Building on the September 2024 Draghi report, on European competitiveness, the independent Bertelsmann Stiftung commissioned a report on what it calls ‘EuroStack’, a vision for Europe’s digital sovereignty. As an independent foundation, the German think-tank plays a major role in European policymaking and debate, focusing on research and policy development to promote social affairs, the economy, governance, education and culture.
80% foreign share in technology used
The international group of researchers who contributed to the report – ‘EuroStack - A European Alternative for Digital Sovereignty’ – found that over 80% of digital technologies and infrastructures in use in Europe are imported, with 70% of basic Artificial Intelligence (AI) models used worldwide originating in the US. Only 7% of global research publications on software and the internet are funded by European companies.
These figures clearly demonstrate how much Europe relies on other economic heavyweights in its digital transformation. In light of this, the EuroStack alternative was conceived to guarantee the EU’s digital sovereignty and digital self-determination. The vision calls for leading companies, researchers, policymakers and civil society to foster collaboration to show how Europe can reduce its digital dependence.
This can be achieved by strengthening Europe’s industrial competitiveness, stimulating innovation and building resilient, sovereign infrastructures in a joint approach comparable with earlier efforts to create the EU’s single market.
Contribution from the Netherlands
One of the contributors to the vision is Haroon Sheikh, senior research fellow at the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) and an endowed professor in Strategic Governance of Global Technologies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In his book, Atlas van de digitale wereld (Atlas of the digital world), he explains how an ‘intelligence revolution’ is causing a shift to a new model. ‘Our culture of permissiveness has been replaced by doubts about the effects of the digital transformation and fears of its dangers,’ writes Sheikh.
Sheikh argues that we are moving toward a vertical world order with a strict hierarchy, demonstrating how the digital transformation is not as revolutionary as it may seem while exposing the relationships between compelling issues such as power and sovereignty. ‘The digital transformation is creating one huge, worldwide supercomputer that consists of many layers. It is always evolving and is governed by various power relations.’
The Dutch researcher has created a stack to visualise the seven layers of the digital world: raw materials, chips, networks, cloud, intelligence, applications and connected devices. Experts fear that big tech companies are pursuing ‘a digital land grab’, with data cast as the new oil. Sheikh argues that this development poses threats that must be contained by legislation and regulations as well as increased digital sovereignty.
Improving Europe’s technological competitiveness
The authors of the ‘EuroStack - A European Alternative for Digital Sovereignty’ report seek to join up currently fragmented initiatives, promote innovation and boost Europe’s economic resilience. Focusing on digital infrastructure, cybersecurity and industry, Europe aims to reduce its dependence on the US and China in order to improve its technological competitiveness.
EuroStack is based on a five-step action plan:
- Co-develop a European digital stack;
- Implement high-impact digital services through the EuroStack Challenge;
- Stimulate sovereign AI and common data spaces;
- Promote European leadership in new technologies;
- Aim to accelerate innovation through strategic investments and a ‘Europe First’ approach in public tenders, supported by the creation of a European Sovereign Technology fund.
Response from Topsector ICT
The Dutch central government’s National Technology Strategy (NTS) also aims to reduce European dependence on programming languages, frameworks, databases and tools. As an advocate of digital autonomy, Topsector ICT is working together with its stakeholders to explore how this can be effectively supported by the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) Digitalisation and the Action Agendas for AI/Data and Cybersecurity Technologies, the latter of which are currently being developed.