Origins#
This manifesto was born of a recurring observation: in the European debate on digital sovereignty, the adoption of free software is too often counted as proof of sovereignty, when it is only eligibility. Too many charters, frameworks and press releases tick an “open source” box as if it were a conclusion. The text you are reading attempts to set the grammar straight again.
It is deliberately short — thirteen theses, a preamble, a positive programme in four axes — because a manifesto that does not fit on a few pages does not get signed. The accompanying dossier runs to thirteen thousand words, because the theses must be discussable on cases, not on principles.
Stewardship#
At this stage, the manifesto is carried individually by Nicolas Martinez through NIM-HQ (a French SAS) — see the legal notice for effective contact details, the publication director and the identification of the hosting. This stewardship is explicitly transitional: a collective structuring (association, AISBL, foundation, or editorial collective) will be arbitrated when the dynamic of declarants justifies it. The posture is assumed — a single carrier before extending, rather than claiming a collective legitimacy that does not yet exist.
Methodology#
Case selection#
Each family of the dossier gathers between four and six cases. The selection criterion is threefold:
- Verifiability: each fact rests on three to five first-hand sources (official press releases, public repositories, legal documents, dated specialist press).
- Representativeness: the cases retained illustrate a general mechanism, not an isolated anecdote.
- Explicit links to the theses: each entry indicates which theses it illustrates and explains how.
Format of entries#
All entries follow the same scheme: Date — Status — Theses illustrated — The fact — What it demonstrates — Sources. This homogeneity allows individual citation (“Linux Foundation 2024 case, family 2”) without heavy recontextualisation.
Upkeep of the text#
The manifesto is versioned. The current version is v1. Any material modification of a thesis will be the subject of a version bump (v2, v3…) with a re-signing procedure.
Licence and reuse#
The content is published under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 licence. Free reuse, free translation, free remix, on two conditions: clear attribution to the original text, and sharing under the same licence.
Contact#
For press, institutions, foundations seeking a substantive exchange: contact [at] sovereignty-gap.eu. For occasional factual corrections or content reports, write to the same address pending the public structured procedure (an open reporting and discussion space, currently being set up — see Assumed limits).