For Europe, technology dependence is being framed as a strategic liability, with cloud services and Artificial Intelligence at the center of a wider sovereignty agenda. The European Commission’s European Technological Sovereignty Package is presented as a response to reliance on foreign technology and as an effort to strengthen Europe’s ability to build, buy and trust its digital infrastructure.
On 3 June, the European Commission presented its European Technological Sovereignty Package, a highly anticipated set of measures billed as a generational effort to address Europe’s reliance on foreign technology. The package answers the 2024 Draghi Report which called for a reduction in foreign dependence and increased competitiveness to achieve European prosperity and security in a digital age. Together, these measures position technological autonomy as part of Europe’s prosperity and security agenda.
The Commission’s tech sovereignty package consists of four instruments: two pieces of legislation, the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act (CADA) and the Chips Act 2.0, and two strategic documents, the Open Source Strategy and Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence in Energy. The combination pairs proposed laws with strategic documents, covering cloud, Artificial Intelligence, chips, open source and energy digitalisation. Altogether, it is described as an ambitious set of proposals.
If enacted, the package will reshape how Europe builds, buys and trusts its digital infrastructure. The outcome will be decided in negotiations at the European Parliament and among member states, where the scope and implementation of the proposals are likely to be tested. Debate over the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act is likely to focus on its aims, priorities and methods as Europe weighs how far to push cloud sovereignty.
