The irruption of Euro-Office in the European office automation landscape It's shaking up a field that seemed completely dominated by the major American suites. Public administrations, companies, and educational institutions have long been looking for ways to reduce their dependence on external platforms, and this project presents itself as a serious attempt to provide a realistic alternative without sacrificing the convenience and compatibility that users are accustomed to.
Driven by a coalition of European technology companies and open source community actorsThe suite was born with a clear mission: to offer tools for editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that can be used within controlled infrastructures in Europe, with open source, shared governance, and a focus on digital sovereigntyIn a context of geopolitical tensions and increasingly strict regulatory demands, the move fits into the EU's strategy of reducing dependence on services from outside the EU.
What is the Euro-Office and how does it fit into the European strategy?
Euro-Office defines itself as an open-source, web-oriented office suiteDesigned for collaborative editing of text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Unlike traditional software packages that are installed and run in isolation on a computer, it is designed to function as a component integrated into other services that already manage files: cloud storage solutions, corporate wikis, project management tools or collaboration platforms.
The project is backed by more than a dozen European organizations Among them are IONOS, Nextcloud, Eurostack, XWiki, OpenProject, Soverin, Abilian, and the Catalan consultancy Btactic, specializing in open-source software and cloud computing for businesses. This mix of cloud providers, collaboration experts, and IT service companies aims to build a mature and sustainable European office infrastructure, with special attention to the European Union market and countries like Spain, where the administration and many companies already work with open solutions.
The initiative arose in response to a shared concern: the structural dependence on suites like Microsoft Office or Google WorkspaceWhile these solutions are well-established, they raise concerns about data sovereignty, the physical location of information, and their compatibility with regulations such as the GDPR. According to executives like Achim Weiss, CEO of IONOS, recent geopolitical events have highlighted the need for an alternative that is "fully compatible with Microsoft and easy to use," but under European control and with transparency in development.
Main features and file formats supported by Euro-Office
In functional terms, Euro-Office covers the usual spectrum of a modern suite: word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editorwith real-time collaboration. All of this is offered through a intuitive and familiar web interfacedesigned to make the transition from other commercial suites as smooth as possible and not require lengthy training.
One of the project's key aspects is compatibility. Euro-Office works with DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX file formats, widely used in the corporate world, but also with other files that are very common in everyday life: PDF, TXT and the open formats ODT, ODS and ODP associated with the OpenDocument standard. This compatibility aims to allow complex documents to circulate between different environments without breaking layouts or formulas, a critical point for any organization that values ​​the continuity of its workflow.
The suite allows view, edit and collaborate simultaneously on documentsSpreadsheets, presentations, and even some types of PDF files can be created. After working on them, the user can save the file in the same application from which it was opened (for example, a cloud storage service or an internal wiki) or download it in various formats depending on their needs. The idea is to accommodate hybrid environments where different tools and providers coexist, something quite common in European companies and public organizations.
Although the heart of the project is the web version, other aspects have also been considered. mobile and computer applications which rely on these editors, with the aim of covering more varied use cases. All of this is built on source code published under open source license without restrictions linked to trademarksso that any third party can audit, deploy or adapt the suite with a clearer legal framework than other hybrid proposals.
A suite designed to integrate with existing services
One of the defining characteristics of Euro-Office is that It is not designed to function as a standalone program. installed separately on each computer. Instead, it acts as an office editing service that integrates with applications that already manage documents. In practice, this means that, for example, a user who has their files on a Nextcloud server or an XWiki instance will be able to Open a document, presentation, or spreadsheet and view it directly in the Euro-Office editor. without leaving their usual environment.
This approach benefits both customers and service providers. Organizations already using platforms such as Nextcloud, OpenProject, or European storage solutions They get a directly integrated office engine, while vendors avoid having to develop their own document editors from scratch, with the associated costs and complexity. By relying on Euro-Office, they can focus on their core expertise and share a common technological base reviewed by a broad community.
For public administrations and companies in Spain and the rest of Europe, this model fits with the reality of many internal infrastructures, where open-source software services are already used as the backbone of intranets and collaborative spaces. The missing piece was often a office suite consistent with that approach, hosted in data centers chosen by the client or by European providers, and capable of working with formats that have become the de facto standard.
The project managers insist that Euro-Office should be understood more as critical infrastructure component as a mass-market product. Its objective is not to compete in advertising campaigns with the major American suites, but to become the trusted office component for platforms that are committed to digital sovereignty, transparency, and open standards.
Governance model, community and European approach
Beyond the technical aspects, Euro-Office is structured around an open governance model which attempts to move away from vertical structures where a single company sets the course. The suite is developed through a sovereign community collaboration It involves open-source commercial companies, independent developers, and civil society entities that share a concern for digital rights and technological autonomy.
Figures like Frank Karlitschek, CEO of NextcloudThey emphasized that Europe had possessed the necessary technical components for years to build its own office automation infrastructure, but lacked an initiative capable of integrating them and assuming responsibility for that system. The fact that Publish the code, remove limitations linked to trademarks Designing a shared governance framework aims to foster constant scrutiny by the community, which is especially relevant for those managing sensitive information or public data.
The coalition makes an open appeal to companies, government agencies, developer communities and civil society organizations They are inviting those who support open standards and digital sovereignty to join the project. The idea is to build a sustainable ecosystem around Euro-Office, in which the suite evolves based on the participation of those who use and deploy it in practice, from IT departments of Spanish public bodies to cloud service providers spread throughout the Union.
Origin of the Euro-Office code: fork of ONLYOFFICE and debate on trust
One of the most delicate aspects of the project is that Euro-Office does not start completely from scratch.The suite is built like a Microsoft Office suite, a well-known open-source office platform. According to its developers, they have reviewed and refined the portion of the code available under the AGPL license to facilitate compilation, external contributions, and the removal of elements they consider problematic from a governance and transparency standpoint.
The promoters argue that the decision to split the project is a response to difficulties in collaborating on the original development of ONLYOFFICEThey cited unanswered pull requests, outdated build instructions, references to internal bug tracking systems, and the presence of obfuscated or binary components that, in their view, hindered the participation of a broader community. They also noted the existence of proprietary components in certain applications, especially mobile applications, as an additional source of friction.
In addition to these technical reasons, there is a geopolitical factor. Euro-Office's promoters point out that a significant part of ONLYOFFICE's development takes place in Russia and that, in the current political context, Many European organizations are reluctant to base critical infrastructures on software they perceive as potentially susceptible to manipulation. by external governments. That combination of lack of openness in development and doubts about the location of the team would have been, according to the European consortium, the definitive trigger to propose a bifurcation with a different governance model.
However, from the ONLYOFFICE perspective, it is clarified that Ascensio System SIA has been headquartered in Latvia for over a decade And it is worth remembering that the open nature of a free software project does not depend exclusively on its geographical origin. This position aligns with the view of a large part of the open source ecosystem, which has traditionally considered that the transparency of the code and the development process It is the main factor in evaluating trust in a tool.
The legal battle over the AGPL license and trademarks
The Euro-Office fork has given rise to a notable legal conflict surrounding the interpretation of the AGPLv3 licenseONLYOFFICE distributes its code under this license, but by making use of Section 7, which allows adding additional conditionsAmong them, as detailed by the company itself, are the obligation to preserve the original logo and trademark in derivative works and the prohibition of granting rights to its trademarks.
The developers of Euro-Office have opted for remove those additional clauses and Ascensio System's contact information in its version of the code, arguing that AGPLv3 itself allows users to remove added terms from the license that go beyond what is stipulated in its main sections. From this perspective, a logo is considered a brand element and not an authorship attribution mechanismTherefore, it should not be protected under the same conditions as the source code.
ONLYOFFICE's response has been emphatic. The company maintains that The additional conditions form an integral part of the license under which the right to use and modify the software is granted.Their legal team argues that the AGPLv3 is not a set of clauses that can be selected at will and that if a derivative project unilaterally eliminates these obligations, it is acting outside the scope of the license. In this scenario, appealing to the AGPL itself, they believe that a violation would occur. an automatic termination of usage rights.
ONLYOFFICE accuses Euro-Office of using technology derived from its publishers without respecting these additional conditions and demands a full and immediate compliance of the obligations linked to the license before assessing the criticisms made of its development model or the geopolitical situation. The dispute, which mixes copyright, trademarks, and free software philosophy, has ignited a debate in the community about How far can restrictions related to brand image go? within projects that are declared open.
Digital sovereignty, trust and a focus on European administrations
Beyond the exchange of legal statements, what is at stake is the capacity of European institutions to rely on tools that meet their digital sovereignty requirementsPublic administrations, strategic companies and educational centers across the continent are reviewing their dependence on large non-European productivity platforms, not only for cost reasons, but also because of the impact it has on information control and regulatory compliance.
Euro-Office seeks to respond to this demand by proposing frictionless management of widely used document formatswith an interface that reduces the need to reconfigure template training. By publishing all the source code under an open license without trademark restrictions and developing the suite through a transparent, verifiable, and open-to-contribution process, the developers aim to offer an option that combines functionality and strategic resilience.
In the Spanish case, the participation of companies such as Btactic, based in CataloniaIt offers a unique approach to the network of SMEs, local governments, and organizations already working with open-source solutions. In other EU countries, players like Soverin, focused on secure email infrastructure, and OpenProject, specializing in project management, complement the ecosystem, reinforcing the idea that Euro-Office is not intended to be an isolated product, but rather the core office automation system of a broader work environment governed from Europe.
The debate has also brought to light a more philosophical question: whether the community and open model can compete with the investment capacity of large technology companiesThe coalition's strategy involves distributing responsibility and effort among multiple organizations to prevent a single company's change of strategy from leaving thousands of users without support. This risk sharing, combined with the ability to audit every line of code, is presented as a compelling argument for those who manage particularly sensitive information.
Current status of the project and roadmap
At the moment, Euro-Office is in preliminary version phaseThe coalition has made a tech preview available to the public. on GitHub which allows administrations, companies and independent developers Test the basic functions, verify compatibility with your workflows and submit comments or reports. This period serves both to refine the tool and to send an open signal, showcasing the code and development from early stages.
The first stable version is scheduled for the next summerAnd the participants claim to have committed significant resources in the medium and long term. It is not presented as a one-off experiment, but as a structured attempt for the Euro-Office to become a common component of European digital infrastructuresin both the public and private sectors. The goal is for it to be integrated into administration modernization projects, corporate intranets, educational platforms, and cloud-based collaboration systems managed from Europe.
Meanwhile, the project's promoters are keeping open an appeal to startups, public sector bodies and civil society groups who advocate for open standards and technological autonomy. They are invited to join the common governance framework, contribute code, raise functional needs, and ultimately, help shape the evolution of the suite so that it better responds to the real demands of users and IT managers.
At this point, Euro-Office emerges as much more than just another text editor: the suite is at the center of a discussion about How does Europe want to organize a basic piece of its digital infrastructure?If the project manages to consolidate a broad adoption community and maintain a technically sound development, it can become a benchmark alternative for administrations, companies, and educational institutions seeking compatibility with dominant formats, control over their data, and open governance that aligns with the priorities of the European Union.
