Kathmandu- Until US President Donald Trump returned to power, when the European Union (EU) talked about reducing its economic dependence on foreign powers, it was generally assumed that it meant China. But with Trump’s return, Brussels’ attention has now started to focus on American technology.
As Trump’s rhetoric has intensified, from pressuring trade to threatening to annex Greenland, concerns have grown that he could digitally bring Europe to a standstill if he wanted to. After Trump backed down on the Greenland issue, senior EU officials have warned that the union is extremely vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and have begun pointing to the need for strategic self-reliance in defense, energy and technology.
According to a 2023 EU report, the 27-nation bloc relies on foreign countries for more than 80 percent of its digital products, services, infrastructure, and intellectual property. In an effort to reduce this dependence, Europe appears to be gradually reducing its reliance on American technology.
The latest example of this was seen last week. France said it was preparing to soon instruct government employees to use domestic alternatives instead of tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The real warning for Brussels came last year.
Washington imposed sanctions on judges at the International Criminal Court, depriving them of access to American technology like Amazon and Google. This incident has made clear how strong America’s control is over many of the tools that underpin European lifestyles.
EU Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the need to avoid relying on any single country or company for critical technology had become a serious issue over the past year. She warned that such dependencies could be used as weapons.
Virkkunen is set to unveil a major “tech sovereignty” package in March, covering the cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and chips. It is in these areas that the EU wants to build more autonomy. Sebastiano Tofaletti, Secretary General of the European Digital SME Alliance, said that digital technology is no longer just a neutral tool. According to him, when basic infrastructure such as cloud, AI or platforms are controlled from outside Europe, regulations, data and ultimately pressure also end up in foreign hands.
Among the member states, France and Germany have been seen as leading the way in this campaign. The northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein set an example of digital sovereignty by abandoning Microsoft last year and adopting open source software. State Digitalization Minister Dirk Schroeder said that while the move was initially driven by economic reasons, political tensions have made it even more important.
Within six months, the state had migrated more than 40,000 mailboxes from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to OpenExchange and Thunderbird. He said that despite some challenges, it sent a message that digital freedom is possible. Similarly, the European Parliament is also reviewing its reliance on tools including Microsoft.
Initiatives are also underway at the EU level. French company Mistral and Germany’s SAP have agreed to collaborate on a European AI-based cloud solution. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have launched a joint effort led by the Commission to build a common European digital infrastructure.
Today, many EU policies are beginning to be viewed from a sovereignty perspective. Work is underway to develop a digital euro, which dozens of economists, including Thomas Piketty, have called a necessary safeguard for European sovereignty. Earlier, a European payment system called ‘Vero’ was launched in 2024 as an alternative to MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal.
But Jacques Meyers of the Brussels-based think tank Serre has warned that the goal of technological sovereignty must be clear. He argues that if the aim is to withstand political pressure, it would be appropriate to focus on developing more ‘pressure-generating capacity’ against the US.
According to him, strengthening America’s dependence on Europe in areas such as chip manufacturing machinery, corporate software, and telecommunications equipment could be an effective strategy rather than reducing the use of American technology. Agency
