There are three reasons why Europe has dramatically accelerated the transition to its own technology.
Europe is increasingly looking at the usual digital tools as a dependency on which it is time to leave. Governments, companies, universities and public organizations in different countries are accelerating the transition from American services to local and open solutions, although it is almost impossible to completely break the connection with the US technology giants.
Dozens of such steps have been publicly recorded in Europe in recent months. Some structures abandon the services of Google and Microsoft, others translate codes, documents, cloud infrastructure or internal systems to European platforms. The publication believes that known cases reflect only a part of the broader trend.
The main motive is digital sovereignty. European authorities and organizations want to better control their own data, less depend on a few major suppliers and reduce the risks associated with U.S. information access laws. The mood was also affected by US sanctions against representatives of the criminal court, after which the court itself began to move away from Microsoft technology.
The European Commission has already submitted a long-term plan to reduce dependence on American technology. The European Parliament changed the default search engine on its devices with Google to the French Qwant. In France, thousands of civil servants use the LaSuite open office system, and more than ten European companies are preparing the launch of Euro-Office – alternatives for working with documents.
Similar processes are going on at the local level. Cities in the Netherlands, France and Germany are abandoning Microsoft Office and Google Docs. The Netherlands is moving the state code from Microsoft GitHub to its own storage. In Finland, according to WIRED, refused to transfer data on elections to the Amazon cloud, and the organization that manages the Belgian domain .be decided to leave with AWS.
But Europe is still closely linked to the U.S. digital infrastructure. Cloud services, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, mobile operating systems and many working tools remain areas where U.S. companies take a strong position. Quickly abandoning them can be expensive, difficult and painful for organizations accustomed to working in the same ecosystem for years.
At the same time, the course is already noticeable. European officials are increasingly talking not about symbolic import substitution, but about the practical transition to decisions that are closer to their jurisdiction and are better amenable to control. As the Minister of German Bavaria formulated, it is no longer time for cheap talk of digital sovereignty – it’s time to move from discussion to action.
Europe is increasingly looking at the usual digital tools as a dependency on which it is time to leave. Governments, companies, universities and public organizations in different countries are accelerating the transition from American services to local and open solutions, although it is almost impossible to completely break the connection with the US technology giants.
Dozens of such steps have been publicly recorded in Europe in recent months. Some structures abandon the services of Google and Microsoft, others translate codes, documents, cloud infrastructure or internal systems to European platforms. The publication believes that known cases reflect only a part of the broader trend.
The main motive is digital sovereignty. European authorities and organizations want to better control their own data, less depend on a few major suppliers and reduce the risks associated with U.S. information access laws. The mood was also affected by US sanctions against representatives of the criminal court, after which the court itself began to move away from Microsoft technology.
The European Commission has already submitted a long-term plan to reduce dependence on American technology. The European Parliament changed the default search engine on its devices with Google to the French Qwant. In France, thousands of civil servants use the LaSuite open office system, and more than ten European companies are preparing the launch of Euro-Office – alternatives for working with documents.
Similar processes are going on at the local level. Cities in the Netherlands, France and Germany are abandoning Microsoft Office and Google Docs. The Netherlands is moving the state code from Microsoft GitHub to its own storage. In Finland, according to WIRED, refused to transfer data on elections to the Amazon cloud, and the organization that manages the Belgian domain .be decided to leave with AWS.
But Europe is still closely linked to the U.S. digital infrastructure. Cloud services, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, mobile operating systems and many working tools remain areas where U.S. companies take a strong position. Quickly abandoning them can be expensive, difficult and painful for organizations accustomed to working in the same ecosystem for years.
At the same time, the course is already noticeable. European officials are increasingly talking not about symbolic import substitution, but about the practical transition to decisions that are closer to their jurisdiction and are better amenable to control. As the Minister of German Bavaria formulated, it is no longer time for cheap talk of digital sovereignty – it’s time to move from discussion to action.
