Linux Foundation Report Finds 94% of European Organizations Call Digital Sovereignty Important, While 31% Lack Formal Open Source Governance
The fifth annual State of Open Source in Europe report links sovereignty goals to upstream participation, and counts 48% of organizations running private forks that cost an average of 311 hours per release cycle.
Overview
The Linux Foundation, LF Europe, LF Research and NeoNephos announced the release of the fifth annual 2026 State of Open Source in Europe report at Open Source Summit Europe in Prague on Oct. 7, 2026. According to the press release, 94% of organizations say digital sovereignty is important to their technology strategy, with security and privacy emerging as the leading drivers. The report’s authors, listed on the LF Research report page, are Dr. Mirko Boehm and Paula Grzegorzewska of Linux Foundation Europe, with a foreword by Greg Kroah-Hartman of The Linux Foundation. NeoNephos sponsored the research.
What the Report Says
Sovereignty and participation
The press release states that 61% of organizations consider digital sovereignty very important. It also says European developers account for nearly 40% of contributions to foundational infrastructure projects including Kubernetes and OpenStack.
The Linux Foundation draws a policy-style conclusion from the figures. Thierry Carrez, general manager of Linux Foundation Europe, is quoted in the release as saying: “Europe has clearly heard the message on digital sovereignty. The next step is participation.” He added that “consuming open source alone doesn’t give you effective control over the technology.”
Governance gaps
Per the press release, 31% of European organizations still lack a formal open source governance framework. The same release reports that 63% have increased investment in open source dependency management in response to regulatory pressure.
The report ties governance to financial return, though the two Linux Foundation pages state the figure differently. The press release says organizations with advanced open source governance report an average return of more than 4x their investment, compared with 3.6x among organizations without formal governance. The LF Research report page instead gives a 4.6x benefit-to-cost return for advanced governance, against the same 3.6x for organizations with no formal governance.
Private forks
According to the press release, 48% of organizations maintain private forks of open source projects. Those that do spend an average of 311 hours per release cycle patching 9.5 forks, while 28% cannot track those costs at all.
Generative AI
The release says 94% of organizations are using or piloting generative AI coding tools. It adds that 76% say these tools increase the value they receive from open source, and 48% have increased their open source usage as a result. The report page repeats the 76% figure, describing it as organizations reporting that AI tools help them extract greater value from their existing open source software.
The press release summary also lists “increased strain on open source maintainers” among the challenges that accompany AI adoption, alongside persistent governance gaps, costly private forks and growing regulatory and compliance demands. The release does not quantify the maintainer strain.
Talent
According to the press release, 76% of respondents say open source involvement improves engineering skills and 53% say it supports recruitment and retention.
What We Don’t Know
- The press release and report page do not state the survey sample size, the fieldwork dates or the methodology behind the return-on-investment figures. The full report PDF was not reviewed.
- The gap between “more than 4x” in the press release and 4.6x on the report page is not explained on either page.
- The findings come from the Linux Foundation and its own research arm, and no independent outlet’s analysis of the data was available at the time of writing.
Context
Hilary Carter, senior vice president of research at the Linux Foundation, is quoted in the release: “Five years of research confirms how critical open source is to Europe’s tech landscape.” She continued: “With the 2026 Tech Sovereignty Package expected to spur €2 billion in digital infrastructure investment, realizing that value requires more than adopting software – it demands strong governance and active community contribution.” The release does not describe the contents of that package. Together with the governance-gap and private-fork figures, the quote frames the report’s argument: sovereignty goals depend on how organizations manage and contribute to the open source they already use, not only on adopting it.