// ZDNET — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
Dutch tax authorities cancel Microsoft 365 cloud rollout – and turn toward open source
Another European move toward digital sovereignty has curtailed adopting the US workplace suite.
The Netherlands’ Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 public-cloud rollout.
Why? The reasons were clear at the Open Source Summit Europe conference, where the Linux Foundation (LF) released the 2026 State of Open Source in Europe. In it, the nonprofit, pro-open-source organization revealed that 94% of European Union (EU) organizations say digital sovereignty is important, with 61% considering it very important. As Thierry Carrez, the Linux Foundation Europe GM, said in his keynote, “Europe has clearly heard the message on digital sovereignty.”
In an interview onstage at the summit, Nithya Ruff, chair of the LF board, added that it’s not just Europe: “Digital sovereignty is a need that the entire world feels, whether it’s Sierra Leone or the US or China.”
It’s not just the Dutch tax collectors, though. The Netherlands is also exploring switching from Windows and proprietary software to Linux and open-source programs across the board. That follows the Swiss military and other agencies announcing they were moving to Linux and openDesk, a German open-source office suite. Before that, European governments shifting to Linux included Austria, France, Germany, and Ireland.
Also: Digital sovereignty at the UN: Inside the global push to replace US cloud giants with open-source tech
Indeed, according to the LF Europe report, 94% of organizations care about AI as much as they do about digital sovereignty. We all know how businesses are moving to AI as fast as they can. Outside the States, the move to digital sovereignty is garnering just as much support.
The Netherlands had planned to switch to Microsoft 365 in 2025. The idea then was to complete the rollout by the end of 2026. About 5,000 employees had already migrated when the Dutch Advisory Council on ICT Assessment recommended reversing the public-cloud rollout in June. The government paused the plan in July; the latest announcement replaces that rollout with an on-premises/open-source approach.
The Tax and Customs Administration isn’t replacing all of Microsoft Office with a single open-source suite, at least not yet. Instead, the government will keep the existing Microsoft software for now.
Looking ahead, State Secretary for Finance Eelco Eerenberg set out the replacement timetable in a letter to Parliament: “In 2027, the provision for mail and calendar will be realized on-premises. Later in 2027 and 2028, European open-source solutions for personal storage and collaboration will follow. This allows us to work toward a sustainable and more autonomous solution for these functionalities.”