Open formats win: EU Commission reacts to LibreOffice criticism

The Document Foundation has achieved a success in the fight for open file formats in EU consultations. As the organization behind LibreOffice announced, the EU Commission has now additionally provided the feedback template for the guidelines on the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) in ODS format – the spreadsheet format of the open ODF standard.

In their current blog post, The Document Foundation expresses its pleasure at the quick reaction: Within 24 hours, those responsible in the Directorate-General CONNECT had reacted positively to the demand and added the template in ODS format. The organization speaks of an "important first step towards the interoperability that proprietary formats do not allow".

Background: Criticism of XLSX as the sole format

The EU Commission published drafts for guidelines on the CRA at the beginning of March and launched a public consultation that runs until March 31, 2026. However, the feedback template provided for this was initially only available in XLSX format – Microsoft's proprietary spreadsheet format. The Document Foundation had sharply criticized and complained about structural disadvantages for open-source users. Although XLSX is standardized as OOXML according to ISO/IEC 29500, Microsoft's implementations often deviate from the specifications, which can lead to compatibility problems, for example with LibreOffice.

ODF (Open Document Format), on the other hand, is a completely vendor-neutral ISO standard (ISO/IEC 26300) that functions independently of applications and platforms. The Document Foundation is now calling on all stakeholders to use the ODS template for their feedback to emphasize the importance of the open format.

Significance for Europe's digital sovereignty

The case goes beyond a single consultation. The demand for open file formats in EU procedures directly touches upon the issue of European digital sovereignty. Conducting public consultations exclusively in proprietary formats effectively creates a dependency on individual software providers – and excludes citizens and organizations that rely on free software. Open standards such as ODF, on the other hand, enable free access and prevent monopolistic lock-in effects.

The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the EU Open Source Software Strategy 2020–2023 (and its successors) aim precisely at such scenarios. The Commission's quick reaction in the case of the CRA consultation could serve as a precedent – also for other EU institutions and national authorities that have so far conducted public procedures exclusively in proprietary formats. The CRA itself, which has been in force since December 2024 and whose reporting obligations will become binding from September 2026 and main requirements from December 2027, demands transparency and security for products with digital elements. Open standards support both goals.

(fo)