Europe’s leaders say they want digital sovereignty. They give speeches about reducing dependence on foreign technology. They publish strategies, declarations and frameworks. But when it comes to actually making that shift happen, even in the simplest cases, progress stalls.
The issue isn’t that independence is impossible. Nor is it that the technology doesn’t exist. It’s that too often, Europe’s political system excels at talking about change and struggles to implement it.
This matters more than policymakers seem to realise. Digital infrastructure is no longer just an industry; it is strategic power. Search engines shape access to knowledge. Cloud platforms host government data. Operating systems underpin public services. When those layers are controlled abroad, so is a slice of Europe’s economic and political autonomy.
And yet dependence is reinforced daily through routine decisions. Public institutions continue to default to foreign platforms. Procurement rules favour incumbents. Civil servants upload public data into non-European systems. None of this is inevitable. It is the result of choices.
Europeans are sick of Big Tech and ready for alternatives
