The end of MS Office in sight? Germany chooses ODF, the Netherlands lacks courage.

This guest contribution was republished from LinkedIn with permission from the author.

This month, the German federal government announced a notable decision through the so-called Deutschland-Stack: across all levels of government, from federal ministries down to municipalities, only two document formats are now permitted. Open Document Format (ODF) and PDF/UA. The popular Microsoft formats such as .docx (MS Word), .xlsx (MS Excel) and .pptx (MS PowerPoint) fall outside this framework.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? When Geopolitics Hits Your Cloud, HR and Bank Account

The Reality of Digital Dependency

DNS records from the previous article paint a clear picture: over 70% of Belgian public institutions (e.g. hospitals, police, schools, defence, municipalities) rely on Microsoft’s cloud for daily operations. Systems run smoothly. Salaries arrive, patients receive care, lessons continue. The instinct to maintain what works makes sense.

The challenge comes from concentration: a single foreign platform supporting critical workflows, subject to distant laws and remote management. By late 2025, US providers held over 70% of Europe’s cloud market, local alternatives below 15%. Belgium’s situation highlights what happens when public services align on one stack. Recent events show these dependencies carry real consequences, but they also illuminate substantial opportunities ahead.

Beyond the Marketing: Measuring Microsoft’s Cloud Sovereignty in Europe

Digital sovereignty in Europe will not be decided in press releases, but in procurement choices and legal detail.

BeLibre has applied the European Commission’s Cloud Sovereignty Framework to Microsoft’s cloud stack and produced a full SEAL‑based assessment across all eight sovereignty objectives. The focus on Microsoft is deliberate: on multiple occasions, people at Microsoft were asked, but did not answer how its services perform against this framework, while an estimated 90–95% of Belgian government services currently depend on Microsoft infrastructure.

Belgium Can’t Afford Microsoft to Go Down: A Wake-Up Call on Digital Sovereignty

So we’re using Microsoft at the Belgian government? So what, that’s not a bad thing, is it? I mean, it does a great job and everybody uses it. Right? After all, it’s the safe option. “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM Microsoft.

“Hey US, I thought we were friends?” This question isn’t rhetorical anymore. As tariff threats escalate, wars redraw geopolitical alliances, and digital infrastructure becomes the backbone of every critical service, Europe faces an uncomfortable truth: we’ve outsourced control of our digital future to a handful of American corporations.