‘American companies think we are fools’: EU lawmaker sparks tech sovereignty debate

Europe is aggressively pushing for digital sovereignty to reduce dependence on American tech giants (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) that control 70-80% of the European cloud market.

This shift aims to strengthen data security, prevent reliance on foreign infrastructure, and build “Made in Europe” technologies in sectors like cloud computing, AI, and semiconductor.

Advertisement

Finnish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Aura Salla has sharply criticised the European Union’s reliance on American technology companies, arguing that Europe is too dependent on foreign digital infrastructure and lacks real control over its own data and systems.

Salla is one of the loudest voices demanding change. “One thing you need to understand with these US companies is that our AI office will never have access to any crucial parts of these businesses,” she said at an event . “They are just fooling around with us, with the DSA or any of these regulations.”

She’s not alone in that frustration.

European policymakers are confronting an uncomfortable truth: the continent does not control its own internet.

More than 80% of Europe’s digital technologies are imported from abroad. The phones Europeans carry run on American operating systems. The cards in their wallets route through American payment networks. From the ground up, Europe’s digital life is built on foreign foundations, and Washington knows it.

The moment that crystallized the debate came when Karim Khan, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, lost access to his Microsoft Outlook account after the White House sanctioned him. The ICC had issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials over the Gaza war, something Trump called illegitimate.

Whatever the precise sequence of events, Europe suddenly had a flesh-and-blood example of what digital dependency could look like in practice.

Microsoft maintains it never suspended its services to the ICC, though it acknowledged being “in touch throughout the process.” But the episode landed hard in Brussels, and digital sovereignty shot up the agenda almost overnight.

She went further. “I think we are naive if we think this. What is requested from these companies is, OK, let’s give them this information so they will be happy for a while. Come on.” Her prescription was direct: “We need to start focusing on our own tech so that we can use more secure European technology and try to push these American companies completely out from this market. These American companies are just thinking that we are fools here, giving all our data to these companies for free and buying their services.”

The continent must take the threat seriously. Policy makers in Brussels are thinking what if Donald Trump turns off Europe’s internet? as already there are tensions on NATO and US troops are being withdrawn from germany. It sounds absurd. But the fact that serious people are having this conversation tells you everything about how rattled European policymakers have become.

The legal architecture makes the problem deeper than it appears. When French authorities pressed Microsoft in court on whether it could guarantee European data would never reach US institutions, the answer was no. Data stored on servers in Frankfurt, if held by an American company, remains within reach of American courts under the US CLOUD Act. Geography is irrelevant. Jurisdiction is everything.

Some governments aren’t waiting for Brussels. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is already replacing Microsoft Office and Windows with open-source alternatives LibreOffice and Linux. Denmark’s Ministry for Digitalisation is running a parallel programme. Forrester analyst Dario Maisto says a broader shift is inevitable. “Our prediction is there will be an accelerated shift because of this wake-up call,” he said.

The European Commission has responded with a new tech sovereignty legislative portfolio and proposals for a staggering 300 billion euro investment in homegrown digital infrastructure by 2035.

The political will is there. The legislation is moving. What Europe still lacks is time, and the infrastructure to back it up.

Industry analysts, however, caution that fully replacing US providers would be extremely difficult in the short term due to scale advantages and entrenched infrastructure. Some experts argue that Europe’s more realistic path is selective sovereignty in sensitive sectors rather than complete technological separation.

As the debate intensifies, Europe is increasingly caught between strategic autonomy ambitions and the practical realities of a deeply integrated global tech ecosystem dominated by American firms.

Leading European consumer industry executives are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, but many are still struggling to turn that spending into measurable financial results, according to a recent McKinsey analysis.

While most companies have expanded AI initiatives across marketing, supply chain, customer experience, and technology functions, only a small number report significant earnings impact, with many saying it is still too early to measure returns.

The report highlights a widening gap between ambition and execution, with firms increasing AI budgets but lacking mature data systems, skilled talent, and enterprise-wide strategies needed to scale deployment effectively.

Despite rapid adoption, the study concludes that European companies will need stronger infrastructure, better integration, and focused investment to convert AI ambition into real business impact.

Moreover, the Trump administration is reportedly drafting new legislation that could require tech companies to submit advanced AI models for government review before public release—marking a major reversal from its earlier deregulatory stance on artificial intelligence.

The shift follows growing alarm over Anthropic’s “Mythos” AI model, which has demonstrated highly advanced autonomous hacking capabilities, including uncovering thousands of software vulnerabilities across major systems. The model has already been tested in limited form by select companies and US agencies.