Barcelona has become the first city in the world to officially endorse the United Nations’ (UN) Open Source Principles. This decision was officialised during the November 2025 Barcelona Open Tech Week, and reflects a desire to put technology in the hands of citizens and reduce reliance on large tech companies.
This initiative builds on Barcelona’s ongoing open source initiatives, and sets the stage for a new era of public participation and collaboration.
An innovative vision for digital sovereignty and public participation
The city’s move to adopt the UN Open Source principles was initiated by its participation in the June 2025 UN Open Source Week, and builds on the success of the open source-based platforms Decidim, used for citizen participation, as well as Sentilo, used for sensor data sharing across smart cities
In the words of Arnau Monterde Mateo, Director of Participation and Innovation for Democracy at the Barcelona City Council, the goal behind this public endorsement is clear.
“We want Barcelona to become a leading actor in promoting a new vision of technology that is in the hands of the citizens. We want to create a collaborative model in which cities control their own data and infrastructure”, says Monterde Mateo.
All of Barcelona's municipal websites are now built on open source content management system Drupal, and the city has been collaborating with the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) to advance a new AI and data strategy which leverages open source technologies.
From endorsement to action: establishing a municipal OSPO
The city is, however, not stopping at public endorsement, and is actively turning its vision into reality with three new initiatives.
Barcelona will launch a Citizen Agreement for Democratic Technologies and Digital Rights, a participatory space including civil society organisations, research centres, universities and private sector representatives to promote open source use in the city.
Internally, the city is considering establishing an Open Source Programme Office (OSPO), inspired by successful models in cities like Paris or Munich. The newly-created OSPO would be tasked with the promotion of open source solutions across public services, and the creation of a code repository for public services use.
Barcelona is also considering the establishment of a new fund for open source technologies at the city level, which would provide grants supporting innovative digital projects.
Building a sustainable open source ecosystem
Leading the open source transition and building resilient solutions within the public services, however, also comes with its challenges. Arnau Monterde Mateo highlights in particular: “the cultural shift that is needed when it comes to providers of digital solutions, especially around licensing”. New protocols and methodologies have to be created to guide the prioritisation of open source solutions and endorse local technology providers.
For this reason, the Barcelona City Council also intends to create a legal framework to allow public services to invest in open source technologies. Their objective is to foster collaboration between services to generate synergies and build on success stories, to guarantee the sustainability and scalability of open source projects. Ultimately, the goal is to create a new model of governance which reduces dependencies on big tech corporations and prevents vendor lock-in.
Opportunities for future collaboration
As the first city to endorse the UN Principles globally, Barcelona hopes to influence other cities and governments to adopt a similar approach. The first step in this direction is for Barcelona to continue co-leading the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, together with the cities of Bordeaux (France) and Porto (Portugal), and use it to extend endorsement.
Beyond the technology, Arnau Monterde Mateo sees deeper value : “Without democratic control, our digital future is uncertain and dark. Open source technologies are how the cities empower people and transform our tech ecosystem for the common good.”
