Thanks. The big driver was the EU’s European Interoperability Framework (first version 2004), which promoted: Open standards, Vendor neutrality, Long-term accessibility of public data. It was envisioned for public administration, businesses and citizens: And notably the framework was updated 2015-2017 - the period the Munich administration steered away from it. Though I see they are now saying they should reconsider their move to MS, or maybe that’s just a negotiation tactic.

Doubtful. Us hostility to Europe is overwhelmingly in rhetoric rather than deed and on the off chance that tech independence is a European ambition (to the extent that a European identity, let alone European governing body survives prolonged American hostile deeds) the smart play is to use an open software test case to figure out what your requirements are then get a contractor like Microsoft to fulfill them even if that means making a spinoff company.

Even if the idea of some kind of libre Europe wasn’t idealistic utopian thinking, its actual existence would be just another elephant on the open source dance floor to be avoided, not a powerful ally to be celebrated.

That's "Les bians" for you.

Never forget to pluralize the nouns if the article is plural. 😛