In recent months, two seemingly unrelated events have highlighted an uncomfortable truth: Europe no longer controls its own digital infrastructure . And this dependence, in an increasingly tense geopolitical landscape, is not only an economic risk, but a systemic vulnerability.
The first alarm bells rang when Microsoft suddenly disabled Azure access for the Israeli intelligence unit . This was Unit 8200, previously accused of spying on Palestinians in Israeli-controlled territories using Microsoft technology. No warning, no graduality: a switch flipped , revealing just how much decision-making power over critical infrastructure rests in the hands of a few global corporations.
The second episode, even more emblematic, is from today, concerning the recent dispute between X (Elon Musk’s platform) and the European Commission . After a €120 million fine for violating European regulations, X is not having it and has deleted the Commission’s advertising account, accusing it of having improperly used the platform’s tools . Brussels defended itself by recalling that it had suspended all forms of advertising on X for months and that it had only used the tools made available.
Beyond the dynamics between multinationals and institutions, the message is clear: the EU’s ability to communicate on social media, inform citizens, and implement digital policies is subordinated to the commercial will of non-European companies over which it has no control.
These episodes demonstrate a key point: those who control technology also control the behavior, communication, and even politics of nations . Europe discovered this late, having for years believed that digital globalization was synonymous with neutrality.
But talking about proprietary technology means dealing with a very different reality:
And above all, it means accepting that no country is truly sovereign if it depends on others for cloud services, operating systems, chips, and critical digital infrastructure .
In today’s hyperconnected world, every technological incident has immediate and global effects. We saw this recently with the outages at AWS , Azure , and Cloudflare ( the first incident and the second incident ) that paralyzed public services, businesses, banks, newspapers, mobility, and healthcare across half the world. These are no longer “technical problems,” but real systemic risks .
Europe, lacking a comprehensive technology stack of its own, lives in a state of total dependence. We are a highly digitalized continent that rests… on foundations built elsewhere .
Asserting technological sovereignty doesn’t mean rejecting the cloud; on the contrary, it means building our own .
A European cloud, based on European hardware, European operating systems, European hypervisors, and European software. A complete supply chain, from hardware to application.
How long does it take? 20 years!
A long, complex, and costly process. But today it’s more necessary than weapons development. Because these are the weapons of the future, the “economic” weapons, and they can be deployed with a single click.
And above all, a political choice is needed: to plan this path for 20-30 years , not for a single legislature.
Because in the current geopolitical chessboard, whoever controls technology controls economies, defenses, and democracies.
And today Europe controls none of this.
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