Martin Hullin / Jul 2026
Photo: European Union, 2026,
For decades, the narrative surrounding Europe’s digital future has been dominated by a single, demoralising metric: We are constantly reminded of how many years we trail the United States and China, how few European giants populate the global tech landscape, and how critically dependent we remain on foreign powers for the infrastructure that keeps our hospitals running and our energy grids stable. The European Commission’s newly announced Technological Sovereignty Package, unveiled on June 3, 2026, marks an important moment. However, its true success will not depend on whether Europe can simply "catch up" to the American or Chinese approaches. Instead, the European approach must serve as the foundation for a fundamental strategic pivot: moving from a race to replicate to a mission of reimagination.
The Commission’s proposal, featuring the Chips Act 2.0, the Cloud and AI Development Act, and a robust Open Source Strategy, correctly identifies the vulnerability of Europe’s current position. With over 80% of critical digital technologies sourced from outside the EU, the risk of coercion and systemic fragility is undeniable. Yet, the instinct to respond by stripping away regulations to solely mimic the "hyperscaler playbook" is a trap. Trying to win a race designed by others, on their terms, guarantees arriving late and out of breath. Europe cannot out-spend the US or out-manufacture China in a head-to-head contest of scale alone. To succeed, the continent must start embracing ambiguity between speed and focus and start shaping the ones that matter most: trust.
In a volatile geopolitical landscape where liberal democracies are increasingly isolated, trust is becoming the scarcest commodity in the global technology market. While the US and China compete on speed and scale, Europe possesses a unique, defensible advantage: a regulatory framework that guarantees predictability, data treasures waiting to be unleashed responsibly, and freedom from political leverage. We must not view these regulations as obstacles to innovation, but as the very architecture of a new competitive market proposition. The goal is not merely to be the first to market, but to be the first to be trusted.
This shift requires turning abstract principles into deployable, scalable technology. The proposed Open Source Strategy is particularly critical here. By scaling up sovereign open-source alternatives in cloud, AI, and cybersecurity, Europe can create a digital backbone that is transparent, interoperable, and resistant to vendor lock-in. This is not about isolationism; it is about creating a "trusted stack" that global partners and citizens can rely on when the geopolitical winds shift.
As we have found in the foundational study analysing the feasibiliy of a EuroStack, building a genuinely European digital infrastructure is expensive, with credible estimates suggesting a cost of around €300 billion over a decade - and we even might have been too conservative. It has been increasingly recognised that public procurement is the most powerful lever available. Europe spends vast sums on technology, yet too little reaches domestic providers who could offer superior, sovereign solutions. Nothing new here, because if we would treat critical digital infrastructure with the same strategic importance as roads, railways, and energy grids, purchasing decisions would more naturally shift toward responsible and transparent providers. Moreover, mandating portability, open interfaces, and the "right to exit" in public contracts would operationalise sovereignty more than any well-meaning speech could.
Ultimately, we have to look beyond this being just a battle for market share; it is a battle for the kind of society Europe wishes to inhabit as well as its cognitive sovereignty. A digital backbone determines how information flows, how democratic debate unfolds, and how resilient a nation is to external coercion. In light of observing first indicators of a popular “techlash” in the US, which questions the inevitability of the current AI-paradigm of going fast, while breaking things, this could offer a window of opportunity.
The path forward is clear: retire the language of catching up being the only feasible path forward. Embrace the reality that in a low-trust world, Europe’s edge lies in its ability to offer technology that serves society rather than just exploiting it, in a transparent yet secure fashion. And humbly yet purposefully engage in the building of international coalitions with like-minded countries, that themselves have been finding themselves in the same predicament as we are, but in many cases for much longer than the European newbies.
