcloud.com]. We switched to a privately hosted Nextcloud installation more than a year ago, and have happily ditched US-based services, such as dropbox, zoom, and MS Office subscriptions, so Office EU sounds like a good alternative. Setting up Nextcloud was a pain, so offering a preconfigured Nextcloud-based service is something to be welcomed. As for replacing MS office, Nextcloud offers two options: Nextcloud Office, which is based on LibreOffice [libreoffice.org], and ONLYOFFICE, which is based on, would you believe it, OnlyOffice [onlyoffice.com]. The first option apparently leaves a lot to be desired. The latter is apparently a lot more compatible with MS Office, but opinions vary. Our CEO used OnlyOffice for a month, found it to be very compatible with MS Office for his kind of work (he is a power user, not a PHB), so he proclaimed the end of MS Office for us. Talking to a colleague, I heard a lot of complaining, but most of it boiled down to "it's not what I'm used to".
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 11, @08:21PM (1 child)
Is that the only day every for years that it works as expected?
Stupid people exist because nothing in the food chain eats them anymore.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cereal_burpist on Thursday March 12, @03:52AM
365 days ought to be enough for anyone.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday March 20, @01:31PM
I wonder how useful this eurocentred system will be fr the rest of the world. Are we allowed to use it? Can we rely on the GDPR privacy protections?