Digital Sovereignty (2/3): Can Europe's Businesses Survive Without US Big Tech?

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Digital Sovereignty (2/3): Can Europe's Businesses Survive Without US Big Tech?

European businesses are increasingly scrutinizing their deep-seated reliance on American technology, fueled by anxieties that a U.S. administration, perhaps under a figure like former President Donald Trump, could unilaterally 'pull the plug' on the continent's digital infrastructure. In the second installment of our series on digital sovereignty, we delve into the perils of European dependency on U.S. Big Tech and unravel why decoupling from these giants is a far more complex undertaking than it appears.

The stark reality of this dependence was laid bare when a prominent German business lobby surveyed IT executives on their capacity to operate without access to U.S. technology. Their responses painted a sobering picture for proponents of European autonomy. The survey, conducted last year by Bitkom, Germany's largest digital industry association, revealed that over 95% of respondents stated they would not survive two years if the United States were to cut off access to its digital technologies and services. This finding marked a significant increase in pessimism compared to earlier surveys, highlighting growing concerns about the resilience of German businesses amidst heightened transatlantic tensions.

The fear that Europe's commercial sector could become collateral damage in a more profound geopolitical fallout between the EU and the U.S. is palpable. Bertrand Trastour, global sales director for Stormshield, an Airbus subsidiary specializing in sovereign cybersecurity solutions, confirms this sentiment. "It's clearly on people's minds," Trastour acknowledges. "I'm using an American smartphone as we speak. What would we do without it? We don't have any viable alternatives in Europe for certain types of equipment."

The Bitkom survey underscores that an abrupt scarcity of high-tech hardware from industry leaders like Apple or Google is a primary concern for German businesses. The prospect of operating without U.S.-made smartphones, laptops, or tablets is, for many, simply inconceivable. However, the dependency extends beyond physical hardware.

"One wonders what would happen if U.S. software publishers were to suspend the licenses they provide for European companies," Trastour adds. The ramifications could be severe; for instance, the absence of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools provided by California-based Salesforce could force numerous European factories to drastically curtail operations, leading to significant layoffs. Furthermore, Washington possesses the leverage to impose export controls on critical advanced technologies, echoing measures previously taken to curb the advancement of China's artificial intelligence industry.

The reliance on U.S. semiconductor technology is particularly acute. Christophe Grosbost, chief strategy officer at the Innovation Makers Alliance, warns that restricting chip exports to Europe would severely hamper research and development across the continent. "We are very dependent on GPUs, the graphics chips sold mainly by Nvidia, which are used to run the data centers where information is stored to train AI models," Grosbost explains.

Despite these daunting challenges, European companies are not entirely without recourse. Trastour highlights his company's own offerings: cybersecurity solutions that are strictly "French- or European-made." He elaborates on the strategic objective: "The goal is to build technological autonomy." While acknowledging that a complete weaning off U.S. tech is unrealistic in the short term, Trastour suggests that by integrating European 'functional building blocks' – software components designed for specific tasks – a resilient technological mix can be achieved.

Experts are increasingly pointing to a wealth of underutilized European tools and services. Jitsi, a collaborative communication platform developed by Bulgaria's Emil Ivov, is frequently cited as a viable alternative to Microsoft Teams. European cloud providers, such as France's OVH and Switzerland's Infomaniak, are also emerging as credible competitors to major North American firms. In a significant move towards digital self-reliance, the French government announced in late January that its 2.5 million civil servants will transition away from platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams by 2027, adopting Visio, a homegrown videoconferencing system.

While the Trump administration famously championed "alternative facts," the dominant U.S. Big Tech firms are hardly proponents of alternatives to their own ecosystems. Competitors often face uphill battles against accusations of monopolistic practices, struggling to gain visibility against the backdrop of "massive marketing budgets that tech giants have been showering on the public for decades," according to Martin Hullin, head of the European Network for Technological Resilience and Sovereignty at the Bertelsmann Foundation, a German think tank.

Yet, a universe of digital solutions exists beyond the ubiquitous Gmail, Word, X, Chrome, and Apple products. Europe, in particular, harbors numerous smaller companies with innovative ideas and high-quality products that, according to Frans Imbert-Vier, CEO of technology consulting firm UBCOM and a vocal advocate for European technological independence, are "sometimes of better quality than their American equivalents." The primary hurdle, however, remains discoverability. Who, for instance, has heard of Olvid, a French alternative to WhatsApp and SMS messaging?

France's President Emmanuel Macron has actively promoted a "start-up nation" ethos. His government has spearheaded the development of homegrown digital tools designed to reduce reliance on American platforms, aiming to replace Teams with "Visio," Google Drive with "Files," and WeTransfer with "FranceTransfer." As strained EU-U.S. relations intensify the focus on technological sovereignty, various experts have curated online repositories of alternative solutions. Austrian IT developer Constantin Graf has compiled an extensive list of European alternatives for nearly every major American software program. Germany's "Digital Independence Day" project, while less exhaustive, offers valuable educational resources, including step-by-step guides for switching from services like PayPal to the European mobile payment system Wero.

However, the transition away from established U.S. tools and systems is fraught with challenges, particularly for large, internationally operating companies. Francesca Musiani, head of the Internet and Society Centre at France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), cautions that "large international firms tend to build their entire productivity frameworks on a stack of highly integrated American 'bricks' such as the cloud, collaborative tools (like Teams), CRM, and AI." Dislodging even one of these foundational elements can risk destabilizing the entire operational architecture.

Moreover, Musiani points out that unlike government agencies, private companies "cannot always invoke sovereignty or national security to justify choosing alternative solutions that are sometimes more expensive or less efficient in the short term." The larger players also exhibit a tendency towards risk aversion, preferring "to maintain the status quo" rather than undertake the complex migration of thousands of employees and extensive retraining efforts, notes Johan Linaker, a digital sovereignty and innovation specialist at Sweden's Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE). This inherent conservatism can prove counterproductive when rapid adoption of European alternatives becomes strategically imperative.

While smaller, more agile companies might embrace the push for technological autonomy more readily, they too face significant hurdles. "It won't happen overnight, and it will require investment in training, research, and acquisition," states Frans Imbert-Vier. He further warns, referencing these often-overlooked "invisible costs" of decoupling, that the process "can lead to errors, frustrations, and productivity losses," ultimately resulting in a "loss of competitiveness," especially when measured against U.S. rivals.

European authorities, Imbert-Vier argues, must play a more active role in facilitating this transition. "In 2024, the European Union purchased €111 billion worth of American technology," he notes, suggesting that a portion of this substantial expenditure could be "directed towards supporting European innovation" instead.

Ekhbary News Agency