Cybernews introduces European tech sovereignty tracker

The European tech sovereignty tracker maps efforts to replace American technologies with local, often open-source alternatives across the continent’s national governments and local administrations.

The concept of European tech sovereignty was born over 30 years ago. However, the movement has gained renewed momentum in recent years, amid worsening relations between European nations and the US under the Donald Trump administration.

Since then, federal and local governments have started breaking up – or committed to doing so – with American technology companies, primarily targeting giants such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

There’s a long way to go to achieve true sovereignty. Three American tech giants currently control approximately 70% of the European cloud market.

As many as 74% of publicly listed European companies use US-based services such as Google and Microsoft for their email and other services.

Dependence leaves data of millions of Europeans potentially exposed, as US laws like the Cloud Act compel American companies to hand over data upon law enforcement request, even if it's stored elsewhere.

There are also concerns over a “kill switch,” a scenario in which the US government orders American tech companies to discontinue their services for European customers.

Such a scenario has long been considered highly unlikely by experts. However, a recent US government decision to temporarily limit access to Anthropic’s latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, to non-American citizens has reignited these fears.

The European sovereignty tracker maps European efforts during the last decade across 3 categories:

The green “Made the switch” label indicates a complete or ongoing transition from American to European tech. It also includes government-backed initiatives introduced as alternatives offered to end-users.

Countries and institutions in the “Committed to making the switch” category marked in red have already decided to migrate away from US technologies and will begin transitioning in the near future.

The “Considering making the switch” category encompasses governments and enterprises that have publicly announced their willingness to switch to European alternatives.

Did we overlook an initiative? Or did you notice a mistake? Please let us know at [email protected]

Sources:

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