Why their value for the IT market lies in reuse, open standards and avoiding vendor lock-in
In the IT sector, we know well that a successful prototype is not necessarily a sustainable information system. It may work perfectly in a controlled environment, yet fail when it has to integrate with existing infrastructure, be maintained for years, serve a growing number of users or be transferred to another organisation.
This is precisely where the GovTech4All pilots become particularly interesting. Their significance lies not only in the applications they develop, but above all in the way they address the software lifecycle. Reusable building blocks, open specifications, technical documentation, interoperability and adaptability are essential if an application is to become more than just another funded prototype.
From “it works” to “it can be maintained”
GovTech4All was created as a European framework for collaboration between public authorities, businesses, startups and digital innovation organisations. Its first phase completed three collaborative pilots, while its second phase is developing eight new applications with a clear focus on reuse and scalability.
For an IT professional in the private sector, what is particularly interesting is the architectural logic behind these projects. They are not designed as isolated applications tied to a single public authority or supplier. The aim is to produce security frameworks, data standards, reusable software components, documentation and methodologies that can also be adopted by organisations that were not involved in the original development.
This is, in essence, the opposite of vendor lock-in. Value shifts away from the exclusive ownership of an application and towards the knowledge, code, interfaces and standards that allow multiple providers to maintain, extend or replace individual parts of the system.
Open source as a technical choice, not a slogan
It would not be accurate to assume that every individual GovTech4All product is automatically fully open source. It is clear, however, that some of its most important pilots deliberately build on mature open-source technologies and produce reusable outcomes.
A representative example is the Personal Regulation Assistants for social benefits, where OpenFisca was used to transform social-policy rules into machine-readable form. The solution was tested in France, Greece and the Netherlands. The value here is not simply the creation of another digital assistant. It is the ability to represent rules in a structured, auditable and reusable form on which many different services can subsequently be built.
Similarly, the pilot on secure cross-border data exchange used OpenFHE and OQS for post-quantum cryptography and homomorphic encryption. It produced reusable building blocks that are already being used in the second phase of GovTech4All.
An even more illustrative example is the new pilot for automating the processing of documentary evidence. Its design includes the integration of open-source components, the publication of specifications and documentation, and the creation of reusable reference implementations. The objective is not to create a closed product for a single public authority, but a foundation that can be used by different public administrations and different companies.
Open standards reduce the real cost of ownership
For the IT market, perhaps the most important factor is interoperability. A system based on documented standards, common data models and open interfaces has a fundamentally different total cost of ownership from one whose data, interfaces and integration mechanisms are controlled exclusively by a single vendor.
This approach is now also reinforced institutionally by the Interoperable Europe Act. The European framework provides for the sharing and reuse of interoperability solutions, together with their technical documentation, source code where applicable, and references to the open standards or technical specifications used. At the same time, public-sector bodies are encouraged to give priority to solutions without restrictive licensing conditions, such as open-source solutions, where they are equivalent in terms of functionality, total cost, security and quality.
For an IT company, this creates a different kind of market. Business value shifts away from licence reselling and control of proprietary formats towards systems integration, customisation, security, operations, support and service-level agreements.
Sustainability means surviving beyond the funding period
GovTech4All is now directly addressing one of the most persistent problems of European-funded projects: what happens when the funding ends. The answer cannot simply be “find another programme”.
Sustainability is achieved when a project leaves behind reusable code, standards, technical documentation, communities of practice, trained people and processes that can be applied elsewhere. This is why GovTech4All treats documentation, peer learning and shared building blocks as deliverables in their own right rather than as secondary activities.
This approach is now also linked to the Digital Commons EDIC. This European infrastructure is designed to support the development and long-term maintenance of digital commons, while software developed jointly within its framework is expected to be released by default under free and open-source licences. A European institutional mechanism is therefore beginning to emerge that can take a successful pilot beyond the testing phase and turn it into a sustainable part of Europe’s digital infrastructure.
A different opportunity for European IT companies
For the private sector, open-source software does not mean a smaller market. It means a different and healthier market. More companies can provide deployment, systems integration, cybersecurity, customisation, hosting, training and support without first having to obtain permission from an exclusive vendor.
This is perhaps the most important lesson from GovTech4All. The sustainability of a public digital solution is not secured simply by funding it for another two years. It is secured when the solution can be audited, transferred, adapted and maintained by multiple providers, and when it can operate within an ecosystem based on common standards.
In this sense, the most interesting GovTech4All pilots are not merely successful experiments with new technologies. They are examples of a different European model for digital development, one in which public funding creates reusable expertise and digital infrastructure, while businesses compete on service quality, innovation and technical capability rather than on ownership of the key to a closed system.
Sources
GovTech4All, Interoperable Europe Portal: The official programme overview describes the completed and ongoing pilots, the use of OpenFisca, OpenFHE and OQS, and the objective of reusing and scaling solutions across Europe. https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/eugovtech/govtech4all,
GovTech4All, “The day the funding stops”: The project’s official analysis of sustainability explains why shared reusable components, data standards, documentation and communities of practice are essential if a pilot is to continue creating value after its initial funding ends.
https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/eugovtech/news/day-funding-stops,
European Union, Interoperable Europe Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/903: The EU framework provides for the sharing and reuse of interoperability solutions, technical documentation, source code and references to open standards, while encouraging preference for solutions without restrictive licensing conditions when they are functionally equivalent. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32024R0903,
European Commission, Digital Commons EDIC: The European Commission states that software jointly developed within the Digital Commons EDIC is expected to be released by default under free and open-source licences, supporting reuse, transparency and sustainable European digital infrastructure. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-launch-digital-commons-edic-support-sovereign-european-digital-infrastructure-and.