Souring transatlantic relations between the EU and US have exposed one of Europe’s greatest vulnerabilities: its heavy reliance on US Big Tech. EU lawmakers are pushing for homegrown alternatives – but how realistic are their goals?
one of Europe’s greatest vulnerabilities: its heavy reliance on US [insert noun]
In the Netherlands there’s now a useful dashboard on the depressing state of US tech dependency of government agencies, education, healthcare and a group of large companies.
zijnwealautonoom.nl (‘are we autonomous yet’)
There’s still a long way to go.
Let me save you a click:
“Decoupling is unrealistic and cooperation will remain significant across the technological value chain,” an EU digital strategy report draft reviewed by POLITICO in June 2025 said – which means the EU will, for now, continue to promote collaboration with the US and other tech players including China, Japan, India and South Korea.
The draft report’s admission that untangling from the dominance of US tech companies is “unrealistic” only fuels fears about the EU’s reliance on their unpredictable transatlantic ally.
There are a lot of European alternatives already. Ok, maybe many of them aren’t exactly as smooth or marketed as the billion-dollar companies of the US, but many are still pretty good. The main problem is not the absence of good European tech, the main problem is a lack of funding (due to the absence of a common internal market), and a lack of enough marketing power. And a surplus of ‘IT-managers’ that pretend to be the expert but don’t know there’s life outside the googlosphere.
Some useful lists of alternatives:
