Europe has finally decided it's time to write its own documents. On June 9 the first stable version of "Euro-Office" launches - an open-source office suite marketed as a serious alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Docs. It sounds like tech news, but it's really political.

The irony is in the origin. Euro-Office is a "fork" - an independent copy - of ONLYOFFICE, a suite developed by a company registered in Latvia, but with documented Russian roots and historical business ties to Russian firms. It is precisely that link that pushed European organizations to make their own version, with European governance and greater transparency. In other words: they took the technology and scrubbed it of the owner they had doubts about.

Why at all? Because dependence on American technology is increasingly proving to be a political vulnerability. When US sanctions blocked International Criminal Court officials' access to Microsoft services, it became clear to everyone how much control over infrastructure can become a lever for pressure. The American "CLOUD Act" allows US authorities to demand data from companies under their jurisdiction, regardless of where the servers physically are.

That's why Europe is already quietly moving. The French state agency DINUM switched to Linux, Germany's Schleswig-Holstein replaced Office with LibreOffice on over 30,000 computers, and the Austrian military migrated around 16,000 workstations. Euro-Office is the next step - a web app for now, with desktop and mobile versions later, prioritizing stability, security, and compatibility with Microsoft formats.

For the reader in the Balkans, the question that arises is uncomfortably close: if even Europe, with all its resources, is only now realizing how dangerous it is to depend on someone else's software - where are we, who fill state institutions with licenses for programs over which we have no control whatsoever? Digital sovereignty isn't a luxury for the big players; it's a question that's starting to concern us all.