Open-access content [Tanya Weaver](/authors/tanya-weaver) — Mon 17 Mar 2025 — updated 18 Mar 2025
**A European tech industry coalition has called for ‘radical action’ from the EU to reduce reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure and services – especially US big tech.**
In an open letter to the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the EU’s digital chief Henna Virkkunen, around 100 European tech firms are calling for the EU to support “sovereign digital infrastructure”.
This means less reliance on foreign-owned infrastructure – especially from the US – to prevent EU countries becoming subservient to foreign tech companies.
As well as tech heavyweights Airbus and Dassault Systèmes, signatories span many areas of the tech industry including cloud, telecoms, defence, investment banks and start-ups.
The motivation for the letter comes from recent US and EU developments following Trump’s return to the White House and his ‘America First’ agenda. The signatories want Europe to take steps to maintain its strategic autonomy in key sectors to compete against US hyperscalers.
“Europe needs to recover the initiative and become more technologically independent across all layers of its critical digital infrastructure,” said the letter, which has been seen by Reuters.
This ranged from logical infrastructure – including applications, platforms, media, AI frameworks and models – to physical infrastructure such as chips, computing, storage and connectivity, it added.
“Europe’s current multiple dependencies create security and reliability risks, compromise our sovereignty and hurt our growth,” it said.
The letter said a sovereign infrastructure fund was key to financing such an ambitious goal, especially in the capital-intensive parts of the value chain such as quantum technologies and chips.
According to Reuters, the letter also proposed that governments adopt a ‘buy European’ policy in procurement tenders to drum up demand and encourage businesses to invest.
“The aim is not to exclude non-European players, but to create space where European suppliers can legitimately compete (and justify investment),” it said.
One of the signatories, Wolfgang Oels, COO of the Berlin-based search engine Ecosia, told TechCrunch: “Imagine Europe without internet search, email or office software. It would mean the complete breakdown of our society. Sounds unrealistic? Well, something similar just happened to Ukraine.
“Trump switched off access to vital infrastructures because Ukraine was not ready to cede its land and hand over its minerals. Europeans need sovereignty in critical infrastructures – and those do not only consist of energy and health, but also digital ones.”
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