EU tech companies push for digital sovereignty, reducing reliance on US and others

• EU tech leaders want to move away from relying on foreign-owned infrastructure
• Establishing a Euro-stack would increase competition and innovation
• EU companies want common standards and less red tape

Several major European tech companies are pushing for greater action from the European Union to reduce the bloc’s reliance on foreign-owned infrastructure by buying and building locally.

In an open letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the EU’s digital chief, Henna Virkkunen, around 100 organizations called for greater adoption of EU-grown apps, platforms, AI models, chips, computing, storage, and connectivity.

The move comes as the Trump administration seemingly positions itself to burn an 80 year relationship that the United States has held with Europe.

Developing the ‘Euro-stack’

The European digital sovereignty movement has been gradually gaining momentum over the past few years, but has seen a massive increase in support and traction following the re-election of President Trump. Companies such as Airbus, Element, OVHCloud, Murena, Nextcloud, and Proton have all put their mark on moving towards EU digital sovereignty.

A paper [PDF] published in January 2025 by a number of prominent business heads and tech experts has given some foresight to how a “Euro stack” would work: “The objective is to reduce Europe’s current total dependency on non-European actors for service to European citizens, businesses, and institutions, to enhance security, create redundancy and resilience, improve opportunities for innovation and digital competitiveness while establishing European governance rules.”

Essentially, the European Union has become overly reliant on foreign-owned infrastructure - especially US Big Tech - and if nothing is done soon, EU countries will become subservient to foreign tech companies.

The solution therefore is to foster growth at home, with the letter stating, “Industry will invest if there are adequate demand prospects. Prioritizing areas where Europe can already deliver will be key to shifting resources fast to European suppliers, creating value and market in a virtuous circle.”

Among suggestions made on how to achieve a Euro stack are plans for the development of common standards to help EU companies compete and defend against US hyperscalers, establishing a ‘Sovereign Infrastructure Fund’ to publicly fund new digital infrastructure in the EU, and promoting innovation by cutting through the burdensome red tape of EU lawmakers.

Via TechCrunch

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