European governments are turning to the open-source Matrix protocol to gain tighter control over sensitive communications and reduce reliance on U.S. cloud providers. The shift reflects growing concerns about data sovereignty amid geopolitical uncertainty.
Open-source messaging gains foothold
First released in 2014, the protocol enables decentralized messaging that works across different client applications, such as the open-source Element, Rocket.Chat and Automattic’s Beeper. It functions much like email, allowing messages to travel between compatible apps regardless of the vendor.
Matthew Hodgson, co-founder of the Matrix Foundation, said during a keynote in Malmö that the protocol is the poster child for digital sovereignty, especially in Europe. He noted that the standard has moved from an “interesting experiment” to a cornerstone of governmental communications strategy.
Analysts are tracking 65 national- and international-scale deployments across the continent, according to Hodgson. The interest spikes after incidents such as the suspension of a Microsoft account belonging to an International Criminal Court prosecutor, which raised alarms about potential political cut-offs from U.S. services.
France’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) was an early adopter, embedding the protocol in its Tchap app used by more than 400,000 civil servants each month. In Germany, the armed forces run BwMessenger, while the health sector relies on TI-Messenger, both built on the same open standard.
European Commission pilots the technology
The Commission has begun rolling out an Element-based client to its staff, aiming to cover over 40,000 employees. The project started with a summer-2025 proof of concept, completed in December, and saw the desktop version deployed on laptops in September 2026. A mobile rollout is slated for later this year.
Diana Gheorghe, head of Communication and Collaboration Services for the Commission’s Digital Workplace Foundations, said the goal is to improve service resilience and secure data ownership. They also wanted to have contractual leverage in procurement, she explained, highlighting a less-talked-about facet of digital sovereignty.
Early feedback points to technical hiccups, such as difficulty locating colleagues on separate servers, prompting the team to disable the live-presence feature for performance reasons. Gheorghe stressed that the new client is not intended to replace Microsoft Teams but to sit alongside existing tools.
By consolidating communications onto a platform they control, employees can avoid the uncertainty of whether a particular tool meets security requirements, which in turn reduces the mental load of constantly switching applications.
Sweden’s public sector is exploring federated messaging through the eSam program, which supports digital transformation across 42 Swedish government agencies. Five years ago, most eSam member agencies used Skype for Business, allowing employees at different agencies to communicate through the same platform. But as Microsoft prepared to end support for older versions of Skype for Business, agencies began adopting alternative solutions.
Försäkringskassan is a member of eSam and is exploring Matrix-based solutions. A recent proof-of-concept demonstration linked Element at the Commission with Rocket.Chat at another agency, meeting most of the project’s criteria, though a few features still require refinement.
Federation experiments across agencies
The collaborative effort among Swedish authorities aims to link separate Matrix-compatible platforms, allowing messages to travel without manual guest accounts. A live demonstration connected two distinct systems, showing that basic chat and file sharing work across institutional boundaries.
During the trial, one agency used an Element client while another operated Rocket.Chat. The test satisfied most functional targets, yet certain advanced features, such as threaded discussions, remained incomplete.
Challenges and timeline for sovereign messaging
Deploying open-source communication tools demands specialized staff to maintain servers and integrate custom extensions. Smaller entities often lack the budget to hire dedicated engineers, which can delay full adoption.
Many administrations still carry financial commitments from recent cloud migrations. Those investments influence decisions to keep legacy services alongside new sovereign solutions, extending the transition period.
