LibreOffice Creator Criticizes Euro-Office Sovereignty Claims

The Document Foundation has published an open letter criticizing the marketing claims of Euro-Office, a new office suite developed by Nextcloud, IONOS, and Tuta. The coalition behind Euro-Office positions its software as a symbol of digital sovereignty for European users. The foundation argues that this framing misrepresents the actual origins and technical standards of the application.

The Document Foundation disputes marketing claims made by the Nextcloud coalition behind the software.

Euro-Office functions as a fork of OnlyOffice rather than an independent development from scratch. Nextcloud, IONOS, and Tuta collaborate to maintain and distribute the suite across various platforms. Critics argue that Euro-Office defaults to Microsoft Office formats and provides less robust support for open standards than other European office suites.

The Document Foundation highlights LibreOffice as the only genuine European office suite with a history dating back to OpenOffice.org in 2001. TDF emphasizes that LibreOffice maintains full user control over content through the adoption of truly open and standard formats. The foundation contrasts this approach with Euro-Office, which TDF describes as leveraging proprietary Microsoft Office formats.

TDF claims that Euro-Office masquerades as a sovereign alternative while operating as a freeware clone derived from existing Microsoft technologies. Proponents of Euro-Office dispute these assertions regarding the suite's origins and transparency. Euro-Office developers counter that their project ensures European data sovereignty by avoiding reliance on foreign proprietary systems.

The Document Foundation stresses that open-source initiatives should prioritize technical transparency over marketing narratives about sovereignty. TDF notes that previous champions of digital sovereignty were historically dismissive of LibreOffice and the ODF format decades ago. The foundation argues that current efforts to claim sovereign status lack the foundational commitment to open standards that defined earlier movements.

LibreOffice remains the only office suite recognized by The Document Foundation as meeting European sovereignty requirements through its open architecture. Euro-Office continues development under the Nextcloud, IONOS, and Tuta coalition while facing ongoing criticism regarding its format choices. The debate centers on whether proprietary format reliance undermines claims of digital independence for European users.