As tensions between the US and Europe continue, the continent is accelerating its move to reduce its dependence on US technology. Cities and governments are ditching **Microsoft Office** for open-source alternatives and shifting to European cloud hosting for local AI. Nowhere is this more evident than in France. Over the last few months, the French government has sped up its efforts to develop and deploy its own technology for government officials. ## France's Digital Sovereignty Initiative France is at the forefront of Europe’s growing digital sovereignty push, driven by concerns around data security, the unpredictability of international relations, and changing prices. French budget minister **David Amiel** recently called for the state to “break free” from American systems and use those it can control. "We are not just explaining what we want to do,” says **Stéphanie Schaer**, the head of **DINUM**, France’s digital transformation ministry. “We already did it in a few matters.” More than 40,000 French government staff have started using the home-grown video platform, **Visio**, with the rest transitioning away from **Zoom**, **Microsoft Teams**, and others by 2027. Data will be stored locally, not abroad. ## LaSuite: France's Homegrown Productivity Suite As part of its strategy, DINUM has been developing a suite of productivity tools, collectively called "**LaSuite**,” since at least 2023. Besides Visio, it includes the instant messaging app **Tchap**, **Messagerie** (instead of Gmail or Outlook), **Fichiers** for document and file sharing, text editing software **Docs**, and **Grist** for spreadsheets. Tchap already has 420,000 active users. "We are based on open source software. So we don’t develop all the code,” Schaer says. While there are public plans for new features, code is published on Microsoft-owned **Github**. All data handled by these alternatives must be processed in France and stored with providers approved by the country’s cybersecurity agency **ANSSI**. The Dutch government recently moved its open-source code off of GitHub onto a **Forgejo** instance hosted on government-owned servers. ## Collaboration and Open Source While open source is key, the French government is also working with other countries and private firms on the development of its tools. Visio, for example, is built on technology from French firms **Outscale** and **Pyannote**. All of France’s central government agencies have plans to move away from US tech by this fall, including office software, antivirus, AI, and databases. On April 23, French officials also announced the country will move its health data platform away from Microsoft to local cloud provider **Scaleway**. ## Pan-European Movement Across Europe, politicians have been increasingly vocal about ditching US technology. The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Finland all have ongoing sovereignty efforts, with German officials and regions also prominently pushing the movement. In December, eight countries, including France and Germany, announced they would partner on their efforts. "The one that’s probably moved fastest has indeed been France,” says **Martha Bennett**, a principal analyst at **Forrester**. France has a strong history of software development and open source contributions, with the French national police force adopting **GendBuntu**, a customized version of the **Ubuntu** Linux distribution. The French efforts are not limited to the central government. "There’s a lot of cities in France that are going in this direction,” says **Valentin Lungenstrass**, the deputy mayor of Lyon. Lyon has moved around 70 percent of its employees away from Microsoft’s Office software, switching to the open source **OnlyOffice** instead. The city is shifting from Outlook for email and plans to use Linux as an operating system.