Initiatives to have alternatives to the SaaS tools of large American technology companies are increasing in different official bodies of the European Union. The last one to be known, according to Euractiv, is the decision of the European Commission to start try an internal communication tool to have a reliable system to communicate as an alternative to Microsoft Teams.
This tool is based on Matrix, a community-developed open source messaging protocol, led by a London-based NGO. Matrix is not unknown to European institutions, since there are already several European public organizations that use it in their communications. Among them the French government and different armies in Europe, as well as several health sector providers in Germany. Everyone uses Matrix-based communication tools on a daily basis.
Of course, at least for now, the Commission wants to use Matrix as a complement and backup solution for its internal communications software, which is currently Teams. This means that they currently have no plans to permanently replace Microsoft’s communication system.
In addition, they have a secondary communication tool, Signal, which is also open source and has increasing acceptance in different sectors, but the Commission assures that it is not flexible enough to be used in an organization of the size of the European Commission.
In the case of the solution they are testing now, the one based on Matrix, they are already thinking about using it for other purposes, in addition to internal communication. Indeed, the European Commission believes that it may be a suitable tool to connect with other EU bodies in the futuresince they currently do not have a common tool to communicate securely. For now, yes, they already have a communications connection in operation with the European Parliament.
