GeoNetwork opensource is an open-source application for sharing geographic information through catalogues. It supports searching and discovering geospatial datasets and services and includes tools for editing and reviewing metadata, backed by a publication workflow. Organisations use the software for spatial data catalogues and geoportals and configure it through an admin console, plugins and data-directory settings. The project is part of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).
The software is released under the GPL-2.0 licence and is not offered as a vendor cloud service, so the organisation that installs and operates GeoNetwork decides where its data is stored. OSGeo is a not-for-profit organisation in the United States. For a European organisation, the sovereignty relevance lies mainly in the open source code and the option to run the software on its own infrastructure, rather than relying on a contract with a foreign vendor.