European Digital Freedom

Why Europe Is Rushing to Replace Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Your content lives on American servers. A European alternative launches June 9.

A European shield for Digital independence. image created with Nana Banana

Earlier this year Microsoft was accused of leaking files belonging to Dutch civil servants to the U.S. House of Representatives. That allegation turned a legal theory about cross‑border data access into something painfully concrete.

On June 9, a coalition of European companies will publish a practical response: a web-first, open-source office stack (Euro‑Office) and a commercial, EU-hosted suite (Office EU) presented as a functional replacement for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

The argument of this piece is simple: Europe is no longer only debating “digital sovereignty.” It is building an alternative with low-friction migration in mind. The real question for readers: will it actually work well enough for everyday professional use?

The Problem Has a Name: The CLOUD Act

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act), passed in 2018, gives U.S. law enforcement the power to compel U.S.-based providers to turn over customer data, even when that data sits on servers outside the United States. In plain terms: if your email, documents or calendar are hosted by a U.S. company, a valid U.S. warrant or court order can force that company to hand over copies of your files regardless of their physical location.

Here’s a concrete example to make it real. Imagine a Dutch ministry drafts new digital-regulation text in Office 365 hosted in Amsterdam. If U.S. authorities open an investigation touching a person or company subject to U.S. jurisdiction, they can serve a legal demand on Microsoft in the U.S. Microsoft may be legally required — under the CLOUD Act — to produce the requested files, even though those files never left Europe. The result: sensitive drafts or emails can be disclosed to a foreign authority without the knowledge or review of local courts.

That power is not unlimited — requests must comply with U.S. law and companies can challenge them in U.S. courts — but for many EU users the practical effect is the same: relying on a U.S. cloud provider creates an avenue for third‑country access that local law and GDPR cannot fully block. Some mitigations exist, strong end‑to‑end client‑side encryption, or using providers with no U.S. nexus, but they’re not universal or trivial to deploy.

This legal exposure is the practical engine behind the renewed push for EU-hosted alternatives: reduce the chance that routine business documents can be compelled abroad, and give organisations tools that make that risk avoidable rather than theoretical.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Nextcloud reported that incoming leads for sovereign cloud solutions tripled during 2025 compared to the year before. That is one data point from one company. The broader picture is considerably larger.

Worldwide sovereign cloud spending is forecast to hit $80 billion in 2026, up 35.6 percent from 2025. Europe is forecast to surpass North America in sovereign cloud spending by 2027.

European sovereign cloud infrastructure spending is set to more than triple between 2025 and 2027 — from $6.7 billion to over $23 billion — putting Europe’s growth rate well ahead of both the US and China.

The demand is real at the user level too. A recent survey of CIOs and IT leaders in Western Europe found that 60 percent want to increase their use of local cloud providers. And yet, as of 2025, three US cloud providers still held 70 percent of the European market for cloud infrastructure services, while European providers held just 15 percent.

That gap between what European organisations say they want and what they are currently using is exactly the problem this wave of investment is trying to close. In October 2025, the European Commission launched a tender for sovereign cloud computing services valued at €180 million, spanning six years, to serve EU institutions, bodies and agencies.

The direction is clear. The distance still to travel is equally clear.

What Is Being Built

Two things are happening simultaneously, and they are related but distinct.

Euro-Office is an open-source project announced in March 2026 by a coalition of European technology companies. It provides web-based editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs, with real-time collaboration. The first stable release becomes publicly available on June 9, integrated into Nextcloud Hub 26. It is built on the open-source codebase of OnlyOffice and distributed under an open licence.

Office EU is a commercial product built on top of this European stack. It is based in The Hague — home of EUfforic Europe B.V. — and positions itself as a complete replacement for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. The full suite includes:

• EU Drive — cloud storage under European jurisdiction
• EU Docs — document editing, fully compatible with .docx
• EU Spreadsheet — compatible with .xlsx
• EU Presentation — slide decks with collaboration features
• EU Calendar — scheduling and invites, without the data leakage
• EU Talk — video conferencing on EU-only infrastructure
• EU Email — encrypted, ad-free, GDPR-compliant email

Everything hosted in Europe. Zero foreign jurisdiction. Protected from the CLOUD Act.

The migration path is deliberately low-friction. You connect your existing Microsoft or Google account, import your email, calendar, and files, and run Office EU alongside your current setup until you are ready to fully switch. No forced cutover. No lost history.

Who Is Behind This

This is not a startup experiment. The coalition behind Euro-Office includes Nextcloud, IONOS (one of Europe’s largest cloud hosting providers), Proton (the Swiss company behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN), XWiki, OpenProject, and Office EU itself. Nextcloud and IONOS are currently hiring a dedicated development team to continue building it out.

Office EU is rooted in The Hague, a city that has deliberately positioned itself as a hub for digital governance, cybersecurity and innovation. Security Delta (HSD), The Hague’s cybersecurity cluster, is publicly backing the initiative.

Frank Karlitschek, CEO of Nextcloud, put it plainly: “Europe has had the technical building blocks for years. What was missing until now was an initiative to bring them together.”

What We Do Not Know Yet

Here is where I will be honest with you, because most coverage of this launch is not.

The pricing has not been published. Office EU says it will be comparable to existing market alternatives. But comparable to what, exactly, and at what price point, remains unknown at the time of writing.

Storage limits are unclear. Will there be a free tier equivalent to Google Drive’s 15GB? Will paid plans match what Microsoft 365 offers? No answer yet.

Mobile apps exist on the roadmap but are not part of the first release. Desktop and mobile apps are the next priority after the stable web version ships.

The OnlyOffice controversy has not been resolved. OnlyOffice has raised concerns about how its open-source code is being used in Euro-Office. Nextcloud argues the licence conditions cited are not legally enforceable. That dispute is ongoing.

And the fundamental question, is it actually good enough to use as a daily driver for a working professional, cannot be answered from a press release.

Why I Signed Up

I am a solopreneur content creator. I use Google Workspace every day, email, Drive, Docs, Calendar. It works well. Switching costs are real.

But I am also European, and the CLOUD Act is not an abstract concern for me. Every document I create, every email I send, every calendar event I schedule sits on American infrastructure under American jurisdiction. I have simply accepted that as the price of convenience.

Office EU makes me ask whether that trade-off is still necessary.

So I have joined the waitlist. When I get access, I will test it properly, pricing, storage limits, usability, what works and what does not. Not as a reviewer paid to be enthusiastic, but as someone who actually needs it to work.

The real question isn’t whether Europe can assemble the necessary pieces. It clearly can. The tougher question is whether Office EU is a practical replacement for professionals who rely on advanced collaboration, fidelity and administrative controls.

When I get access I will test it against a short rubric: file fidelity (.docx/.xlsx), real-time collaboration latency, mobile and offline parity, migration fidelity (including history and permissions), admin tools and policy controls, pricing and SLAs, and independent security audits. I’ll report back with concrete examples and a recommendation.

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Sources: Nextcloud blog, office.eu, Euro-Office at GitHub