The European Union is in an unflattering situation for its relations with the United States. Tensions with the country are increasing, so the EUwhich depends largely on American technology, begins to seriously consider that a scenario will arrive which until recently was unthinkable: the moment when the US adopts such a hostile stance that it blocks the EU’s access to its technologiesboth to data centers and SaaS services. Hence the push that several EU members are giving to plans to break with American technology to adopt local alternatives.
Until just a few weeks ago, the threats were reduced to the imposition of tariffs, unfortunate comments by members of the government, with Trump at the helm, or more or less veiled threats of consequences if fines were imposed or big technology companies were investigated in the EU. But what has been a real turning point in relations between both parties has been Trump’s intentions to annex Greenland, and although he has given up occupying it by force for the moment, you never know if he can try again, due to his ability to change his mind.
In addition to signing economic treaties with different countries and regions, the EU has accelerated in recent weeks its intentions to become independent from the United States at a technological level. Proof of this is the approval recently of a resolution on technological sovereigntywhich supports the use of public procurement criteria to favor European products and services whenever possible, also showing support for open source. It also proposes new legislation to support EU cloud providers.
It is just the beginning of more measures aimed at true technological sovereignty in the European institutions. Apparently, the executive arm of the European Union is already working on legislation aimed at promoting it, and as part of its development tasks, the security risks posed by American technology have been openly debated. A scenario that a year ago, without a doubt, would not have occurred.
Of course, the objective is not, at least for now, to completely abandon American technology, but for now to reduce its dependencies, in addition to promoting European companies and the adoption of their services. Of course, who knows what may happen in a few months, with an extremely volatile situation. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare to reduce the use of US technology in Europe as much as possible.
The first signs that the EU’s commitment to begin cutting ties with big tech were seen a few days ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Although many assure that it will be a complex process, yes, given the magnitude of the use of American technology in the area. Indeed, we are at a point where, especially in cloud computing, Europe depends more than ever on the United States. Especially from companies like Google, Amazon or Microsoft.
In 2024 alone, European customers spent nearly $25 billion on infrastructure from the top five US cloud operators. According to IDC, this is no less than 83% of the European market. It is a very different panorama from that of a few years ago, when Europe contributed largely to leading advances in mobile telephony, with giants such as Nokia and Ericsson. Now, in the Internet age, the region has lagged behind the United States or China, with virtually no big tech companies in comparison.
An example of this is in search engines, an area in which different European governments have tried to achieve, through financing or different promotions, the development of national search engines, but with little success in the face of the strength of Google. The reasons for this? According to different European businessmen, a Risk-averse culture in the EU, a fragmented market and complex regulations. For this reason, the EU is currently trying to relax some of its digital rules, although it is a complex and slow process.
Digital sovereignty, an issue raised decades ago
Europe’s efforts to escape the dominance of American technology are not new. In fact, they have been trying for decades. Especially since 2013, after Edward Snowden leaked information about the country’s surveillance practices, which included data from US platforms. This issue was one of the most remembered when the EU High Court annulled a transatlantic data sharing agreement, which had to be renegotiated.
Years later, in 2018, during the first Trump administration, European companies and politicians once again showed concern after the approval of a law in the United States that explicitly gave law enforcement authorities the authority to request data that American cloud providers had stored in third countries. But nothing has prevented American companies from managing to not only maintain, but increase, their market share in Europe.
To achieve this, they have used all kinds of measures, from building data centers in the area to house the data of their clients in the region to committing to not sending it to other places, although it is not clear if this would be possible if the authorities requested it. In recent years, American cloud companies have also added different options for storing data with subsidiaries in the EU, or in partner companies under European control.
Since Trump’s re-election, European officials have asked various US cloud providers to ensure that their customers in key sectors can easily transition their data center infrastructure to local providers if their government action disrupts their service.
For example, in Germany, Microsoft has expanded an agreement with SAP subsidiary Delos Cloud to provide its services under its ownership and control. This company has restructured its corporate subsidiaries this past year, appointed all-European boards of directors, and has taken other steps to establish outposts in the region to meet the demands of its more localized cloud and/or AI customers. Google has even established a European cloud, as an entity independent of the American one, with EU operators and headquarters in Germany.
But governments have not called for completely local configurations so far, because they still want to take advantage of the technology and scale that comes with working with different partners. Apparently, for the moment they seek to ensure a certain degree of control and security.
The American technology giants, of course, know that they have a lot at stake in Europe. In 2024 alone, they exported more than $360 billion in digital services to the EU. Alphabet generated 29% of its nearly 30 billion revenues in the third quarter of the year in EMEA. This is apart from the large investments they have made in Europe, from offices and headquarters to data centers and research laboratories.
Germany and France lead the efforts, with Spain taking steps
But the voices calling for more independence are increasingly clearand are heard louder in Europe. Maybe not so much at the level of the EU institutions, but of the leaders of different countries. Especially from France and Germany, whose authorities are especially committed to achieving technological independence. Especially since Trump veiledly threatened European leaders with certain consequences if they did not fully align with the United States.
Given this, the German Ministry of Digitalization, for example, says that it is testing an open source alternative to Microsoft’s collaboration tools, openDesk. They are already deploying it both on the ministry’s work computers and in different German federal agencies.
There are regions that have already taken steps in recent months to stop using Microsoft solutions, and last November, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a summit with France to discuss the relaxation of EU technology rules. In addition, both leaders spoke of giving preference to European initiatives in technology purchases, as well as making new investments in data centers.
Meanwhile, in France they have just announced that they are going to adopt a local solution to eliminate collaboration and videoconferencing tools in the country’s institutions, Visio. The president, Emmanuel Macron, is clearly betting on promoting local companies, in addition to supporting the development of AI and making EU regulations more flexible. Among other things, he has tried to help Mistral AI, the leaders in AI development in Europe, land large corporate clients, as well as offering cheap electricity from nuclear power to data center development companies.
In Spain, for now, initiatives to promote the independence of American infrastructure are less numerous, although little by little progress is being made in this regard. An example of this is the announcement this week by Telefónica, which is going to convert several of its old copper plants into mini data centers spread throughout Spain.
In addition, the government is making different investments to promote new technologies in Spain. Not only AI, but also quantum computing, with measures such as the investment in Nu Quantum, announced this week. Meanwhile, Finland is the country in the world with the highest level of digital sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament and several EU companies have already asked the authorities to advance digital sovereignty, and others, such as the German company Nextcloud, are stepping on the accelerator to move towards technological sovereignty that guarantees the independence of the United States. Those responsible are among those who point out that open source is key to achieving a dynamic and competitive technological landscape in Europe that reinforces said independence.
But its CEO, Frack Karlitschek, also points out that “demand must increase and be encouraged through settings normative in the recruitment public, the reduction of the bureaucracy y the obligation of what los governments national migraine a solutions Europeans as model a follow, con he fin of facilitate our economy digital european of SMEs. It should also improve the effectiveness of enforcement of existing and emerging digital laws to level the playing field.«.
Of course, it is also necessary to appreciate that the migration of services and systems from American platforms to other European ones is not a simple task. In this sense, Karlitschek points out that «the process Migration must be accompanied by safe and thoughtful change management that includes people every step of the way, as well as excellent communication between stakeholders. This mitigates uncertainties in starting the process, but provides opportunities for established processes to be more efficient in the new environment.«.
