Germany's Sovereign Digital Stack Mandates ODF: a Landmark Validation of Open Document Standards - TDF Community Blog
blog.documentfoundation.org
The Document Foundation (TDF), the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, welcomes the inclusion of the Open Document Format (ODF) as a mandated standard format in Germany’s Deutschland-Stack, the federal government’s sovereign digital infrastructure framework for all public administrations. The Stack, published by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation (Bundesministerium für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung), establishes the technical standards for a shared, interoperable and sovereign digital infrastructure serving all Germany’s public administrations. Under the framework’s “Semantic Technologies and Real-Time Analytics” pillar, ODF and PDF/UA are explicitly named as the two mandated document formats, to the exclusion of proprietary alternatives. “This is not a recommendation or a preference, it is a mandate,” said Florian Effenberger, Executive Director of The Document Foundation. “Germany’s decision to anchor ODF at the heart of its national sovereign stack confirms what we have argued for years: open, vendor-neutral document formats are not a niche concern for some technology specialists and FOSS advocates. They are a fundamental infrastructure for democratic, interoperable and sovereign public administrations.” The Deutschland-Stack is grounded in a set of principles that align with TDF’s long-standing advocacy positions. The framework adopts a “Made in EU first” principle, requires open interfaces and local data storage,
  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    78·
    2 months ago

    This is not a recommendation or a preference, it is a mandate,

    ODF’s mandate is the document-layer expression of that principle, as you cannot claim digital sovereignty while allowing your documents to be locked in proprietary formats controlled by a single vendor.

    incredibly based

  • mogoh@lemmy.ml
    221·
    2 months ago

    I think this is not (entirely) true. Or at least I have some questions:

    • Is this an enacted law that I missed? Because it looks like it is a work in progress.
    • “All levels of government” Really? We have federalism. I am not sure, if that can be mandated by the governments.

    BTW: https://deutschland-stack.gov.de/

    I have searched a bit further: For federal and state governments, ODF is binding through IT Planning Council resolutions and federal guidelines, but there is no formal law yet mandating its use. Also, this is not binding for local authorities, but virtual it is.

    https://www.it-planungsrat.de/beschluss/beschluss-2025-06

  • xia@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Bravo. Can’t believe it has taken this long for a gov’t to realize storing everything in a poorly obfuscated format makes no sense.