From GovStack to DeutschlandStack: Aligning European Digital Infrastructure Initiatives
ADM Interactive at Anwendertag 2025, Düsseldorf
On 03 July 2025, ADM Interactive CEO Riho Pihelpuu had the honour of speaking at Anwendertag 2025 in Düsseldorf – a leading annual conference for Germany’s public sector digitalisation community, organised by our long-standing partner, publicplan GmbH.
Based on our ongoing projects in Kenya, ADM Interactive was invited to share practical insights on implementing GovStack principles in real-world digital service development. But the talk went beyond field-level experience. It mapped out the evolving digital public infrastructure landscape in Europe and globally, covering three interconnected strategic initiatives: EuroStack, DeutschlandStack, and GovStack.
Three Stack Initiatives – One Shared Goal
The European shift toward sovereign, open, and interoperable digital infrastructure has produced a growing family of “stack” initiatives. While each has its own focus, they clearly share a common vision:
- EuroStack
An EU-wide industrial and policy initiative aiming to consolidate European efforts across technology, governance and funding to build a Europe-centric digital infrastructure. It spans key layers: from connectivity and cloud to data, open software and AI platforms.
Its goal: to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty, reduce dependency on foreign hyperscalers, and ensure democratic control over essential digital systems. - DeutschlandStack
DeutschlandStack can be seen as the national implementation of the EuroStack agenda. It seeks to align and coordinate digital public infrastructure development across Germany’s federal and state governments. The focus is on creating common frameworks, shared services, and reusable components to enable faster, interoperable, and secure service delivery. - GovStack
Whereas EuroStack and DeutschlandStack are mostly top-down infrastructure and policy efforts, GovStack is a bottom-up, implementation-focused initiative aimed at the practical delivery of digital public services. Founded in 2020 by Germany’s BMZ and GIZ, Estonia’s EstDev, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the UN Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), GovStack brings together a diverse global community of experts, developers, governments and practitioners.
Its goal is to:
- Define standardised, reusable “building blocks” (like Digital Identity, Payments, Registration, Consent, etc.)
- Provide open specifications, architecture guides, and reference implementations.
- Help countries avoid duplication and deliver faster, cheaper, and more citizen-centric services.
- Promote interoperability and sustainability through modular, open-source components.
ADM Interactive is proud to be an active GovStack’s practitioner. In Kenya, our team is implementing three pilot services based on GovStack principles and architecture:
- Digitalisation of elements from the birth registration process for Kenya Civil Registration Service
- Vocational Training centres application management inc. payments and training centres & courses portfolio for Nairobi County
- Loan application management for National Micro-Enterprise Development Fund Uwezo
These real-world implementations provide valuable feedback for the community and prove that the GovStack model is adaptable and scalable.
Reflections from Anwendertag 2025
In addition to our own talk, we were truly inspired by the quality of the agenda and speakers at Anwendertag. Especially valuable were sessions on:
- KI iniatatives in NRW
- Low-Code and Open Source platforms
- and strategies for cloud infrastructure and digital sovereignty
A personal highlight was the session by Arne Schömann (IT.NRW KI-Lab) on Confidential Computing – a promising concept if validated and, if remote/third party approved/certified, could allow AI models to securely process sensitive government data in cloud environments. Their ongoing NRW-wide study investigates whether this technology can address core challenges of privacy, trust and regulatory compliance.
Looking Ahead
Whether in Estonia, Germany or Kenya – digital governance challenges are shared, and the solutions must be collaborative. ADM Interactive believes that global interoperability, open-source innovation, and cross-country dialogue are key to building future-ready digital states.
We’re proud of our continued collaboration with publicplan GmbH, our commitment to GovStack, and our growing involvement in shaping European digital infrastructure.
We’re looking forward to Anwendertag 2026 and continuing this important dialogue on building open, resilient, and citizen-focused digital services.